cxxvi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



has been published, but this one is based on the results of Lieutenant 

 Payer's barometric observations for elevation. The land is not unlike 

 Spitzbergen, and is composed of several groups of islands. Franz- 

 Joseph Land exhibits the full rigor of arctic latitudes. In the be- 

 ginning of spring, especially, every thing is covered with ice. 



It is known that Northeast Greenland, Nova Zembla, and North- 

 ern Siberia exhibit signs of a slow process of rising from the sea. 

 It was, therefore, very interesting to the voyagers to observe proofs 

 of elevation in well-marked drift terraces. Vegetation is very scanty. 



The recently organized Marine Survey of British India, under the 

 superintendence of Captain A. D. Taylor, has been carried on in an 

 energetic manner, a large amount of work having been done in sur- 

 veying the approaches to Rangoon, Maulmain, the Bassein River, 

 and Akyab. 



Several important coast charts have been published, as w^ell as 

 sailing directions for the Bay of Bengal, and a most important series 

 of hydrographic notices have been commenced. 



Exceedingly valuable as the results of all these English surveys 

 are, they have been dearly purchased at the cost of the lives of sev- 

 eral of the officers making them, four at least in different parts of 

 the world having fallen victims to overwork and the unhealthiness 

 of the climate where their duties led them. 



The German Hydrographic Ofiice, although very recently organ- 

 ized, has aided largely during the past year in the collection and 

 distribution of valuable information. The Annalen der Hydrogra^ihie 

 for the year contain abstracts of the journals of various voyages of 

 German men-of-war, whose commanders have lost no opportunity 

 of deep-sea sounding, correcting charts and sailing directions, or of 

 redetermining untrustworthy geographical positions. Prominent in 

 this work has been the corvette Gazelle, a portion of the scientific staff" 

 of this vessel being the observers of the transit of Venus at Kerguelen 

 Island. The expedition left Kiel June 21, 1874, and proceeded by 

 w^ay of Madeira, Porto Praya, Monrovia, Ascension, the Congo River, 

 and Cape of Good Hope to Kerguelen Island, sounding, dredging, 

 and taking serial temperatures at sea wlienever an opportunity of- 

 fered. The most remarkable discovery during the outward voyage 

 of the Gazelle was that the soundings in the vicinity of the Cape de 

 Verde Islands indicated that the islands form parts of the rim of an 

 enormous submarine crater, similar in form to the crater of an iso- 

 lated volcano. 



During a,stay of more than two months at Kerguelen Island, in 

 addition to other work, a hydrographic survey of the northeast coast 

 of the island was made, this vicinity having been almost unknown 

 hitherto. 



From Kerguelen Island the Gazelle proceeded to Mauritius, and 

 thence to Western Australia, Timor, and Amboyna, constantly mak- 



