June 27, 1859.] ADDITIONAL NOTICES. 389 



Asiatic people, depends on the success of their first charge ; but a single 

 Congreve-rocket is sufficient to put the whole army to flight " (p. 35). Such 

 being the character of the force of a leading state of Independent Tartary, it 

 can scarcely he expected to resist with success the advance of Russian domi- 

 nation into that region, which has long been steady and progressive. 



12. Die Erdkunde von Asien von Carl Hitter. Vol. IX. Part I. Asia 

 Minor. Berlin, 1858. 



The sixth division of the third book (Western Asia) of the eighteenth part 

 of Hitter's copious Geography of Asia — a tome consisting of 1024 closely- 

 printed pages — is appropriated to Asia Minor; but even this abundance of 

 letterpress does not exhaust the subject in the hands of the Prussian geo- 

 grapher, since the work before us constitutes only the first of three volumes, 

 the rest of which are to follow. It treats of little more than the northern 

 shores and declivity of the peninsula of Asia Minor, after a general descrip- 

 tion of the central table-land, and of its great streams, the 'J'choruk, Yezil 

 Irmak (Iris), Kizil Irmak (Halys), Sakaria (Sangarias), the river of Trebizond, 

 &c. ; and its twenty-third and last chapter is devoted to a consideration of the 

 chief towns and trade of the southern coast of the Black Sea. In addition 

 to full descriptions of the physical geography and commercial resources of this 

 region, the archa3ology of the northern part of Asia Minor receives its full 

 share of notice in accounts of the troglodytic caves and sculptures on the south 

 bank of the Halys and elsewhere, the ruins of Boghaz, those of the ancient 

 Pessinus (Bala Hissar) with the temple of Cybele, the Greek colony of the 

 ancient Trapezus (Trebizond), &c. ; and digressions are introduced on the 

 Angora wool and goats' hair, the culture of saffron around Zafaran-boly, and 

 the tunny fishery of Sinope. At the end are an appendix from the pen of 

 Kiepert, and engravings of Assyrian monuments in Asia Minor with explana- 

 tory notes. The work is continued after the same plan which has charac- 

 terised it throughout ; and it is not too much to say that when terminated it 

 will be a complete encyciopsedia of all that is known concerning the great con- 

 tinent that has been the storehouse of all the nations which have peopled the 

 earth. 



13. Vespuce et son Premier Voyage. Par M. F. A. de Varnhagen, 

 Memb. de la Society de Geographie. Paris : Martinet, 1858. 



The author remarks that since the publication of the illustrious Humboldt's 

 Examen Critique de VHiatoire Oeographique du Nouveau Continent, the con- 

 sideration due to Amerigo Vespucci has been restored to his memory. His 

 claims to the applause of posterity rest upon four recorded voyages — two 

 made in the service of Portugal, and the other two (which were previous) in 

 that of Spain ; but the first of the latter named has been frequently regarded 

 as apocryphal. The author is, however, convinced of its certainty. He says 

 it cannot be doubted " that Vespucci left Spain on the 10th of May, 1497 ; 

 and having sailed a thousand leagues west-south-west, passing consequently 

 across the Antilles, found himself after 37 days in lat. IQP n., and long. 75^ w., 

 of the Canaries. He then discovered the new continent some days before 

 Cabot. He had attained the Bay of Honduras. . . . Thence he followed, in 

 sight of land, the coast of Yucatan, towards the north-east, for two days, and 

 at length, on discovering a safe anchorage for vessels, cast anchor half a league 

 from land. He disembarked 40 men, who made some barter with the natives. 



