290 SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON'S ADDRESS— EUROPE. [May 23, 1859. 



Struve has farther instructed and organized two parties intended 

 to make astronomical observations on the frontiers of Eussia 

 and China, and particularly with the view of determining the carto- 

 graphy of the country adjacent to the great internal lake of Issyk- 

 kul.* 



Switzerlayid. — Our indefatigable correspondent, M. Ziegler, ac- 

 quaints us, that through the energy of General Dufour, who directs 

 the survey, the great map of Switzerland is tending rapidly to 

 completion, six sheets only remaining to be finished; three of 

 which have been plotted. M. Ziegler has also forwarded to us a 

 map which he has prepared to show the positions of all the Celtic 

 remains found in Switzerland up to last year. 



In alluding to the progress of geography in a country of such 

 striking configuration, and in exploring the structure of which 

 I have spent many eujoyable days, I commend to your notice a 

 beautiful work just published, entitled ' The Peaks, Passes, and 

 Glaciers of Switzerland.' This work is the produce of the Alpine 

 Club, an association already numbering more than 100 members 

 (many of them Fellows of our Society and friends of my own), 

 who, instigated by the writings of Agassiz, James Forbes, Studer, 

 and others, have devoted their energies to the special object of ex- 

 ploring and making better known the highest and most inaccessible 

 portions of the Alps. 



In the last five years these Alpine volunteers have succeeded 

 in ascending the highest point of Monte Eosa, the Dom, the 

 Great Combin, the Alleleinhorn, the Wetterhorn Proper, and 

 several other peaks never before scaled. The narratives of the 

 adventurous undertakings set forth in this volume contain evi- 

 dences of perseverance and personal endurance under difSculties 

 which make us rejoice that our enterprising countrymen should 



* Amoncr various other geographical operations of which I have just received notice 

 from Mr. Petermann, the following may be mentioned : — Trigonometrical surveys have 

 been made in the last year in the Governments of Kostroma, Voronesk, &c., and on the 

 " right bank of the Volga from Saratov to Volsk. Astronomical operations have been 

 axrried on in Viatka and Vologda. Travelling over 10,000 versts in five months, the two 

 astronomers employed fixed 38 points in the first, and 37 in the second of these large 

 Governments, which, from personal experience, I can testify are not easily traversed. 

 Topographical surveys are being executed in the Governments of St. Petersburg, Esthonia, 

 Kharkov, &c., including enlarged plans of various towns. Beyond the limits of Russia in 

 Europe a vast region, extending from the country of the Cossacks of the Ural (including 

 the Ust-Urt) to the Bay of Kara Boghas, as well as on the east side of the Aral Sea, 

 have been surveyed. The results of the survey of the boundary-line between Turkey and 

 Persia, executed by a Commission composed of Russian, English, Persian, and Turkish 

 surveyors, are now being laid down in the Depot de la Guerre at St. Petersburg, on the 

 scale of 1 : 73,500.— /une, 1859. 



