Geographical Collection^', 9©1^ 



Geographical Society of Paris. It occurred on the 28th of December 1829, at 

 17 minutes past 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and lasted a little more than a second ; 

 Us direction was from north to south. 



. Steenhoom's Expedition to New Guinea. — We alluded, in our accoimt of the 

 Geog. Soc. of Paris, to Capt. Steenhoom's exploration of the coasts of New Gui- 

 nea having been honourably mentioned. It is not generally known that a Nether- 

 land expedition, commanded by this officer, composed of the Triton and brig 

 Isis, went to explore and take possession of the northern coast of that country. 

 Many officers and naturalists were joined to the expedition. They discovered, in 

 3° 42' S. latitude, and 153° 5/' E. longitude of Greenwich, a bay which they 

 called Triton Bay, and in which they constructed a fort. This fort received the 

 name of Bas. The expedition has made a rich harvest in natural history, and 

 many improvements in geography and nautical science. The establishment of 

 a European colony in that country will also be the source of many important 

 discoveries- 

 attempts have been made, wiCh some success, to naturalize the cochineal and 

 breed silk worms in Java. The cultivation of tea in the same country promises 

 to be successfuL 



The two naturalists, Messrs. Meyer and Menetrier, sent by the Imperial Aca- 

 demy of Sciences of St. Petersburg to explore the chain of the Caucasus, have 

 arrived at Bakou, where they were to stay during last winter, and to recommence 

 in spring their excursions in the environs and on the banks of the Caspian. 



Numerical relation of Births and Deaths. — M. Labatto has lately published 

 the results of 10 years' observations on the law of the proportion of births and 

 deaths in the Low Countries, of which the following is a tabular view : — 



Births. Deaths. Births. Deaths. 



January, 

 February, 

 March, 

 April, 

 May, 

 June, 



These documents confirm the law of births and deaths, deduced by M. Vil- 

 lerme from more than twelve millions of observations collected from different 

 parts of the globe, and verified for Brussels by the editors of the Correspon. 

 deuce Mathematique et Physique ; and it appears well established that more 

 births and deaths occur in the winter months, and fewer in the summer. It may 

 also be remarked, that there is a preponderance of the second column over the first 

 in the general average ; and the results given by the tables of the variations of 

 the populations of Paris, Brussels, &c. correspond with this proportion, which is 

 still further increased when we compare the births of boys and girls witli the deaths 

 of men and women. On the contrary, a comparison of the births of boys and 

 girls with the number of deaths of boys and girls, as has been made in the tables 

 given of the movement of population in Liege, {Courier Universel de Liege, 

 7th Jan. 1830,) may lead to erroneous estimates. These results are of import- 

 ance in considerations connected with the comparative population of ancient and 

 modem periods, which both Hume and JMontesquieu supposed to have considerably 

 diminished with the progress of time, and which assume their greatest latitude 

 when we apply them to the inhabitants of a particular spot, and not to the popu- 

 lation of continents concentrated in agricultural or commercial districts, at the 

 expense of the remainder. 



