144 Level of the Black Sea and the Caspian. 



fitting to collect, as the author has done, a considerable series 

 of authentic facts, that they might bo added to those already 

 in our possession. The documents collected by M. Biot, by 

 demonstrating that the still imperfectly consolidated zone of 

 our planet is prolonged from the shore of the Pacific Ocean to 

 the mountains of China, and that oscillations and terrestrial 

 movements have been observed throughout this extent for 

 nearly 200 years, will thus have contributed to supply a much 

 more ample basis for the discussions which will yet occur con- 

 cerning this portion of the physical history of the globe. 

 Hence the members of the Commission think that they cannot 

 too much encourage the author to pursue the course he has so 

 happily commenced, by making his erudition and acquaintance 

 with the oriental languages subserve the progress of science/' 



Results obtained hy the Last Russian Expedition^ sent to deter- 

 mine the Difference of Level between tJie Black Sea and the 

 Caspian* 



The measm-ements made by Messrs G. Fuss, Sadler, and 

 Sawitsch, were commenced on the 31st October 1836, at the 

 town of Kagalnik, a little to the south of Azov, at the mouth 

 of the Kagalnika, which falls into the Sea of Azov, in latitude 

 47°4'26".3 N., and longitude 2^21' 5^". 5 East from Paris. 

 Thence they were continued by Stawropol (where the expedi- 

 tion passed the winter), Georgijewsk, Mosdock, and Kisljar, 

 to the town of Tschernoi Rynolc,\ on the shore of the Caspian, 



* From Poggendorff^s Annalen, 1840, and it is there stated, that the infor- 

 mation contained in the article is derived partly from the Bulletin Scientl- 

 Jiqtte de VAcademie de St Petersboiirg, vol. ii. p. 254 ; vol. iii. p. 27, 117, 366 : 

 Vol. iv. p. 241 ; partly from the Dissertation by M. Alexis Sawitsch, entitled 

 Ueher die H'ohe des Cagpisclien Meeres und der Hauptspitzen des Caucasischen 

 Oebirges (Dorpat, 1839) ; and partly from M. G. Sadler's Dissertation en- 

 titled, Beohachtungen uber die irdische StraJdenbrechung und uber die Oesetze der 

 Veranderung derselben (Dorpat, 1839.) — Edit, 



t In the country around Tschernoi Rynok, the observers found a general 

 conviction among the inhabitants of the shores of the Caspian, that that sea 

 was gradually receding. The older peasants of this fishing town know, that, 

 thirty years ago, the water reached quite close to the town, while at present 



