194 Scientific Intelligence. — Oeoloyy, 



name of Victoria to this, if I may so term it, newly re-discovered lake ; 

 but on considering that, by thus introducing a new name, however 

 honoured, into maps, great confusion in geography might arise, I 

 deemed it better to retain the name of Gir-i-Kol, the appellation given 

 to it by our guides. The description of this spot given by that good 

 old traveller Marco Polo, nearly six centuries ago, is so correct in all its 

 leading points, that I have deemed it right to subjoin a considerable 

 portion of it. ^^ So great," says IMarco Polo, '' is the height of the moun- 

 tains, that no birds are to bo seen near their summits ; and, however 

 extraordinary it may be thought, it was affirmed that, from the keenness 

 oftheair, fires when lighted do not give the same heat as in lower 

 situations, nor produce the same effect in dressing victuals." — Travels 

 of Marco Polo, translated by W, MarsfUn. London 1818. — J/teut. 

 Wood on the River Oxus, p. 354!, 



10. Thermal Springs in the upper par! of the River Oxus. — Fol- 

 lowing up the stream which wound in its stony bed along the foot of 

 the stupendous wall to our right, we arrived at the foot of Khawak, 

 distant twenty-nine miles from Indorab, on the afternoon of the 22d. 

 Six miles before reaching this halting-ground, we came on two ther- 

 mal springs gushing out from the side of a grassy hill, 400 yards 

 to the left of the path, at a place called Sir Ab. Their temperatures 

 were respectively 108° and 124° of Fahrenheit. — Lieut. Wood on the 

 River 0.xus, 413. 



11. Hot Springs of Greenland. On our way back from Frederick- 



sthal, says Captain Graah, we visited the hot springs Ounartok. The 

 western side of this island, which lies at the mouth of a firth of the 

 same name, is lofty, rugged, and almost totally naked, while the op- 

 posite side is low, and clothed with most luxuriant vegetation. It is 

 on this side that the springs are situate, lying, all three of them, 

 close by one another, at the NE. corner of the island. Of these springs 

 the one nearest the sea is altogether insignificant ; the temperature of its 

 waters was found to be 26° (90^.5 F.) ; the second, a few paces from it, 

 forms a lake of about forty-eight feet in circuit, and tlie temperature of 

 its waters was 27° (92°.75:> F.) ; the third is still larger, being about 

 seventy feet in circuit, and its waters from 32° to tV3^° ( 104° to 107°, F.) 

 all of Reaumur. The depth of these pools nowhere exceeds a foot, and 

 their bottom is composed of a soft bluish clay, through which the warm 

 water bubbled up at several places. The two large ones the Green- 

 landers have dammed in with stone, and make use of as bathing places. 

 Near the middle one, Arctander found, in 1777, the remains of a small 

 building, which he took to be from the time of the old colonists, and 

 whose walls were then one foot and a half high. Every vestige of 



