546 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR '1885. 



Gotha establishment rapidly assumed the special geographical and car- 

 tographical character it has ever since possessed. Under him the first 

 part of the celebrated hand atlas of Adolf Stieler was published in 1817, 

 which since then has continued to be issued in an unbroken series of 

 editions. To Wilhelm succeeded in 1853 Bernhard Perthes, who, how- 

 ever, was cut off in 1857, leaving a jjosthumous son, the present head 

 of the Gotha establishment. The successive chiefs gathered round them 

 in successive years all the best geographical talent in Germany, includ- 

 ing such names as those of Stieler, Berghaus, Sydow, Spruner, Bret. 

 Schneider, Petermann, Behm, Wagner, Supan, Hassenstein. Through 

 the Geographische Mittheilungen established by Petermann, the Go- 

 tha establishment has gradually become the receptacle for geographical 

 information from all parts of the earth, information which is being con- 

 stantly put on record and given to the world in the form of those ac- 

 curate and beautiful maps with which all geograj)hers are familiar. It 

 is to be hoped that long continued prosperity is in store for a house 

 which has done such admirable service in the past to geographical sci- 

 ence. 



The recent colonial acquisitions by the various European nations has 

 called forth a number of excellent papers on the subject. Among the 

 best is that of Colonel Sir Charles H. IsTugent, K. C. B., which was 

 published in a recent issue of the Journal of the Eoyal United Service 

 Institution. According to the latest statistics, England has 65 square 

 miles of colony to the square mile of her own area ; Holland, 54 ; 

 Portugal, 20; Denmark, 6-80; France, 1-90; an^ Spain, 0-86 square 

 miles. The area of the British colonies is nearly 8,000,000 square miles, 

 rather less than the area of the Eussian Empire, including Siberia and 

 Central Asia ; but if the area of the native feudatory states in India 

 be added, amounting to 509,284 square miles, over which England exer- 

 cises as great control as Eussia does over much of the territory under 

 its sway, together with that of the United Kingdom itself, 120,757 

 square miles, then the area of the British Empire exceeds that of the 

 Eussian Empire ; and it covers within a fraction of one-sixth of the 

 whole land area of the globe. The recently absorbed territory of the 

 ex-King Thebaw is not included in this epitome. 



Two new prizes have been added to those which the Geographical 

 Society of Paris is now in a position to award. One is that of M. J. B. 

 Morot, who bequeathed a sum of 2,000 francs, the interest of which is to 

 be given annually to the French navigator or traveller who should in 

 the course of the year have approached nearest to the North Pole ; and 

 the other that of M. Felix Fournier, who left 50,000 francs to found an 

 annual prize " with the object of rewarding the best geographical work, 

 either maps or books, published during the year." While the former 

 will hardly be considered a special incentive to braving the hardships 

 of Arctic travel, the latter will undoubtedly stimulate to extra effort. 



The war ministers of France, Germany, and Italy have recently been 



