!)GC) SCIENTIFIC EECOED FOR 1885. 



Kjelvik and Maaso (Norway) about a point of considerable geograpliical 

 interest, viz, the proprietorship of the North Cape. It is caused by 

 the establishment on the celebrated promontory of a restaurant, the 

 taxes of which are claimed by both parishes. The cape has always 

 been considered to form the boundary between the two, without it be- 

 ing stipulated to which it actually belonged. 



The well-known rocky islet Munken (the Monk), which lies 3^ miles 

 south of Sumbo, and formerly rose to a height of 70 feet above the sea, 

 has completely subsided. A considerable portion of it had crumbled 

 away last year, but it is now no higher than the low surrounding rocks, 

 so that even in tolerably fine weather the sea breaks over and covers it. 

 The shoal water about the islet causes such dangerous currents that 

 the seamen of olden times believed there was a Malstrom there, and it 

 is therefore very unfortunate that this rock, which served as a sea-mark, 

 will no longer warn navigators of their approach to danger. 



From recent observations it would appear that during the last thirty 

 years or so the rising of the shores around the Baltic and Gulf of Both- 

 nia has gone on with greater rapidity than during the previous i)eriod 

 of observation. The increased rate of emergence in recent times is 

 clearly shown on the rock known as Stora Reppen, not far from Pitea, 

 Sweden. That rock in 1851 had emerged 94 centimeters above its former 

 level since the commencement of the observations ; while in August, 

 1884, it had risen 50 centimeters more. The general results compared 

 with previous observations — that is for a period of one hundred and. 

 thirty -four years — prove that since 1750 the head of the Gulf of Bothnia 

 has risen 2.10 meters, or 1.70 meters per century. This rate of emergence 

 declines progressively toward the south. It is not more than 30 centime- 

 ters at Naze, and it is zero at Bornholm. The mean rise of the Swedish 

 coast is thus 1.60 meters per century. 



A very useful and complete atlas of Eussia has been prepared by J. 

 Poddubnyi, and published by A. Deubner, St. Petersburg, under the 

 title of a " Eussian school atlas," at the small price of one ruble, or 80 

 cents. 



The project of connecting the Volga and the Don, which dates back 

 to 1668, when Selim, the son of Solyman the Magnificent, besieging As- 

 trakhan, attempted to join the two rivers in order to transport materials 

 of war, has been revived. M. L6on Dru, a French engineer, having sur- 

 veyed a line in October, 1885, was convinced that the project is practi- 

 cable, and experimental borings have already commenced. 



The attention of geographers and men of science ought to be called 

 to several numbers of the ArcMv filr die naturtcissenschaftUcJie Landes- 

 durchforschung von BoJimen, which have recently been issued (Prague, 

 Franz Ezuonatz). The numbers of most interest to geographers pure 

 and simple are those forming the first division of the third volume, and 

 containing a list of the heights in Bohemia, trigonometrically determined 

 by the Imj^erial Institute of Military Geography in the years 1877-'79. 



