246 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR '1884. 



iu this region. Eeturning to Gast, in Western Tsaidam, the expedition 

 would go into winter quarters there, and would continue explorations 

 of the surrounding couutry during the winter. 



The Eussian advance in Turkestan, and the surveys and explorations 

 consequent thereon, will enable a great deal of detailed information to 

 be added to the maps of the trans-Caspian region and Northern Afghan- 

 istan. 



In the last volume published by the Caucasus Geographical Society 

 are a large number of determinations of latitude and longitude made 

 by M. Gladysbeft' iu these regions, and also a great number of heights 

 of points in Asia Minor measured by Eussian officers. 



M. Michael Venukoff has called the attention of the Eussian Geo- 

 graphical Society to a new map of the island of Saghalin prepared by 

 M. Nikitine, the topographer, and differing from all other maps of the 

 island in several respects. By it the island is shown to be considerably 

 larger than has been supposed, although any conclusions will be ap- 

 proximate rather than final, till more exact surveys are completed. 



A journey, the results of which will furnish a mass of information 

 regarding the interior of Indo-China and Northern Siam, has been per- 

 formed by a party under the direction of Mr. Holt-Hallett. Starting 

 from Moulmein in February, 1884, the expedition arrived in Bangkok 

 toward the last of July, having spent more than five months in explor- 

 ing the Shan country, surveying over 1,500 miles of route and deter- 

 mining the position of the Shan Eanges. This journey is another at- 

 tempt on behalf of British merchants to find a satisfactory trade route 

 from Southern China to the sea through Indo-China and Siam. Explo- 

 ration of the southern frontier of China, which was proposed, had to be 

 postponed, owing to the unsettled state of those regions. Mr. Holt- 

 Hallett's report on his work in 1884 will shortly be published. 



At a meeting of the Geographical Society of Paris on January 9, 1885, 

 a paper by M. Francis Deloucle was read, giving an account of an ex- 

 ploration, February to June, 1884, made by the commission, of which he 

 is the head, to investigate the question of a ship-canal across the Isth- 

 mus of Kraw, at the northern part of the Malay Peninsula. In Nature 

 a synopsis of the results of the expedition is given. After ascending 

 the peninsula to 7° 14' north latitude, the explorers penetrated from 

 the eastern coast, by wide and deep channels which lead far into the 

 country, to a large inland sea called Tal6 Sah, which M. Deloncle states 

 they were the first Europeans to visit. The lake is 45 miles long by 12 

 miles wide and about 20 feet deep, and separates the island of Tanta- 

 1am from the peninsula proper by a number of arroyos, which extend 

 from Siugora in the south to Lacon in the north. Three visits in all 

 were made to these regions during the year, and the states of Tsang,' 

 Taloung, Lacon, Siugora, and Stouil were thoroughly explored. 



In Nature for December 18, 1884, Mi'. J. E. Tenison-Woods gives an 

 excellent deticription of the physical geography of the Malayan state 



