96 EIGHTH REPORT 1838. 



GEOGRAPHY. 



Recent Intelligence on the Frozen Soil of Siberia. By Professor Von 

 Baer, of St. Petersburgh. Communicated by W. R. Hamilton, 

 JSsq. President of the Royal Geographical Society of London. 



It may be remembered that M. Baer has on a former occasion de- 

 scribed a well, nearly 400 feet deep, at Yakutsk in Siberia, in which 

 the temperature of the soil at the bottom was found to be about the 

 freezing point ; — and the object of the present communication is to ex- 

 plain the measures taken by the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. 

 Petersburgh fully to investigate this point, to ascertain precisely, not 

 only the law which regulates the tempei'aturc of the ground to the 

 depth which is affected by the periodical change of summer and winter, 

 but also the influence of the external air in penetrating into the sides 

 of the well or shaft at Yakutsk ; and, finally, to ascertain the depth 

 which the summer heats generally reach. 



The experiments recommended for this purpose are, to introduce 

 pairs of self-registering thermometers into the side of the Avell at the 

 several depths of 1,3, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 150, &c. to 350 feet; the 

 thermometers to remain a whole year, and to be examined daily. M. 

 Baer also points out the importance for physical geography, to ascer- 

 tain the thickness of jjerpetually frozen ground in countries whose mean 

 temperature is considerably below the freezing point ; for if, as at 

 Yakutsk, the ground never thaws at a deptli of from 300 to 400 feet, 

 all the small streams where superficial waters only are kept in a fluid 

 state in the summer, must be in the winter entirely waterless ; and vice 

 versa, we may conclude, that all rivers which do not come from the 

 south, and whose course is entirely within those countries Avhich pre- 

 serve perpetual ground-ice, and yet do not cease to flow in the winter, 

 must receive their waters from greater depths than those which remain 

 in a frozen state. This circumstance is not devoid of interest in the 

 theory of the formation of springs. Professor Baer also states that he 

 is collecting matei'ials to ascertain the southeim limit of perpetual 

 ground-ice ; and concludes with an appeal to Great Britain, whose ex- 

 tensive possessions in North America afl^ord so ample a field for 

 experiment, to furnish a similar series of observations in the western 

 hemisphere. 



Sketch of the recent Russian Expeditions to Nova'ia ZemTia. — By 

 Professor Baer. 



The object of this sketch was briefly to enumerate the different ex- 

 peditions sent out by the Russian government, in order to illustrate a 

 map of Nova'ia Zemlia, in which the outline of the islands is marked as 

 represented in our most modern maps, and its actual outline as it is 

 now known to exist ; whence it appears that more than half the eastern 

 portion of the land must be obliterated fj'oni our maps. 



