582 



NATURE 



\Oci. 26, 1876 



and a lower, both fringed vyrith border- ridges. Two hilly tracts 

 accompany the table-land on both sides and are composed of 

 many short ridges running parallel to its edges, south-west to 

 north-east ; two broad belts of high plains spread out from the 

 foot of the hilly tracts ; two belts of lowlands reach respectively 

 the Polar Sea and the Pacific ; and, finally, various ridges run 

 in the same north-eastern direction, diversifying the surfaces of 

 the table-lands, of the plains, and especially of the south- 

 eastern lowlands, which are also fringed by a belt of the 

 Pacific coast ridges. These conclusions are supported by 

 many sections, and the broad features of the land are shown 

 on a map representing the different orographical characteristics by 

 special colours. Some hints are also given as to the geological 

 significance of this structure and as to its climatic and biological 

 importance. The rough climate of the upper terrace of the 

 table-land makes agriculture impossible on its surface, which is 

 covered with larix forests and with marshy meadows ; the agri- 

 cultural settlements are, therefore, concentrated, partly on the 

 lower terrace, but especially on the high plains and in broad 

 ramifying valleys which cut deeply into the table-land and 

 radiate to the east and to the south of the Baikal lake. The well- 

 known sharp limits between the different floras, Manchoorian, 

 Daoorian, and Saiask- Altaian, and partly also the limits between 

 the respective faunas, are determined by the extension of different 

 terraces of table-lands and plains, various orographical character- 

 istics corresponding also to special geological districts. The second 

 paper, " Materials for the Orography of Eastern Siberia," is a 

 chapter from a detailed orographical description of Eastern 

 Siberia, undertaken but not finished by the author. It deals 

 mostly with the little-known hilly tracts of the southern parts of 

 the Jenissei province, and is accompanied by a contour-map of 

 the country. Both papers are in Russian. 



The October number of Petermann's Mittheilungen contains 

 a map of the Island of Hawaii and its famous volcano, with 

 some data on the subject by Franz Bingham. Another map 

 shows the recent discoveries in Africa of Stanley, Gessi, and 

 Young. 



Dr. Erwin von Bary set out on his scientific expedition 

 from Tripoli in the middle of August, and will by this time 

 have reached Ghat. Dr. von Bary, in the autumn of 1875, 

 made, at his own expense, a preliminary journey in the provinces 

 of Tarhona and Gharian, and obtained some useful practical 

 experience. The chief object of his undertaking is the solution 

 of the important problem of the age and nature of the Sahara ; 

 the traveller will also give his attention to the flora of the Hogar 

 Mountain. The Berlin Geographical Society contributes to Dr. 

 von Bary's expenses. 



News has reached Stockholm of Dr. Theel's expedition, 

 which had arrived at Dudinskoj on September 11, too late to 

 return to Sweden in the Ymer with Prof. Nordenskjold. 



The well-known African explorer, Gerhard Rohlfs, gave a 

 lecture at Augsburg on the 17th inst., on his journey to Morocco, 

 and his four years' stay in that little-known country. Furnished in 

 Tangiers with recommendations by the English resident, he jour- 

 neyed under many difficulties and dangers into the interior, as far 

 as the holy city Uesan, and the capital Fez, in which he made a 

 long stay, for without much formality he was appointed general 

 physician to the whole of the Morocco army. In this position, 

 and as physician-in-ordinary to the Emperor himself, and sup- 

 ported by the friendship of the chief Cherif of Uesan, he made 

 investigations in the land and the people, thus opening to the 

 civilised world a comparatively new part of the earth. Rohlfs 

 sketched the land from the coast of the Mediterranean, and the 

 exuberant flora of the coast-lands of the latter sea. He described 

 it as an uninterrupted garden studded with towns and the 



camps of the Arabs and Berbers, [to the wooded snow-mountain of 

 the Atlas ; depicted the manners and customs of the people in 

 Morocco, and on the Oases of the Sahara, and in the holy city, 

 Uesan, whose inhabitants claim to be direct descendants of 

 Mohammed. Finally he described his thirty days' journey to 

 Tunis, through the endless desert, broken only by the broad 

 valley of dried up rivers. 



The opening meeting of the French Geographical Society for 

 the session 1876-1877, was held at Paris on October 18, under 

 the presidency of M. Malte-Brun.' Admiral Laronciere le 

 Noury delivered an address on the International African Con- 

 gress at Brussels. Letters were received from a commission who 

 are attempting to establish a central observatory on Mont Pio IX. 

 in the Apennines . They propose to render that establishment the 

 centre of European meteorology, but the scheme is not likely to 

 come to much. They propose to build a metallic chapel and 

 construct a captive balloon for conveying passengers from the foot 

 of the rock to the top. M. Malte-Brun informed the Society of 

 the creation in Brussels of a Belgian Geographical Society. The 

 success of the recent scientific meetings held in that capital is re- 

 garded as a sure sign of the speedy success of the new institution. 



A report, dated New York, October 4, to the Secre- 

 tary of the Liverpool Underwriters' Association, states that 

 all the steamers arriving that week [report large quantities of 

 ice between lat. 45 and 46 "30 N., and long. 49 and 50*30 

 W. One steamer passed two, one very large, about 200 feet 

 high, "apparently aground;" another steamer passed forty- 

 eight icebergs, and a third passed sixty-eight. It is certainly 

 unusual to see so much ice at this time of the year so far south. 

 We do not know whether the disaster to the iBehring Sea 

 whaling fleet can have any connection with this southward 

 drifting of icebergs. Twelve out of fourteen vessels have been 

 destroyed and many men. The cause of the disaster is not 

 stated. 



It will be pleasing to ornithologists to know that there is 

 every probability of the speedy appearance of the long-expected 

 work by Mr. Gatke on the ornithology of Heligoland. The 

 MS. for the German edition is already far advanced, and simul- 

 taneously an English one will be produced under the editorship 

 of Mr. Plenry Seebohm. It is probable that no more fit person 

 could have been found for the task than the last-named gentleman, 

 who has devoted himself to the study of European ornithology for 

 many years past, and whose spirited^energy in the expedition of 

 last year to the Great Petchora, along with Mr. Harvie Brown, 

 has rendered him famous among his brother naturalists. The 

 practical experience gained by him during his journeys in Nor- 

 way and in various parts of Southern Europe, will doubtless 

 stand him in good stead in the by no means easy task which he 

 has set before himself. At present he is staying in Heligoland, 

 whither^he was accompanied on a collecting trip by Mr. Bowdler 

 Sharpe and Mr. Francis Nicholson, of Manchester. We learn 

 from the latter gentlemen, who have returned to England, that 

 in addition to the great interest attaching to the renowned Gatke 

 collection, the short expedition proved a great success omitho- 

 logically, over eighty species of birds having been obtained or 

 observed, among them being the rare Fhylloscopus superciltosus, 

 which was shot by Mr. Seebohm. 



In a letter dated "Labuan, August 17," Governor Usshe 

 says that he has had great difficulty in getting specimens of the 

 beautiful new pheasant recently described by Mr. Sharpe as 

 Lobiophasis bulweri. He has twice sent over from Labuan to 

 the mainland of Borneo the trained collector who obtained the 

 original specimen, but hitherto without success. As, however, 

 the birds are plentiful about thirty-five miles inland, he hopes to 

 be able to get 'some examples very shortly. Bulwer's pheasant 

 seems, in the north-western portion of Borneo, to be confined to 



