250 



NATURE 



{Jan. 24, 1878 



watered by the Kyzyl-su River, is covered with luxurious 

 Alpine pasturage, and therefore becomes in summer the 

 feeding ground for immense herds of cattle belonging to 

 the Fergana, Kashgar, Shungan, and Karateghin Kir- 

 ghizes. A sandy cleft, Tash-kurgan, leads from the Alai 

 Valley to the Pamir Highlands. After a journey of forty- 

 five miles along this cleft, and after having crossed the 

 Kyzyl-art Pass, 14,017 feet high, M, Korostovtseff reached 

 the salt-lake, Kara-kul, twenty-seven miles long and 

 twelve miles wide, 13,194 feet above the sea-level. Its 

 sandy banks are quite bare, and the surrounding stony 

 hills bear no traces of vegetation ; it is only close by the 

 deep-blue waters of the lake that the traveller discovers 

 here and there a low and dry bush. Thence M. Koros- 

 tovtseff turned south-east, entered the cleft Alabaital, and 

 reached, by a gentle slope, the pass of the same name, 

 15,314 feet high, whence he had to descend on the very 

 steep southern slope, to the valley of the Chan-su River, 

 quite bare and covered with snow-white deposits of salt. 

 The valley of a rivulet, Uz-bel, tributary of Chansu — a 

 sandy desert twenty miles long — and the Uz-bel Pass, 

 15,195 feet high, were followed east to reach the valley of 

 Sary-kol, 14,300 feet above the sea-level, and covered with a 

 very scarce vegetation ; here some small rivulets give rise to 

 the Kashgar-daria River. Thus the general characters of 

 the northern part of the Pamir table-land are high val- 

 leys, flat, open, bare, and sandy, never descending below 

 some 13,000 feet, with blue salt lakes and salt deposits on 

 their dry bottom ; relatively low mountains, the passes 

 between which are only some 1,000 or 2,oco feet above 

 the bottom of the valleys, the peaks bemg covered with 

 perpetual snow when they exceed an altitude of 15,000 or 

 16,000 feet ; no inhabitants, and a very scarce vegetation. 

 Such is the hitherto mysterious "' roof of the world " 

 (Pamir). From Sary-kol M. Korostovtseff was compelled 

 to return. He died a short time after his return, without 

 being able to publish the results of his most interesting 

 journey or describe the valuable collections he obtained. 



The "Nerthus" of Tacitus. — Dr. Michelsen, of 

 Schleswig, has just published a pamphlet in which he 

 discusses that remarkable and often-mentioned Nerthus- 

 island, which, according to the description of Tacitus, 

 with its sacred lake and forest, formed the centre 

 of a divine service of seven closely connected communi- 

 ties. Formerly the island cf Riigen, or the so-called 

 "Land Oldenburg," was thought to be the island in 

 question. Dr. Michelsen, however, points out that the 

 island of Alsen is the one meant by Tacitus. He states 

 that the name signifies " sanctuary " or " temple-island," 

 and that the sacred lake and forest still exist in the north- 

 west of Norburg on the Alsensund, under the names of 

 *' Hellewith and Helleso " {heilige Wald unci heilige See 

 — holy wood and holy sea). The inhabitants of that dis- 

 trict still call the village of Hellewith, situated near the 

 forest, Hellod {heiliges Eigen — holy own) ; and in the 

 existing remains of the old forest there is a well-preserved 

 sacrificial altar consisting of enormous blocks of granite. 

 Dr. Michelsen gives a number of other interesting proofs for 

 the correctness of his conjecture, and also remarks that 

 he has partly discovered the names of the seven Nerthus 

 people in villages of the Sundewitt district. 



Venezuela. — In the January session of the Berlin 

 Geographical Society, Dr. Sachs gave a description of 

 his recent journey to Venezuela, for the purpose of study- 

 ing the gymnotus in its native haunts. Humboldt's 

 sketch of the Llanos was completed and corrected in 

 some points. This great plain, formerly an inland sea, 

 is 600 feet above the sea in its upper part, and but 200 in 

 its lower part, a difference which accounts for the fact that 

 the grass, but i to 2 feet in height in the upper portion, 

 rises above the head of the river in the lower region. 

 The decrease in the number of cattle on the Llanos of 

 late years has led to a rapid extension of the arboreal 

 growth. The Llaneros are a peculiar people, arising from 



a mixture of the white, red, and-black races, and standing 

 on a low grade of civilisation, their religion consisting in 

 the adoration of a few saints, and marriages being rare. 

 Humboldt's familiar description of the capture of the 

 electric eel, by driving horses into the streams frequented 

 by it, as the customary method in the land, is regarded as 

 resting on an error. No one in the region was acquainted 

 with it, and it was found impracticable to carry out. The 

 scientific results of Dr. Sach's observations will be 

 published shortly. 



The Indus. — The course of the Indus river from the 

 point where it leaves Cashmere down to where it enters 

 English territory, about 120 miles below Darband, has 

 recently been explored in detail by a Punjaub surveyor, 

 and our geographical knowledge of the river has thus 

 been considerably augmented, while valuable topo- 

 graphical material has been obtained. Of course Capt. 

 Carter had previously determined, in a general way, the 

 course of the river in the districts named, by his trigono- 

 metrical measurements of the heights of the mountain 

 summits on both banks of the Indus. 



New Guinea.— Dr. E. T. Hamy, in the just issued 

 November part of the Bulletin of the Paris Geographical 

 Society, describes ya. considerable detail the results of 

 his examination of an old map of New Guinea, for the 

 purpose of showing how much had been done for its 

 discovery by the Spanish navigators of the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries (i 528-1606). The map, which 

 serves as the basis of Dr. H amy's paper, is contained in 

 the atlas of Pierre Martier, published at Amsterdam in 

 1700. The data for this and other maps in the atlas had 

 been collected by Fremont d'Ablancourt while in 

 Portugal, and the many names on New Guinea would 

 show that by the sixteenth century its coasts had been 

 pretty well explored all round, though its shape is very 

 inaccurately laid down. 



NOTES 



We give some account to-day of the life and work of the late M. 

 Becquerel, and next week we hope to do the same for M. Regnault, 

 who died two days after M. Becquerel, in his 68th year. M. 

 Victor Regnault was born at Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1810. He was 

 Professor of Physics^in the College of France, and of Chemistry 

 in the Polytechnic School ; he also held for some time the 

 Directorship of the Porcelain Manufactory of Sevres. His 

 researches in the several branches of physics and chemistry 

 published in the Memoirs of the French Academy of Sciences, 

 and many other scientific journals, are numerous, and of the 

 greatest value. Of these perhaps his publications on the expan- 

 sion of elastic fluids, the determination of the densities of gases, 

 the measurement of tem peratures, and the determinations of the 

 specific heats of liquids, solids, and gases, are the most im- 

 portant, and have brought his name most prominently before the 

 world. He has also written many valuable papers on physio- 

 logical questions. M. Regnault was elected a member of the 

 Academy of Sciences in 1840, and in 1850 was created an officer 

 of the Legion of Honour. 



The Council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh have 

 awarded the Neill medal to Dr. Ramsay Traquair, for his 

 paper on the Structure and Affinities of Tristichopteris alatus, 

 Egerton, being one of an important series of contributions to 

 the knowledge of the structure of recent and fossil fishes. 



We are informed that the Pennsylvania Railway Company are 

 disposed to grant very favourable terms to any European astrono- 

 mers who, in their private capacity, may wish to go to America 

 to observe the approaching eclipse of the sun. It is stated that 

 for less than half the usual fares astronomers will be conveyed 

 from New York, Washington, or Baltimore to Denver, We 



