119 



to the Climatological researches in the third volume, and 

 especially to the memoir on the causes of the flexures 

 of the Isothermal lines which I have read with the 

 greatest interest, and which appears to me to contain 

 by far the most complete and masterly coup d'oeil of 

 that important subject which I have ever met with. 

 In reading this and other parts of your works on this 

 subject and of the " Physique du Griobe" in all its 

 departments, that which strikes me with astonishment 

 is, the perfect familiarity and freshness of recollection 

 of every detail which seems to confer on you in some 

 degree the attribute of ubiquity on the surface of this 

 our planet so vividly present does the picture of its 

 various regions seem to be in your imagination and so 

 completely do you succeed in making it so to that of 

 your readers. 



The account of the Auriferous and Platiniferous 

 deposits in the Ural and the zone in 56 lat. has also 

 very much interested me, as well as the curious facts 

 respecting the distribution of the Grecian germs in 

 those regions. I could not forbear translating and 

 sending to the " Athenaeum" (the best of our literary 

 and scientific periodicals) the singular account of the 

 " monstre" of Taschkow Targanka (citing of course 

 your work as the source of the history) in vol. iii., 

 p. 597. 



The idea of availing ourselves of the information 

 contained in the works of Chinese geographers for the 

 purpose of improving our geographical knowledge of 

 Central Asia, appears to me as happy as it is likely to 

 prove fertile especially now that the literature of that 

 singular country is becoming more accessible daily by 

 the importation of Chinese books. What you have 



