IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 139 



above the level of the Black sea, or nearly 3,000 feet beyond 

 the highest level of Mt. Blanc. As an elevation Mt. Elburz 

 is a much more striking object of the landscape than the 

 Swiss mountain, for the reason that it rises directly out of 

 the low-lying steppes, the level of which is only a few 

 hundred feet above sea-level, so that it slopes from peak to 

 foot nearly down to the datum plane, while the base of Mt. 

 Blanc is several thousand feet above the sea. Kasbec 

 (16,546 feet), Dikhtau (16,925 feet), Koshtantau (17,096 feet), 

 and Ihkara (17,278 feet) are names of other high peaks in 

 the more central parts of the Caucasus. 



Mt. Blanc is visible about 100 miles. Mt. Elbnrz is said 

 to be visible 200 miles distant. That is to say: If Elburz 

 were located at Kansas City we could from the State House 

 steps on clear days catch glimpses of its snow-crowned 

 top. The photographs were taken on one of the excur- 

 sions of the International geological congress, and the 

 larger one is probably the best ever obtained of the 

 mountain. 



A COMPARISON OF MEDIA FOR THE QUANTITA- 

 TIVE ESTIMATION OF BACTERIA IN MILK. 



BY C. H. ECKLES. 



During the past three years the writer has made quanti- 

 tative estimates of the bacteria in a large number of milk 

 samples. During this work certain facts developed which 

 have very important relations to the accuracy of such esti- 

 mates. 



It was early observed that ordinary peptone agar is 

 entirely unsuited for the purpose as a very small number 

 develop as compared with the same medium to which 2 

 per cent, of lactose has been added, or with gelatine. It was 

 also observed that when students were given peptone agar 

 to use in isolating milk bacteria, that they very rarely, if 

 ever, found the acid organism, although it often consti- 

 tuted a majority of the entire number present in the milk. 



