NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. OE Ly/ 
eastern frontier of the Persian empire, the disputants being 
virtually the Shah of Persia on the one hand, and the Amir of 
Afghanistan (in right of certain acquired interest through rebel 
feudatories) on the other. By the settlement arrived at through 
this Commission, Persia got the position which is designated as 
Sistan Proper, while to Afghanistan was allotted the country on 
the right bank of the river Helmund, and, above a certain point on 
that stream, all the cultivated land on both banks. 
Owing to numerous delays and difficulties which our diplomacy 
apparently created rather than averted, the labours of the Com- 
missioners were tediously prolonged during several years, and the 
first volume of the work before us is occupied with narratives of 
the various journeys necessitated or undertaken, and an account 
of the observations and researches made en route by the different 
members of the Staff. It is in fact a kind of Blue Book of the 
Persian Boundary Commission, and undoubtedly embodies a large 
amount of valuable information, although of a nature somewhat 
foreign to the scope of this journal. 
The second volume demands a more lengthy notice at our 
hands. Fortunately for all who are interested in Natural History, 
there was one amongst the above-named officers, Major O. B. St. 
John, who was actuated by far higher views than those of an 
ordinary traveller and sportsman, and, with the aid of a native 
collector sent from the Indian Museum at Calcutta, he amassed 
during the years 1869—70—71 no less than 500 specimens of 
mammals and birds from such hitherto little-known districts as the 
forests south and west of Shiraz and its vicinity, and also from the 
hill ranges between Shiraz and Isfahan, from Tehran and the 
Elburz mountains, and from the neighbourhood of Resht, near the 
Caspian. The consequence of this able pioneering was that when 
a highly trained scientific observer like Mr. Blanford arrived in 
the country, in 1872, he found the road considerably smoothed for 
him, from a naturalist’s point of view, and indeed the valuable 
co-operation of Major St. John is most fully acknowledged by him 
in these pages. These two naturalists then made a journey in 
company from Gwador, in Balichistan, to Shiraz, Isfahan, and 
Tehran, and the result of their joint observations and collections, 
the latter carefully worked out in Europe with the aid of the best 
public and private museums for comparison and identification, 
appear in the present volume. 
