3 8o 



NATURE 



\_Atigust 1 6, 1883 



ceedings). In another paper Prof. Feofilaktoff gives a description 

 of the diluvium of Poltava (vol. vi. fasc. I). It consists of three 

 different series of deposits, namely, the lower boulder clay, the loess, 

 and the upper boulder deposits. The yellow loess of Poltava is 

 a quite characteristic loess, and contains the usual Helix hispula. 

 Pupa muscorum, and Succinea oblonga, but it is well stratified at 

 certain places, as it contains intermediate deposits of sandy clay. 

 The upper boulder clay reaches a thickness of forty to fifty feet, 

 and contains boulders five to ten feet in diameter. It consists 

 of materials brought from the north, with a mixture of local 

 materials — chiefly of the underlying loess — without any kind of 

 stratification of the different elements of which it consists. M. 

 Schmdhausen gives a description, with a plate, of the stem of 

 the Protoptcris punctata, Sternb., from the Government of 

 Volhynia. This sample seems to be the best known up to the 

 present time, and M. Schmalhausen doubts whether this creta- 

 ceous fern has been found anywhere in Western Europe in so 

 well-preserved a state. The incomplete samples which were 

 often found in Western Europe led to its being described under 

 the names of FUkites punctalus, Sigillaria punctata, Caulopteris 

 punctata, and Protoptcris Sternbergi. A note by Prof. Borschoff, 

 on the downs of the Kyzyl-Koum Steppe, has been previously 

 noticed in these columns. We notice also several analyses of 

 Caucasian mineral waters. 



The zoological papers are numerous and important. M. 

 Krichaguiu gives an account of his dredgings on the north- 

 eastern coast of the Black Sea, and describes the following new 

 species of Copepoda : Monstrilla intermedia, Monstrilla pontica, 

 Longipcdia pontica, Tachidius Abrau, Canthocampits ceguipes and 

 longicaudalus, Liljeborgia pontica, Cleta brevirostris armata, C. 

 Thalestris, and C. Liljeborgia, Westwoodia pontica, Thalestris 

 ftlijcra, and Oithona minu'.a. His conclusions are : that the 

 fauna of the Black Sea has great originality, owing to the large 

 number of original genera it contains ; that the cosmopolite 

 forms either appear as original species, or have a resemblance to 

 the Mediterranean ones, and that those species which are common 

 to the Black Sea and northern seas have undergone important 

 modifications (vol. v. fasc. I). M. Sovinsky's paper on the Amphi- 

 podsof the Bay of Sebastopol (vol. vi. fasc. 1) contains a complete 

 monograph of the twenty seven species he has found in this bay, 

 and a description of four new species of Sunamphitoe, Dcxamine, 

 and Microdeutopus. Another paper by the same author (vol. vi. 

 fasc. 2) contains a comparison, with plates, of the Red Sea 

 species Virbius proleus, as well as the genera Nikoides and 

 Alphcodes, established by M. Paulson, with the Black Sea forms 

 Virbius gracilis, Hell., Nikoides pontica, and the Mediterranean 

 Alpheus dentipes, which are nearly akin to the above. M. 

 Bobretzky, who published, in 1870, in the Memoirs of the Kieff 

 Society oj Naturalists, a systematic description of forty-three 

 species of ^Annelida Polychata, has recently revised his determi- 

 nations on the ground of new observations, as well as of the 

 researches by MM. Claparede and Marion ; and, without seeking 

 to establish new species, he has preferred to establish a com- 

 parison between the Black Sea and Mediterranean forms, and to 

 maintain only the three following new species : Potyuoc iuccrta, 

 Ophelia taitrica, and Terebellides carina. 



In the department of comparative anatomy we notice an 

 elaborate paper by M. Rumshewich, on the development of the 

 eye among Vertebrates, accompinied by numerous plates ; on 

 the internal muscles of the eye of Reptiles (Lacerta agilis, L. 

 Z'iriais, L. Stirpium, Chelonia fluvialilis, and Ch. midas), by 

 the same ; on the reproductive organs in Annelids, and on the 

 origin of the blastoderm in insects, by M. Bobreizky ; and on the 

 structure of the brain in man, by M. Betz. 



Botany is represented in volumes v. and vi,, only by lists of 

 Phanerogams and of Alga? in the district of Radomy.-l, on the 

 Teterev River, by M. Sovinsky ; and chemistry by an elaborate 

 paper, by M. Barzilovsky, on the nitrotoluols. 



After having largely contributel during the years 1855 to 

 1865 to the purely geographical exploration of the unknown 

 parts of Siberia and the adjacent countries, the East Siberian 

 branch of the Russian Geographical Society entered upon 

 a period of more thorough scientific exploration of Siberia 

 itself. The merely geographical expeditions, such as that of 

 MM. Czekanovski and Midler to the land of the Chuckches, 

 became few and rare, and we now find the members of the 

 Society engaged in a complete exploration of the natural history 

 of Siberia, so that the two last volumes of the fcvestia ' of the 



liz'estia of the East Siberian branch of the Russian Geographical 

 Society, vols. xii. and xiii. Irkutsk, 1881 to 1883. 



East Siberian branch bring us a series of researches into the 

 geology and anthropology of Siberia. The first rank among 

 these undoubtedly belongs to the geological explorations around 

 Lake Baikal, by M. Chersky. The young geologist of Irkutsk 

 publishes for the first time a most interesting geological map of 

 the coasts of Lake Baikal. It appears from this map that the 

 great mass of the mountains on the western shore of the lake 

 consists of Laurentian crystalline slates, mostly chloritic schists 

 and gneisses, overlying the aphanite schists and amphibolitic 

 slates, with intercalations of granites, granito-syenites, and por- 

 phyries. The upper horizon of the same formation consists of 

 the same slates and gneisses, with thick intermediate deposits of 

 limestones. The whole is covered to the west with Silurian 

 deposits, a large Jurassic freshwater basin occupying the depres- 

 sion of Irkutsk. Smaller depressions are occupied by freshwater 

 Miocene deposits. The most important result of M. Chersky's 

 researches is that (as was foreseen on the ground of orographic 

 and architectonic data) the depression of Lake Baikal is not a 

 longitudinal valley, as might be supposed at the first aspect. 

 The chains of mountains we see on its western shore reappear 

 on the eastern shore, maintaining the same direction from south- 

 west to north-east, and crossing the lake in the shape of sub- 

 merged low ridges. On the south-eastern shore of Lake Baikal 

 M. Chersky found the continuition of the high plateau of 

 Eastern Siberia consisting of the same two parts of the 

 Laurentian formation, and covered with lower Silurian deposits, 

 the depressions of which were occupied during the Tertiary 

 period with freshwater la'es ; there are also numerous traces of 

 great lakes which covered wide tracts during the Post-Glacial 

 period. As to the glacial period, the number of accurate observa- 

 tion, published by the East Siberian geologists is unfortunately 

 not in proportion to the amount of theoretical discussion, the 

 only sure and new facts we have to mention being the presence 

 of roc/ies moulonnks, due to glaciation, on the northern shore of 

 Lake Kossogol, that is, on the high plate tu at the foot of its 

 border-ridge, the Sayan Mountains (they were described by ihe 

 late M. Czekanovski) ; traces of glaciation in the higher parts 

 of this ridge ; polished roches moutonnees at several places of the 

 high plateau in the basin of Selenga, requiring, however, a more 

 careful examination ; and glacial deposits in the valley of the 

 Irkut, due to local glaciers, whose extremities reached a height 

 of less than 2000 feet above the pre-ent s a level. 



The Siberian branch of the Geographical Society has taken, 

 during the last few years, a lively interest in anthropology and 

 archaeology, and we notice in the two last volumes of its Isvestia 

 a series of papers on this -ubject. M. Vitkovsky's excavations 

 of grave-mounds of the Stone period on the left bank of the 

 Angara, at the mouth of the Kitoy, and also of the sand-hills 

 which were inhabited by prehistoric man, have yielded a very 

 rich collection of bones and implement--. No less than twenty 

 complete skeletons were dug out, twenty-five nephrite hatchets, 

 numerous nephrite, jade, antl quartzite arrow-points, bone 

 needle-, and implements for fishing. The most interesting 

 feature of these implements is the presence in very great num- 

 bers of carved pieces of slate, pretty well polished, and represent- 

 ing seals. They occur in large quantities (160 in M. Vitkovsky's 

 collection), and are of all sizes, from 150 millimetres to 15 

 millimetres long. These carvings of seals, as well as other 

 implements, are illustrated in the plates which accompany M. 

 Vitkovsky's paper. The skulls testify that the inhabitants of 

 the Downs were a mixture of dolichocephals and brachiocephals 

 the former seeming to have predominated. The jade of which 

 the hatchets were made was prohably taken from the jade 

 boulders which are found in the valley of the Byelaya River in 

 the Government of Irkutsk. We notice, also, most valuable 

 papers by M. Agapitoff on the hieroglyphics on cliff's on the 

 western shore of Lake Baikal ; and on the remains of 

 prehistoric man in the province of Irkutsk, and on Olkhon 

 Island. The hieroglyphic inscriptions on cliffs which are so nume- 

 rous in the district of Minusinsk (they were lately figured in the 

 St. Petersburg Izvestia of the Geographical Society) were sup- 

 posed to be very rare towards the east ; but simply because they 

 remained unknown. Those on Lake Baikal (reproduced in the 

 Siberian Jzzvitia) represent several men, of two different sizes, 

 reindeer, deer, birds, and, most probably, a horse with a man 

 upon it. The old graves are very numerous, too, on Olkhon 

 Island, and they belong (according to the measurements of the 

 skull) to Mongolians, as well as the remains of stone walls which 

 were discovered on the shore of Lake Baikal. They contain iron 

 implements, as well as glass globules and amber pearls. 



The Siberian branch of the Geographical Society has also, 



