;I2 



NA TURE 



\^August 4, 1881 



in the parrot it is tlie first and fjurtli toes which are 

 opposed to the second and third, instead of the first and 

 second to tire others. 



In remarkable contrast with the slowness of its limb- 

 movements is the quickness with which it can move its 

 eyes, and above all its tongue. The chamaeleon lives 

 largely upon flies, and at first sight it would seem im- 

 possible that so apparently torpid and sluggish an animil 

 should be able to reach and seize creatures not only 

 active in their movements, but possessing the power of 

 flight. At this season, when the chamsleon's appetite is 

 keen, it may often be observed when a fly has been 

 introduced into its cage to move about with comparative 

 celerity, attentively watching the fly's movements, now 

 with one and now with the other eye. It sooner or later 

 happens that the fly settles for a few seconds somewhere 

 within half a foot's distance of the chameleon's head. 

 Then the chamasleon' s mouth may be observed to open 

 and the apex of the tongue to protrude. In an instant it has 

 shut again and the fly has disappeared. In fact the 

 chamasleon has spit out, as it were, its enormously exten- 

 sible tongue upon the ins:ct, secured it by the viscid 

 secretion with which the tongue is coated, and again 

 withdrawn that organ together with the prey, but the 

 whole has been eftected with such amazing rapidity that 

 the observer's eye cannot follow the movements of the 

 reptile's tongue. It is projected and withdrawn without 

 the slightest noise, but in the twinkling of an eye. 



As I have said, it is this tongue which is as it were the 

 centre of the chameleon's organisation, and this tongue- 

 movement is the very essence of its existence, and is its 

 whole raison d'etre. Without it the animal's life would be 

 impossible, while the very slowness and deliberation of 

 its other movements are a gain, since they enable the 

 chamseleon to advance upon its prey within shooting 

 distance without alarming it. 



{To be continued.) 



THE UNEXPLORED PARTS OF EUROPE 



AND ASIA 



UNDER this title M. Venoukoff has just published an 

 interesting paper on those parts of Europe and .Asia 

 which remain yet unexplored. It is not to be wondered at 

 that the name of Europe should be among incompletely 

 explored parts of the world, as there are even in Europe 

 considerable spaces, especially in the Balkan peninsula 

 and in North-Eastern Russia, which await scientific 

 exploration. The war of 1877-78 certainly afforded 

 occasion for surveying and mapping wide spaces in Bul- 

 garia and Eastern Roumclia, but the geography of Mace- 

 donia, Epirus, and even of Thessaly is far from being 

 exact. In Russia all the northern provinces, from the 

 Norwegian frontier to the Ural Mountains are only 

 known superficially ; we know here only the coast and 

 the three principal rivers — the Onega, the Dwina, and 

 the Petchora. The great Samoyede tundra remains 

 quite unexplored. Notwithstanding several journeys in 

 the Northern Ural, this country is little known, and the 

 interior of the great double island of Novaya Zemlya 

 remains quite unknown, both affording, however, a 

 very great interest, especially for geologists. As to the 

 hydrographical exploration of the Kara Sea and of 

 the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia, M. Venoukoff does 

 not give thera much of importance, notwithstanding 

 what he terms the pompous newspaper writing about 

 the trade with Northern Siberia, and he thinks that 

 there are on the Asiatic continent several places far 

 more interesting for explorers. For instance, Chekanov- 

 sky's and Nordenskjold's explorations have quite changed 

 our ideas on the geography of that land, twice as wide as 

 France, which belongs to the basins of the Khatanga and 

 of the Anabara. It would be a rich field of exploration 



for a bold traveller. The lands east from the Lena re- 

 main quite unknown, and the northern slopes of the 

 Stanovoi Mountains are still a tabula rasa; the sources 

 of the Indighirka, Kolyma, Omolon, Aniouy, and Ghijiga 

 rivers were never visited by Europeans, and Wrangel 

 mapped them only from hearsay. The land of the 

 Chukchis is better known, thanks to the work of the ex- 

 plorers of the last century, to the recent Russian expe- 

 ditions, and to Nordenskjold's information ; but all our 

 knowledge of this country is far from being exact, 

 and Europeans have never penetrated to the interior of 

 the peninsula which separates the Arctic Ocean from the 

 Pacific, and which promises to have a future as a meeting- 

 point for the whalers, as well as for the trade in mammoth 

 bones. The land of the Koriaks is less attractive, except 

 for a naturalist. As to Kamchatka, certainly it is pass- 

 ably well known, but what a mass of work remains to 

 be done in mapping the west coast, preparing a map 

 of the interior, studying the most interesting geology, 

 botany, and ethnography of the peninsula ! Further 

 south we see that the northern part of Sakhalin remains 

 quite unexplored ; the Sikhota-alin Mountains are all 

 but unknown ; and the regions between the Ussuri 

 and Sungari Rivers, the sources of the Nonni and 

 Argoun Rivers promise very much to the naturalist and 

 to the geographer who would study them. The in- 

 teresting peninsula of Corea will certainly be explored as 

 soon as access to it is not forbidden to Europeans. In 

 the Chinese Empire there are spaces as wide as England 

 which remain unexplored. As to Eastern and Northern 

 Thibet we are not yet sure as to what is the true source 

 of the Brahmaputra and of the Irawaddi, and what is the 

 importance in the orography of this land of the Kuen-Lun 

 range. The inaccessible deserts of Eastern Turkestan are 

 as deserving of exploration as Thibet, and the reaching 

 of the sources of the Hoang-ho is one of the desiderata of 

 geographical science. The great desert of Gobi is 

 passably well explored, but still there remains an im- 

 portant problem : Does there exist, under the 42° and 

 43" N. lat., a chain of mountains which crosses the desert 

 and unites the eastern Thian-Shan with the In-Shan 

 Mountains.'' In northern Mongolia there still remain 

 unknown the highlands at the upper parts of the Selenga 

 River. In China proper there is certainly no room for 

 geographical discoveries, but there remains very much 

 to do as to astronomical determinations, and the sub- 

 stitution of a true picture of nature for the hypothetical 

 chains of mountains which cover our maps. Useless 

 to speak of what might be done with regard to the 

 ethnography of Western and South-Western China. A 

 most attractive exploration would be certainly that of 

 Indo-China in all directions, but it is to be feared that 

 such an exploration will remain for a long time a simple 

 dream, because of the political institutions of this terres- 

 trial paradise. But the exploration of Siam and Annam 

 is one of the most necessary geographical desiderata. 

 Without speaking of the Asiatic islands, where so much 

 reinains to do, M. \'enoukoff points out that British India 

 is certainly one of the best explored countries in the 

 world, and that several parts of Europe are far behind 

 India as to our geographical knowledge of them ; but it 

 is not the case as to those countries which are situated to 

 the north-west of India. Afghanistan and Beluchistan 

 await explorers, especially for certain, perhaps the most 

 important, parts of them, as well as Southern Turkestan 

 and the land of the Turkomans, where so much remains 

 to do. Khorassan and Western Persia are quite well 

 known, but Iran remains unknown ; of course the ex- 

 ploration of these deserts, as well as of those of the in- 

 terior of Arabia, would afford very great difficulties and 

 give comparatively few scitntific results. But a thorough 

 geographical exploration of Armenia and of Asia Minor is 

 most desirable ; and, to finish with Turkey, M. Venoukoff 

 asks if the Straits of the Hellespont and Bosphorus will 



