‘March 1 5, 1883 | 
, Tiflis, Elizabethpol, Dushet, Gudaur, and Vladikavkaz with the 
same pendulums that were used for a similar purpose in Russia 
and afterwards in India. It results from the observations that 
in all the above-named localities, the lengths of the seconds 
pendulum are less than the calculated ones, namely, by 0 0037 
Paris lines at Batum, 0°0455 at Elizabethpol, 00445 at Tiflis, 
070476 at Vladikavkaz, 0°1171 at Dushet, and 0°1226 at Gudaur. 
- Thus, the geoid (or the true figure of the earth’s surface, as 
determined by the directions of the pendulum) nearly corresponds 
with the spheroid on the shores of the Black Sea; it rises above 
it by 1587 feet at Tiflis, and by 1622 feet at Elizabethpol. It 
rises further north, reaching 4175 feet at Dushet, and 4371 at 
Gudaur, but soon falls, and has at Vladikavkaz, on the northern 
slope of the main chain, nearly the same height as at Tiflis, that 
is, 1697 feet above the spheroid. 
The purely geographical papers are numerous :—M. Bakradze 
contributes a paper on the Batum province,—the Saata- 
bago of antiquity,—and the basin of the Chorokh River, 
inclosed by mountains 10,000 feet high, and often of 
volcanic origin, The vegetation of the province is perhaps 
still more luxuriant than in other parts on the coasts of the 
Black Sea, where it altogether develops with a prodigious 
strength, owing to the great amount of rain; vines cover the 
trees in the coast district. But the country is thinly peopled. The 
old Georgian population is forgetting its language, and is dis- 
appearing from the upper parts of the basin of the Chorokh; 
the Lazes occupy only nineteen hamlets ; the Armenians number 
no more than 570 houses; the Abhazes and Circassians, who 
have immigrated from the Caucasus, and Kurds are also scarce, 
—Another paper, by M. Levashoff, gives a detailed description 
of the mountains on the left bank of the Chorokh, between 
Batum and Artvin; these mountains are spurs of the Anti- 
Taurus. chain which terminates close by the Chorokh in the 
peak! Kvahid, 10,390 feet high. The left affluents of the 
-Chorokh flow in narrow gorges, the bottom of which, anl 
sometimes the slopes, are occupied by hamlets of Mussulman 
Gurians.» Each of these gorges has its own individuality, and 
communication between them is very difficult, The small 
villages of each gorge are quite isolated from those of a neigh- 
bouring gorge. The fields of Indian corn and rice are often 
scratched on the small terraces on the slopes of mountains, often 
at a height of 3000 feet above the sea-level, and close by ruins 
of old small fortresses, each of which has its own legend. The 
tributaries of the Chorokh become wild streams after each rain, 
and the avalanches are dangerous enemies. The forests, which 
cover the mountains from top to bottom, are peopled with bears, 
wolves, and foxes. Further down, towards the sea-coast, the 
gorges become wider, and their bottom is covered with gardens. 
The Chorokh itself has a breadth of twenty-five to fifty yards, 
and runs with such rapidity that the Aayouks, or local boats, 
managed with great skill through the rapids, pass the distance 
from Artyin to Batum (more than fifty miles) in four or five 
hours.—We notice also in the same volume a paper on the 
villayet of Trebizond, translated from the German; the letter 
of Mr. Gifford Palgrave on vestiges of glacial action in North- 
eastern Anatolia, translated from a former volume cf NATURE; 
the account of a party who undertook to climb the Elbrouz, but 
stopped 3500 feet short of its summit; and a notice on Western 
Daghestan.—M. Chernyavsky gives a detailed description of 
periodical phenomena in the life of plants at Sukhum-kaleh, 
cure the autumn, winter, and spring of the years 1871 to 
1875. 
M. Seidlitz contributes a note on goitre and cretinism on the Cau- 
casus. It is spread in several valleys of the main chain, especially 
in the Upper Svanetia ; in the valley of the Tzhenis-tzhali many 
cases of cretinism were noticed. Altogether the small people of 
Svanets, which numbers only 12,000 souls, seem to be in a state 
of degeneracy, and ought to have an infusion of fresh blood 
from without. The goitre was noticed also in adjacent parts of the 
upper basin of the Rion river, among the Osets. On the northern 
slope of the Caucasus, west of the Kazbek peak, as well as in 
the basin of the Kuban, the goitre was not noticed ; but it is 
known in Western Daghestan and in the valleys of the Andian 
Koysou ridge. It is cured by the waters of springs containing 
carbonic acid. Women are more subject to this disease than 
men, Another disease, of hysterical character, endemic to the 
same locality, is worthy of notice. The men and women affecetd 
bark like dogs, and the aborigines consider it as the result 
of bewitching, in which the ‘‘ barking grass,” as the Avars say 
a kind of Orchis), is used by the bewitchers, In the Anti- 
NATURE 
471 
Caucasus goitre was noticed in the Nakhichevan district and in 
the Batum province. It is always endemic, and never takes an 
epidemic character, as was the case in 1877 at Kokan, in 
Turkestan, where 9 per cent. of the soldiers and officers were 
seized with this disease after a year’s stay at Kokan. 
The ethnography of the Caucasus occupies a large place in 
this volume of the Zzvestéa. M. Zagursky contributes a note on 
the supposed kinship of the Osets with the Etruscans, and shows 
that it would be rather difficult to establish this kinship on account 
of a want of likeness between the Osetian language and the 
little we know about the language of the Etruscans.—Prof. 
Patkanoff contributes a valuable paper on the place occupied by 
the Armenian Janguage among other Indo-European languages. 
He concludes that, and shows why, the question still remains 
open. Several linguists consider the Armenian language as 
decidedly belonging to the Iranian group, whilst others classify 
it with the European group. Lagarde distinguishes in it three 
elements : the Haikan, the Arkasid, and the Sassanid elements ; 
the two latter are Iranian, but the Haikan element belongs to a 
family of languages the oldest of which is the Zend. Hiibsch- 
mann concludes that it occupies an intermediate place between 
the Iranian languages and the Slavo-Lithuanians ; and Fr. Miiller, 
a partisan of its Iranian origin, admits that it has some kinship 
with the Slavo-Lithuanian languages. Prof. Patkanoff concludes 
that it occupies an intermediate place between these two, and is 
a representative of an extinct group of Indo-European lan- 
guages, which formerly was spread perhaps in Asia Minor.— 
We notice also several notes: on the dolmens of the Maykop 
district ; on the descriptions of the first physical training given 
to children by different Caucasian peo; les (these interesting de 
scriptions, comprising nearly all Caucasian peoples, were sent to 
Moscow to Dr. Pokrovsky) ; on archzeological discoveries in the 
province of Kuban, &c. 
The /zves/ia contain also many interesting short notices on 
the scientific work done on the Caucasus by other Societies and 
private persons ; and bibliographical notices on different works 
dealing with the Caucasus. Elisée Reclus’s description of the 
Caucasus in the ‘‘ Géographie Universelle” is considered as the 
best that has yet appeared, and it is proposed to translate it into 
Russian, with notes and additions. 
The Appendix contains several valuable papers, namely: a 
note on the Bosphorus and Constantinople, by M. Stebnitzky 
(with a map), containing some new information on currents in 
the Bosphorus and on the mean temperature at Pera, according 
to new observations of M. Kumbari (14°°3 Cels.) ; a note on the 
Aysors of the province of Erivan ; a note on the population of 
Turkish Armenia, by M. Eritsoff (1,162,957, out of which 
214,350 are Turks, 357,577 Kurds, 498,007 Armenians, 41,682 
Kizilbashes, 25,516 Greeks, and 17,400 Aysors); and several 
translations. 
The geodetical part is represented in the seventh volume of the 
Zzvestia by a paper by M. Kulberg, on the influence of the oscillations 
of the supporting disc of the pendulum of the Russian Academy 
on the measured length of the seconds pendulum. The correc- 
tion due to this cause was found to be equal to +0'0650 Paris 
lines, which correction closely corresponds to the difference 
between the Russian pendulum and that of Cater, which was 
found at Kew to be equal to 0'0056 inches, or 0'0631 Paris lines. 
The corrected lengths of the seconds pendulum at the above- 
named localities (at 13° Réaumur, and reduced to the sea-level) 
would be thus : 440°2734 Paris lines at the Tiflis Observatory, 
440°3279 at Vladikavkaz, 440°2126 at Gudaur, 4402018 at 
Dushet, 440°3172 at Batum, and 440°2364 at Elizabethpol.—A 
biographical notice of the late Gen. Khodzko gives an account 
of the immense work he performed for the triangulation of the 
Caucasus. He began this work in 1847 with the Anti-Caucasus, 
always taking for himself the most difficult parts of the work, 
such as the measurements on the summit of Alaghéz (13,436 
feet high), or of Ararat (16,916 feet), 6000 feet above the snow- 
line, and of other high summits. On June 28, 1851, he observed 
an eclipse of the sun on the summit of Galavdur, at a height 
of 10,380 feet, and noticed the protuberances which were 
doubted at that time as belonging to the atmosphere of the sun. 
The geodetical determination of 1386 points in Trans-Caucasia 
was terminated in 1854, but that of Northern Caucasus was 
begun only in 1860, and was connected with those of Russia in 
1864. The accuracy of this immense work and its importance 
for geodesy and physical geography are well known. 
The same volume contains several valuable geographical 
papers and maps. Among the latter the first place belongs to 
