i86 



NA TURE 



\JDec. 24, 1885 



Simons first describes the topography of the little-visited penin- 

 sula in some detail, and then gives an account of the tribe of 

 Indians inhabiting it, which is of exceeding interest, so remark- 

 able are many of their customs. Their system of compensation 

 — consisting of tear and blood-money, or fines for tears or blood 

 supposed to be shed — is one of the most extraordinary ever 

 found amongst a primitive people, extending not only to injuries, 

 wilful or accidental, done to one man by another, but to acci- 

 dents happening to a man himself. Every man is a hostage for 

 every one of his clan, and is liable to be called upon to pay 

 various fines for the acts of another ; if a man borrows an 

 animal of another and is thrown off, the lender has to pay, 

 first, the relatives of the mother, then the relatives of the father, 

 and, lastly, the friends of the borrower. If a man injures him- 

 self he is forced to pay his mother's relations for his own blood 

 which has been spilt, his father's for the tears which they are 

 presumed to have shed, and his friends for the sorrow the acci- 

 dent has caused them, — and all this if he has only cut his finger 

 with his knife. Many other curious customs are also recorded. 

 Colonel Prjevalsky's letters describe certain districts around 

 Lob-Nor, and the route to Cherchen and Kiria. The work of 

 the Admiralty Surveys for 1S84 is detailed from the Hydro- 

 grapher's report. Sir Frederic Goldsmid writes on the geographi- 

 cal nomenclature 'f places between Merv and Herat, and 

 Admiral Irminger, of the Danish Navy, explains, in a letter to 

 the secretary, the so-called subsidence of one of the Faroe 

 Islands, which turns out not to have been a " subsidence " at all. 

 M. POTANIN has again written to the Geographical Society, 

 from Si-nin, under date of April 29. The expedition was con- 

 tinuing its work without the least hindrance, MM. Potanin, 

 Stassy, and Berezovsky exploring the region in all directions, 

 after having wintered in three different towns ; the astronomical 

 determinations were also made, and the population, far from 

 hindering the sun'eys, assisted them. A Tangut, in the service 

 of M. Potanin, is a valuable aid in making collections of insects. 

 MM. Potanin and Skassi left San-chuan on April 15, taking a 

 northerly direction to reach the Si-nin River (called Nimbi- 

 muren in iis lower course). Its valley is inclosed between high 

 walls of loess, and at three different points it is narrowed by 

 crags of gneiss, where some gold is dug. In the Lau-va-sya 

 gorge the limestone crags are covered with numerous and 

 beautiful marmitcs de gcant, one of which has a diameter of 

 160 centimetres. Above this gorge the valley reaches a width 

 of more than two miles, and two towns, Lau-va-sya and Nimbi, 

 are situated there. They are peopled with Mongols, many of 

 whom are Mussulmans ; the villages are peopled with Chinese. 

 Si-nin was reached on April 24, and M. Potanin proposed to 

 leave it soon for Min-cheu, via Gui-Dui, so as to connect his 

 surveys with those of M. Prjevalsky. 



The German Emperor has ordained that the harbour dis- 

 covered on the north-east coast of Kaiser Wilhelm's Land, 

 north-west of Port Constantine, shall henceforth be known a 

 " Friedrich Wilhelm's Hafen," and the bay near it "Prince 

 Heinrich's Hafen " ; the large navigable river discovered east 

 of Cape de la Torre as the " Kaiserin Augusta Fluss," while 

 Beaupre, situated in the middle of the peninsula will now be 

 called " Varzin." " Neu Mecklenburg " will be substituted for 

 New IreUnd, "Neu Lauenburg" for the Duke af York group, 

 and " Neu Pommern " for New Britain, the largest island uf 

 the Bismarck Archipelago. 



The voyage of the Vega along the north coast of Europe 

 and Asia seems likely to bring about another result, namely, 

 the connection of the Petchora witli the Obi by a route 

 presenting fewer dangers than the navigation of the Kara 

 Sea. Thanks to the continuous efforts of MM. Sidoroff and 

 Sibiryakoft", the exploration of the Northern Urals, with a 

 view to discover the best routes for connecting the great river of 

 North-East Russia with the chief artery of Siberia, is being 

 busily prosecuted. It .appears now, from a communication Ijy 

 M. Nosiloff to the Russian Geographical Society (Izvestia, iv. 

 1885), that there are in the Northern Urals pas-es which would 

 permit of establishing an easy link between the two basins. 

 The best of them seems to be the Schokuriinsk Pass, the same 

 that Prince Kurbsky availed himself of in 1449 to reach the 

 Obi. A portage, only gS miles long, leads from Kuya— a village 

 on the Petchora, within easy reach of steamboats — to the Sygva 

 River, a tributary of the Sosva, which appears to be navigable 

 for boats up to a point distant only 35 miles from the pass over 

 the Ural Mountains. The Sygvahas a depth of from 4 to 7 feet. 



and a width of 150 to 350 yards ; while the Sosva, 6 to iS feet 

 deep, forms an excellent channel for even larger vessels. As to 

 the portage itself, its highest point reaches only 1450 feet above 

 the sea, and H50 feet above the Sygva ; and a railway less than 

 100 miles long would avoid all those difficulties which are now 

 presented by the navigation of the Kara Sea and the ice-bound 

 Gulf of Obi. Another pass, Voikarsky, is at almost the same 

 distance, and its highest point rises about 1650 feet above the 

 sea. The existence of these deeply-indented valleys, and the 

 general configuration of the region, together with the direction 

 of the rivers, once more raises the question, whether the Northern 

 Urals, instead of being one winding mountain-chain, are not 

 rather a complex of several smaller chains having a north-easterly 

 direction, and arranged in khelons from south to north. It 

 would be most desirable to have a thorough orographical and 

 geological exploration undertaken in connection with the above 

 work, in order to settle one of the most important questions as 

 to the orography of the northern part of the great Russian plain. 



We notice in the last issue of the Izvestia of the Russian 

 Geographical Society (1885, iv. ) the following information com- 

 municated by Gen. Meyer with regard to the Transcaspian region. 

 The great ranges of mountains which be.ar the names of Great 

 and Little Balkhans, Kuren-dagh, and Kopet-dagh, and are 

 continued on the Persian frontier under the names of Aselma, 

 Deireghez, Kelat, and so on, diminish in height towards the 

 east, until they almost entirely disappear about .Sarakhs. The 

 chief range reaches, however, 6000 to 7000 feet, with separate 

 peaks 8000 feet high, and the upper parts of its northern slope 

 are covered with snow nearly all the year round. Notwithstand- 

 ing this, the sti cams which flow from these mountains into the 

 steppes are remarkably poor ; the slates, of which the slopes of 

 the mountains consist, giving the water a free passage into the 

 soil. The ancient inhabitants knew how to utilise this structure 

 of the soil by making their kerhes, or wells, connected togather 

 by underground galleries, which, after being dug thus for a mile 

 or two, yielded water for irrigation. These wells are now un- 

 fortunately mostly in a bad state, and few of them are of any 

 use. The much-talked-of dams on the Murghab and Ileri-rud 

 would not be of great use, as the high water in both rivei-s comes 

 in the spring, and not in the summer when the fields are most 

 in need of irrigation. The characteristics of the ground are 

 strikingly uniform, a terrace with a soil of diy cl.ay, intersected 

 by small ravines, in all cases spreading at the foot of the moun- 

 tains. The climate is veiy diy, but fevers are common, probably 

 in consequence of the very rapid variations of temperature from 

 a hot day to a cold night. At Askabad the yearly average tem- 

 perature is 24°'8C., the extremes being 3i°'5 and - 8°'i. Up 

 to a height of 40'.o feet the mountains are covered with a steppe 

 flora. Higher up they are mostly quite devoid of vegetation. 

 The artcha, reaching sometimes twenty-five feet, but never 

 growing in forests, is excellent as fuel, but cannot be employed 

 for building. A few willows, poplars, and rushes are sometimes 

 met with along the streams. In the spring the plains are all 

 covered with herbaceous vegetation, which is, however, unfit for 

 pasture. Grazing-grounds are met with only on s.andy ground 

 about Akhal. Further east, towards Merv, there are no pasture- 

 grounds, but trees are more numerous. When watered the soil 

 gives good crops : wheat, barley, the Khiva millet, lucerne ; 

 cotton and silkworm trees grow well on watered fields, as 

 also poplars, willows, plane-trees, and various kinds of brush- 

 wood. 



The following information as to the popul.ation of the Trans 

 Caspian region, communicated to the last issue of the Russiselu 

 Rc-L-'ue (18S5, iv.), by M. Seidlitz, may complete the above. 

 The aggregate population of the region is estimated at from 

 214,000 to 260,000 inhabitants, including Merv — that is, much 

 below previous estimates. The whole region being divided into 

 the districts of Akhal-tekke, Krasnovodsk, Manghishlak, Merv, 

 and Tejen, it appears that the population of the three former 

 districts numbers about 93,000, who live on agriculture in Akhal- 

 tekke and on cattle-breeding in Krasnovodsk and Manghishlak. 

 The agriculture of Akhal-tekke is considerable, the crops of 1S83 

 having yielded no less than 190,000 quarters of wheat, barley, 

 and SorghiDH cernuiim. The cattle in the three districts are 

 estimated at no less than 44,000 horses, 76,000 camels, .and 

 more than 600,000 sheep, to which nearly 130,000 horses, 

 193,000 camels, and one million and a half of sheep must be 

 added for Merv and Tejen. The culture of cotton and of the 

 silkworm in Akhal-tekke is also worthy of notice. The 



