Sept. 21, 1882] 



NATURE 



5i. 



made, that the surface of the bed of glacial clay is onlv 85 centi- 

 metres below the present level of the lake, and 4 metres above 

 its bottom at Geneva. Hence the level of the lake at the time 

 in question must have been at least 3 metres above its present 

 level, for otherwise the Lower Rhone could not have existed. 

 As regards these estimates, it should be remembered that the 

 difference in time between the maximum and minimum levels of 

 the lake has to be reckoned by centuries, and that the volume 

 of rivers and lakes fed by Alpine snows varies with the 

 seasons." 



M. LESSAR, who made last year an interesting journey to 

 Saraks, has returned from a second journey in the same country, 

 as far as Herat, and publishes an account of it in the Golos. All 

 the route, from Askabad to Saraks, 185 miles, goes along the foot 

 of mountains through a completely flat country, which is usually 

 called Attek. This name, however, which signifies "the foot of 

 the mountains," is unknown in Persia and Afghanistan. That 

 part of this oasis -which was occupied by the Tekke-Turco- 

 msnSi was usually known as Akhal, whilst the south-eastern 

 part of the oasis was known as Arakadj. Only two places of 

 the Attek, Luftabad and Sbilghyan, are occupied by Persian 

 Sbiites, the remainder are Turcomans, having immigrated from 

 Merv after a bloody struggle with the former inhabitants, at the 

 beginning of this century. The population live mostly in clay- 

 houses, the number of felt tents diminishing very rapidly, and 

 the clay-houses which formerly were built within small earthen 

 fortifications, are now mostly erected outside of them. Water is 

 scarce in the Attek, the streams coming down from mountains 

 being few, and in the hands of Persians, who often take the 

 water for their fields. The population of the Attek, between 

 Askal ad and Saraks, is estimated by M. Lessar, at about 7000 

 Turcoman inhabitants. They carry on agriculture, and have 

 giod orchards, as well as good gardens in the neighbourhood of 

 the Persian settlements. But altogether they are very poor. 



•. A telegram, dated Isefjord, September 5, has been received 

 in Stockholm, via Tromso, from the Swedish Geological Expe- 

 dition dispatched to Spitzbergen, according to which snow 

 covered the island as early as August 30, and the members are 

 thus compelled to discontinue their researches, and intended to 

 sail for Beeren Island. The results of their labours were very 

 important. All was well with the Meteorological Expedition at 

 Smith's Observatory. 



Another message, similarly conveyed, but dated August 24, 

 has aUo been received from the Swedish Meteorological Expe- 

 dition, from which it appears that observations commenced at 

 Smith's Ob-ervatory on August 15, with the exception of the 

 magnetical, which were delayed until the 21st, in consequence of 

 the difficulty in firmly fixing the instruments. From August 15 

 to 21 the mean temperature and the readings of the barometer 

 were respectively as follows: — 15th, temp. + 3'' 15 O, bar. 748; 

 l6tb, temp. tl'j'C, bar. 749; 17th, temp. +3'9° C, bar. 

 749; 18th, temp. +3'6° C, bar. 752; 19th, temp. +3'7°C, 

 bar. 754; 20th, temp. +4'5° C, bar. 751 ; 21st, temp. +3'9° 

 C, bar. 752. At mid-day of the 16th snow fell, while pools 

 became covered with ice ; the minimum temperature was + o"l° C. 

 The weather had up to that date been dull with little rain. Wind 

 being generally from west to east, with an average force of I 

 (Beaufort's scale). There was little ice at sea, but the fact that 

 four smacks had been frozen in in Storfjord caused the members 

 some anxiety, as they were not quite prepared, as yet, to face 

 the winter. As these four vessels have since got away, this will 

 probably be the last message we shall obtain from the expedition 

 this year. 



Owing to the enormous quantities of drift-ice in the Kara 

 Sea the steamer A. E. Nordenskjold, bound for the Jenisei, has 

 put back to Vardo. Capt. Johannesen states that he attempted 

 four times — August 31, September I, 7, 8 — to penetrate Mato- 

 schkin Schar, and was compelled to turn lack. He went up 

 alongside Waigats Island into the Kara Strait, where he saw 

 ice as far as 54° long., and would have been frozen in here, if 

 the vessel had not possessed such powerful machinery. 



Herk Karl Pettersen, of Tromsoe, has given the name of 

 " Arktis " to a great land-mass which he maintains at one time 

 extended between Norway, Novaya Zemlya, and Spitzbergen. 

 His theory is based mainly on the existence of a submarine 

 plateau which recent Norwegian expeditions have found in the 

 re 'ion referred to. He also maintains that such a land-mass 



would account for the present geological and biological conditions 

 of Norway and Spitzbergen, and that it extended to the conclu- 

 sion of the Quaternary period. 



Parts 6 to 10 of the new edition of Balbi's " Allgemeine 

 Erdbeschreibung " have been sent us by Hartleben of Vienna. 

 The recasting of the work by Dr. Chavanne continues to be 

 thoroughly carried out, and the illustrations and maps are very 

 good. 



Dr. Otto Finsch, who for the last two and a half years has 

 been travelling in Polynesia and Australia, under the auspices of 

 the Berlin Academy of Sciences, may soon be expected home. 

 A large part of his rich collections in all departments of natural 

 science and ethnography, has already arrived in Berlin, and the 

 rest is on the way. He has visited the Sandwich Islands, the 

 Marshall group, where he stayed a long time, the Carolines and 

 New Britain, New Zealand, Australia, and Tasmania. He 

 stayed for a considerable time among the islands in Torres 

 Straits, as well as on the south coast of New Guinea. 



The permanent Commission of the " Association Geodesque 

 Enropeene," the object of which is to promote the measurement 

 of the earth by General Bayer's system, has been meeting at the 

 Hague under the presidency of the Spanish General Hanez. 

 Representatives of France, Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, 

 Switzerland, Norway, Roumania, and Holland attended the first 

 meeting, and were welcomed by the Dutch Foreign Minister, 

 Mr. Rochussen. Prof. Oppolzer (Austria), who is the secretary 

 of the deputation, gave the annual report of the Association. 

 Several other members presented communications upon the 

 geodesic work in their respective countries. 



An edition for 1S82 of the " Handbook of Jamaica," the first 

 issue of which we noticed at length, has been published. Several 

 important alterations and additions have been made. Stanford 

 is the London agent. 



The new number of the Deutsche Geo?raphischc Blatter of 

 the Bremen Geographical Society, contains some long communi- 

 cations from the Brothers Krause, who have been wintering at 

 Chilkoc t, in North-west America. They give details concerning 

 journeys which they made during the past winter and spring, in 

 which, among other things, they obtained much information 

 concerning the Chilkoot Indians. The number al>o contains an 

 interesting lecture by Prof. Karl Mobius, on the influence of 

 food supplies on the spread and migration of animals. Dr. Fr, 

 Hirth has two communications : — On the Walls of the Towns of 

 Kwang-tung, and on the Chinoe Coast from the boundary of 

 Annan to Tien-pai, from Chinese sources. 



In consequence of the very hot and dry weather experienced 

 in Russia during this summer, the water has become very shallow 

 in all rivers, so that navigation meets with great difficulties on 

 the Volga and Northern Dwina. 



We regret to learn from a telegram received at Copenhagen 

 from Vardoe that it is feared the Danish North Polar Expedition 

 under Lieut. Hovgaard is already ice-bound on the coast of 

 Novaya Zemlya. The Kara Sea was closed by ice in the 

 middle of August. It will be remembered that Lieut. Hovgaard 

 intended to make for Cape Chelzuskin, from which he was to 

 make an attempt to force his way northwards. 



UNWRITTEN HISTORY, AND HOW TO 

 READ IT 1 



IT has now for some years been the custom at the meetings of 

 the British Association for the Advancement of Science, for 

 one of its members to be deputed to deliver a lecture, not to his 

 fellow-members, for whom in the ordinary programme an amply 

 sufficient supply of mental food has been provided, 1 - but to the 

 operative classes, in the town where the annual meeting happens 

 to be held. Such a cu-tom has much to commend it, for all alike 

 — the rich and the poor, the worker with the head and the 

 worker with the hand— are interested in the advancement of 

 that science, or "natural knowledge," for the promotion of 

 which this association, like its elder brother the Royal Society, 

 was founded. 



An occasion like the present, moreover, gives a good 



1 A lecture to the working classes, delivered at the meeting of the British 

 Association f >r the advancement of science, held at Southampton, August, 

 1882, by John Evans, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., &c. Revised by the Author. 



