NOTES AND QUERIES. 23 



probably having relation to the supply of food. In the map 

 alluded to the isothermal line of 59° is drawn. It separates 

 England and Ireland from Scotland, passes north of the Gulf 

 of Bothnia, through the town of Archangel, extends nearly 

 straight across Eussia and Western Siberia, but east of the 

 valley of the Yenesay again rises until it almost reaches the 

 coast near the delta of the Lena. Farther east in Siberia it 

 plunges south again, much more rapidly than it rose in Western 

 Europe, and passing south of Kamtschatka it embraces the 

 Kurile Islands in the latitude of the Pyrenees. 



This line is almost exactly parallel with what we know of 

 the southern breeding ranges of the various arctic birds which 

 have been alluded to, thus conclusively proving that Scotland 

 not only seems to be, but actually is, within the Arctic Kegions 

 during the month of July. . There is therefore no reason for 

 attempting to explain by any other causes than the ascertained 

 climatic cause the interesting fact that British ornithologists are 

 able to study the breeding habits of so many birds which their 

 continental fellow students can only observe by travelling five 

 hundred miles or more farther north. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



The Essex Field Club. — It is announced that the ' Transactions ' and 

 'Proceedings' of the Essex Field Club are henceforth to appear in the 

 form of a monthly periodical entitled 'The Essex NaturaHst.' This new 

 departure in tlie policy of local Societies has been adopted from a conviction 

 that if local Societies are to flourish and do useful work it is necessary to 

 devise some means of " lieeping touch " with their members, and encouraging 

 inter-communication among them. We understand that the first number 

 of the ' Essex Naturalist ' will appear in January, and will be conducted 

 by Mr. W. Cole, who has edited the publications of the Club since its 

 establishment seven years ago. 



MAMMALIA. 



The Fur Trade of London. — London is the great market for furs and 

 skins of the world, and not St. Petersburg or Nijui-Novgorod, or any of the 

 great cities of Northern or Western Europe, or Canada, as many imagine. 

 To our metropolis come the fur merchants of every part of Europe, Asia, and 



