740 EEPOBT — 1888. 



equalities on the bottom, flows on to the shore, and tends to accumulate there, 

 flowing back as an undercurrent, and so giving a deeper layer of warm water or a 

 wider zone of mixture near the land. The effect of a bank is different : the colder 

 mass of water runs up the slope, reducing the thickness of the warm layer over 

 the bank and maintaining a lower temperature on the other side. 



The chief conclusion arrived at is that the temperature of sea-water depends 

 little on local air-temperature, but mainly on the configuration of the sea-bottom 

 and the direction of the currents caused by tide and wind. The observations on 

 salinity bear out these conclusions. 



6. Perspective Maps and Common Maps. 

 By Arthur W. Clatden, M.A., F.G.S. 



The author called attention to the inaccuracy essential to all maps, and to the 

 ereat distortion which may occur in maps of large areas like those of continents or 

 oceans. Notice was especially drawn to the comparative uselessness of the scale 

 of miles usually attached to such maps. It was suggested that for elementary 

 educational purposes such maps could be advantageously replaced by others drawn 

 in true perspective, as a better notion would thereby be given of the true figure of 

 xhe earth and the relative proportions of its chief features. 



7. ' Little Russia.'^ By E. Delmar Morgan, F.B.G.S. 



The region known as ' Little Russia 'has no definite landmarks ; some place its 

 centre at Kharkof, others at Poltava, but at these cities I was referred to Kief, and at 

 Kief to Luof, or Lemberg, in Austrian Galicia, if I wished to acquaint myself with 

 the so-called Little Russian movement. Anyone wishing to study the country 

 thoroughly should visit all these places, make some stay in the country, and read 

 the voluminous literature on the subject. My claim to be considered an authority 

 rests only on a few weeks passed this summer in Kharkof, Poltava, and Kief, and 

 short excursions in each of those provinces. 



Kharkof is a rising city, a Russian Chicago, with a university, founded about 

 eighty years ago, and a select literary circle. The prevailing feeling at Kharkof is that 

 Moscow must be considered as the mother of Slav nationalities, however much like a 

 stepmother she may behave. This is attributable to the large admixture of great 

 Russians in the population and the material prosperity everywhere apparent. At 

 Kiiarkof, Little Russians gradually lose their distinctive characteristics and 

 language. 



At Kharkof there is a summer theatre at which national plays are acted in the 

 Little Russian language, every attention being paid to the exact reproduction of 

 the dress, customs, &c., of this people. From Kharkof I made an expedition to the 

 monastery of ' Sviatiye Gori,' the ' Holy Hills,' on the right bank of the Donets. I 

 reached it on the anniversary of its first abbot, Arsenius, and found a great number 

 of pilgrims assembled there from various parts of Russia. This monastery ranks 

 next to the Pecherski Lavri of Kief in importance in southern Russia. The general 

 appearance of the country is that of a cultivated boundless plain, with occasional 

 mounds or kurghans rising above the surface to a height of 50 or 60 feet. These 

 are the burial-places of the earUer nomadic inhabitants, according to recent 

 investigations. 



Poltava, my next halting-place, is situated on heights overlooking the Vorsklo. 

 Notwithstanding its dreary and somewhat dilapidated appearance it is the heart of 

 Little Russia, and its associations carry one back to the most stirring events in the 

 history of that nationality. I made an excursion from Poltava to Count Kochubey's 

 estate and thence to Oposhnia, where the home industries, especially pottery, leather- 

 dressing, &c., are important. The whole of Poltava and its neighbouring pro- 

 vinces are overrun by Jews, much to the injury of the inhabitants. On the way to 



' Published in'extenso in the Scoltish Geographical Magazine, Oct. 1888. 



