Notices respecting New Books. 367 



The results obtained by MM. Nies and Winkelruann on bis- 

 muth will serve to illustrate the degree of approximation of 

 these limiting values. 



A piece of bismuth, when allied with a platinum block 

 weighing 21*76 grammes, sank ; and another piece, weighing 

 35 *4 grammes, floated; which is equivalent to stating that the 

 specific gravity of the melting bismuth is between 10*28 and 

 10*12. 



They arrive at the general result that not one of the eight 

 metals they examined will justify the assertion that "bodies 

 contract on becoming solid;" but the experiments rather 

 favour the view that metals when solid, at a temperature close 

 upon their melting-points, are less dense than when molten. 



Without accepting MM. Nies and "Winkelmann's results 

 as final, we do not consider them to be opposed to our own, 

 as theirs relate solely to the ratio of the densities of the solid 

 and liquid metals at as nearly as possible the same tempera- 

 ture, while our experiments were undertaken with a view to 

 determine the actual density of a metal at the lowest tempera- 

 ture at which it is perfectly liquid. 



XL VI. Notices respecting New Boohs. 



Geology of tJie Environs of Tokio. 

 By Prof. David BbIuxs, Ph.D., 2I.D. Tokio : 1881. 

 npHE present memoir is one (Xo. 1) of a series published by the 

 -*• University of Tokio, and contains a description of the Geology 

 of the Environs of Tokio, which are part of an extensive plain, the 

 largest in the Japanese Empire, everywhere constructed on the 

 same plan, and showing essentially the same formations, which 

 consist of alluvial, diluvial, and Tertiary deposits ; the bounding 

 hills and mountains, which form a vast quadrant, are composed of 

 Palasozoic and various crystalline rocks. 



The plain or plateau of Tokio, although not much elevated, is 

 intersected by deep cuttings of river-valleys and ravines with much 

 alluvial matter ; from which it occurs that all the diluvial parts of 

 the plain appear as isles or peninsulas, divided from one ano- 

 ther by those river- valleys and side valleys down to the most 

 minute undulations of the ground. This division of the surface 

 of the plain is of the highest importance for agriculture — the rice- 

 fields being in most instances confined to the lower or alluvial 

 tracts, whilst on the higher level we find the cereals, many kinds 

 of beans, the plantations of tea, of the mulberry-tree, and most of 

 the small forests. According to the author, this widely spread 

 plateau must have been deposited by the sea and under its surface, 

 and therefore must have risen above the level of the sea since the 

 diluvial epoch in which it was formed ; for it is to be noticed that 

 in no part of it is there any trace of glacial deposits or of glacial 

 action. 



