eM See E ee: fa, Rg Oe Se eee ae ee TOMES eee ans ene ene ne ere ae a i 
1876.] Geography and Exploration. 119 
either covered by ice and snow or by an exceedingly scanty moss veg- 
etation, it is perhaps the place here to declare that this by no means is 
the case. On the contrary, we saw, during our passage up the Jenisei, 
snow only at one place, a deep valley cleft of some fathoms’ extent, and 
the vegetation, especially on the islands which are overflowed during the 
spring floods, was remarkable for a luxuriance to which I had seldom 
before seen anything corresponding. 
“The fertility of the soil and the immeasurable extent of the meadow 
land, and the richness of the grass upon it, had already called forth 
from one of our hunters, a middle-aged man, who is owner of a little 
patch of land between the fells in Northern Norway, acry of envy of the 
splendid land our Lord had given ‘the Russian, and of astonishment 
that no creature pastured, no scythe mowed the grass. Daily and hourly 
we heard the same cry repeated, though in yet louder tone, when we 
some weeks later came to the lofty old forests between Jeniseisk and 
Turuchansk, or to the nearly uninhabited plains on the other side of 
Krasnojarsk, covered with deep tschornosem (black earth), in fertility 
certainly comparable to the best parts of Scania, in extent exceeding the 
whole of the Scandinavian peninsula. This direct expression of opinion `- 
by a veritable if unlearned agriculturist may perhaps not be without 
interest in judging of the future of Siberia.” 
Tue Swepisn Exrepition to Novaya Zemiya. — In our last 
number we gave some account of Nordenskiéld’s expedition. His ship, 
the Préven, which he placed under the command of Dr. Kjellman, has 
returned to Norway. Nature reports that the party found an abundance 
of marine vegetation in the Kara Sea, which has been hitherto thought 
to be remarkably destitute of vegetable life. “ We have,’ the letter to 
the Stockholm daily paper concludes, “ during this summer sailed over 
known and unknown seas more than six thousand (English) miles; we 
have visited regions whither expeditions for more than three hundred 
years have attempted in vain to come; we have made rich collections in 
all departments of natural science.” Nordenskiöld, who is the distin- 
guished professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Stockholm, reached 
St. Petersburg on the 17th of November, having journeyed overland 
from the mouth of the Jenisei River. An account of his journey appears 
in Nature for December 2d. 
Tae Kysare Race. — An exhaustive monograph of this people (La 
Kybalie et les Coutumes Kabyles), in three large octavo volumes, by 
: A. Hanoteau and A. Letourneau, has been noticed in successive 
humbers of the Revue Scientifique. These Kybales are the descendants 
of the ancient Numidians, and their country forms a part of Algeria, 
Pictures or YUNNAN. — Under this title F. Garnier has published 
a work on this inland province of China, abstracts of which, with fine 
views of the striking scenery of the country and the people, are appear- 
ing in Globus, a weekly German journal of travel. 
