1880. | Geography and Travels. 307 
the Isle of Man in the Pacific ocean and then doubting its exis- 
tence, and suggesting it may be a cape of the same name in 
Borneo!! Accurate measurements made by the Russian 
authorities in the ports of the Baltic, have undoubtedly proved 
that the level of the sea at Cronstadt is, by nearly two feet, higher 
than at Reval, and that the height decreases regularly from north 
to south; this conclusion being fully Supported by Prussian meas- 
urements at Memel and at Kiel. The Revue de Geographie has 
recently published some statistics of the census of Japan. Only 
five cities have over 100,000 population, viz: Tokio 595,905, 
Ohosaka 271,292, Kioto 238,603, Nagava 125,195 and Kanazava 
109,850. Yokohama has only 64,602 inhabitants, Nagasaki 
29,660 and Hakodate 28,800. In a communication to the Lon- 
don Academy (January 24, 1880) upon the archeology of South- 
ern Italy, M. Lenormant well says, that “geographers have not 
hitherto paid sufficient attention to the general fact of the dis- 
placement of the centers of population throughout this region at 
the beginning of the middle ages. The Greek cities were all 
placed on the sea shore, or at a very short distance from it, in 
positions favorable to traffic by sea, but ill adapted for purposes 
of defence. During the centuries when Saracen corsairs were 
masters of Sicily, and periodically ravaged the coasts of Southern 
Italy, these positions became untenable, exposed as they were to 
devastation of every kind. The inhabitants abandoned them and 
withdrew some five or six miles from the sea, leaving the coast 
absolutely deserted.” “ Now, since security has returned to the 
coast, thanks to the suppression of piracy in Barbary, which con- 
tinued to desolate these regions until the taking of Algiers by the 
French, a precisely opposite movement is in progress. The first 
step was to plant the sea-board and cultivate it afresh without 
leaving the inland districts. Next, within the last few years, the rail- 
way has been constructed which skirts the Ionian sea. Now the- 
the journ e Dutch edition will first appear, but it will 
doubtless be translated into one at least of the more widely 
known languages.——The French Geographical Society are con- 
sidering the practicability of adopting some uniform system 
of spelling in their publications, thus quickly imitating the — 
similar resolution of the Royal Geographical Society. —— 
The New York State Survey has ascertained that in a dis-  — 
