1880.] | Geography and Travels. 387 
Saigon, Cochin China, that the natives of the country, especially 
in the more northern districts of Indo-China, have the great toe 
of the foot separated from the others like the thumb of the hand, 
so that it can be used, in a limited degree, in the same way. 
This peculiarity is mentioned in Chinese annals so far back as 
2300 B. C. 
Several Russian travelers have recently made important ex- 
plorations in Central Asia. M. Potanin has solved many im- 
portant questions connected with the geography of north-western 
Mongolia and made valuable natural history and ethnological col- 
lections. M. Severtsof has, by a recent exploration of the Pamir, 
made considerable additions to our knowledge of its physical and 
geographical features. Some of the peaks in the Pamir were 
found to be of great height—the Mustagh attaining an elevation 
of 25,800 feet. The snow line was found to be at 14,000 feet on 
the northern, and at 19,000 feet on the southern slope of the 
mountains. 
. Oshanin describes a visit to the upper part of the Muk-sou, 
a tributary of the Surkhab river. From a notice of his paper in 
Nature we learn that very high peaks inclose the deep valley 
of this stream, the bottom of which is 8000 feet above the sea 
level.. The Sandal peak is 25,000 feet high: These peaks are 
rivers. The length of this glacier is not less than twenty to 
twenty-five miles, and it is fed with several other glaciers of very 
large size. The oscillations in its length have a great importance, 
as sometimes it advances so far into the valley as completely to 
bar up the valley of the affluent of the Sel-su, the Baland-kiik ; 
this last thence forms a wide base which afterwards cuts through 
a passage in the ice and inundates the main valley, destroying 
the forests. The vegetation in the neighborhood of the glacier is 
very poor, whilst the lateral valley of the Baland-kiik is covered 
with rich forests and grass, though far higher than that of the 
Sel-su. M. Oshanin observed immense quantities of the Micro- 
plax interrupta Fieb., in the neighborhood of Altyn-mazar. This 
Oxycerenina, which is characteristic of the southern parts of the 
palzarctic region in Europe, reaches in Central Asia such 
heights as, in the Alps and Pyrenees, are occupied with represen- 
tations of the Arctic zone. 
