268 The American Naturalist. [March, 
A recent issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical So- 
ciety, gives the heights of some of the principal summits of New 
Guinea. Mount Victoria, ascended by Sir W. Macgregor on the 
11th of June, 1889, is 13,121 feet hig; Mt. Albert Edward, 12,500 ; 
Mt. Scratchley, 12,000; Mt. Knutsford, 11,157; Mt. Douglas, 11,- 
796 ; Mt. Griffiths, 11,000; and Mts. MclIlwraith and Morehead, ten 
to eleven thousand feet. 

Europe.—Cyprus.—The British governor of Cyprus, Sir R. Bid- a 
dulph, gives in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society an , 
interesting account of that recent acquisition of the British Empire. 
The peculiar form of the island is due to the existence of two ranges 
of mountains ; the one long and narrow, hugging the northern shore a 
at a distance of only about two miles, and the other broader and 
shorter, placed somewhat to the westward of the former, and consider- 
ably to the south. The space between these two ranges is occupied by 
a broad fertile plain known as the Mesaorea, The northern range 
terminates westward at Cape Kormakiti, and eastward at Cape San 
Andrea. One of its highest peaks, Kornos, is 3105 feet, An abun- 
dant stream, issuing at a height of 870 feet on the southern side, waters 
the thriving village of Kythrea, and another, issuing on the northern 
slope, waters the two flourishing villages of Lapithos and Caravas. The 
southern range is not only more extensive than the northern, but its 
summits are loftier. The eastern point of this range is the Mountain 
of the Holy Cross, crowned by the monastery of Santa Croce, and 
conspicuous from the harbor of Famagusta. This peak is less than 
three thousand feet, but Mt. Machera to the westward is 4674; while 
Mt. Adelphe, still further to the west, is 5305 feet, aud the culminating 
point, Mt. Troonos, still more to the west, is 6406 feet. This extensive 
mountain area, which in some places is more than twenty miles wide, 
was once covered with forest, but the greater part of this has been cut 
down, to the great detriment of the fertility of the island, so that most 
of the woods now remaining are west of the summit of Mt. Troodos, in 
the western and widest portion of the range. A few mouffion still exist 
in the wildest parts of these mouutains, Most of the rivers flow only 
after the rains. The largest are the Pediæus, which rises on the 
northern slope of Mt. Machera, and passes by the capital, Nicosia, and 
the Idalia, which has its sources on the eastern slopes of the same 
mountain, Both of these fall into the sea near the ruins of the ancient 
town of Salamis, and not far from Fa ta. Another stream, rising 
on the slopes of Mt. Adelphe, enters the sea on the western shore, 
near the populous village of Morrphou. 


