636 7 General Notes. [September, © 
the ocean. Col. Prejevalsky, an account of whose last journey 
to the Lob-Nor was given in the Natruratisr for August, writes 
from St. Petersburg (London Academy, June 29th), that he is 
obliged, on account of his health, to take a complete rest until 
December next, when he expects to start for Port Zaizan, 
whence he will depart for Hami and Sha-chan, en route for Tibet. 
Upon his return, probably at the end of 1880, he will set to work 
on the materials he has collected. 
Dr. Behm, in his Monatsbericht (July Mittheilungen), states 
that included in his collections is the skin o ies of wild 
horse named Tarpan, which dwells in the sandy deserts of 
_ Dsungaria, together with (zeden) the Kulan (Asinus kiang) and 
the Djigetai (Asinus hemionus). This specimen was slain by 
the Kirgise at Gutchen. e London Atheneum is in- 
formed that the recent telegraphic determinations of longitude 
executed by the Indian Survey Department have resulted in the 
geodetical connection of Madras Observatory, the pivot on 
which the whole fabric of Indian triangulation rests, with 
Aden and Suez, and hence with Greenwich. The result of this 
measurement is to establish a new value for Madras Observatory 
(80° 14’ 51” E. of Greenwich), which will thus affect all Indian 
meridians and which will have, theoretically, the effect of moving 
India 2000 feet or so further from England. It is hoped to estab- 
lish further geodetical connection with Australia, and ultimately 
that San Francisco on the one side, and the Russian stations on 
the Pacific on the other, may be brought into connection with 
Europe. Dr. Van der Horck, who delivered an address before 
the American Geographical Society, in 1876, on the results of an 
expedition made by him to Lapland, 1874-5, has now gone to 
Hong Kong on a mission entrusted to him by the German gov- 
ernment and the Berlin Geographical Society. He is to organize an 
expedition to traverse the whole of the Eastern Asiatic coast, the 
islands especially; then crossing at Behring’s Straits to follow 
down the western coast of America to Oregon. The objects of his 
journey are scientific investigations, coast surveys, deep sea dredg- 
ings, geological, zodlogical and botanical researches, and, above all, 
anthropological studies concerning the migration of men from 
Asia to America, and to see if remains of an ancient migratory 
people cannot be found on the isolated groups of islands of these 
regions. The means at the disposal of the expedition will be 
liberal, and the time unlimited, and it is expected that the work of 
the expedition will consume three or four years. (Wew York Tri- 
_ ġune)——-Last week we spoke of the generosity of the United States 
Government in the distribution of the publication of their admir- 
able surveys. We regret to see, from a speech in the House ot 
epresentatives by the Hon. O. R. Singleton, that the usefulness _ 
Dr. Hayden’s surveys threatens to be seriously crippled from 
of funds. The appropriation for this survey in 1867, was 
