1 882.] Microscopy. 429 



Geographical Notes. — The French Scientific Expedition on 

 board the Travailleur, and of which M. Milne- Edwards was the 

 head, has been recently exploring the western portion of the Med- 

 iterranean. The seas off the coasts of Provence and Corsica were 

 carefully explored to a depth of over 8700 feet, and after dredging 

 between Spain and the Balearic Islands, the Travailleur put into 

 Tangier, which was the point of departure for the second part of 

 the voyage in the Atlantic Ocean. The numerous soundings and 

 dredgings off the coast of Portugal produced some remarkable re- 

 sults, as they revealed the presence, at a depth of from 4900 to 

 5900 feet, of large fishes of the shark family which exist there in 

 large numbers without ever coming to the surface. In returning 

 to Rochefort, the greatest depth which has ever been found in the 

 seas of Europe, was obtained by the dredge in 44 48' 30" N. 

 [at, 4 40' 15" W., viz., 16,733 f" eet - A g reat number of foram- 

 inifera and radiolaria, several Crustacea and an annelid were found 

 in the mud here brought up by the dredge. As regards the 

 Mediterranean, the Travailleur expedition has proved that this 

 sea has no fauna of its own, this want being supplied by immi- 

 gration from the Atlantic Ocean. 



The Russian scientific expedition to the mouth of the Obi, has 

 determined a number of positions astronomically. The eastern 

 coast line of the gulf has been found to be placed from twenty to 

 twenty-five kilometers too far to the east on the maps. If a simi- 

 lar correction is to be applied to the west coast, it will make the 

 Yamal peninsula very narrow. 



It is estimated that a third of Asia and a thirtieth part of Eu- 

 rope still remains to be explored. 



Colonel Prejevalsky is actively engaged on his great work on 

 Tibet and China, the first volume of which will be published in 

 May with a map. 



Nature notices the Journal of the Geographical Society of 

 Tokio. It is printed wholly in the Japanese characters. It con- 

 tains a paper on Saghalin and the Kurile Islands, and one on the 

 historical geography of Japan. 



MICROSCOPY.' 

 . The New Trichinoscope.— So long as the detection of trich- 

 was in the flesh of animals used for food was solely a scientific 

 curiosity and sanitary precaution, it naturally devolved upon, 

 scientific students to whose instruments and skill it presented 

 no difficulties whatever ; but when by depreciating, to a great ex- 

 tent falsely, the market value of a staple article of food, and inter- 



'This department is edited by Dr. R. H. Ward, Troy, N. Y. 



