Geography and Travel. 441 
and also known as Sakais and Samangs. The Sakai has soft black 
skin and wool; the Samang has also a very black skin, but the 
hair is coarse and straight, and the skin is rough. ey wear no 
clothes, are clever in snaring fish and game, and use bows and 
arrows as well as blow-pipes for weapons. 
Kurpistay.—M. N. Binder recently described his travels in 
Kurdistan before the French Geographical Society. The name 
Kurdistan is given by the Turks to a collection of villages in the 
mountainous district separating Persia from Turkey, between 34° 
and 40° N. Latitude and 38° and 46° E. Longitude. Lakes Ur- 
miah and Van are situated in the centre of immense table lands, 
the former, on account of its small depth and the extreme density 
of its waters, which are six times more saline than sea-water, does 
not seem to have a great future before it, but the latter lake offers 
many advantages. M. N. Binder traced the history of the Kurds, 
and referred to the current tradition that they have French blood 
in their veins. The variety of religions is the cause of infinite 
variety among the tribes. The sedentary and nomadic Kurds differ 
greatly in occupation and mode of life. The Subbas are a stran 
sect, with a religion composed of a mixture of gnostic and Chris- 
as 
tian ideas. 
Tae New SIBERIAN Isianps.—A recent number of Peter- 
mann’s Mitteilungen contains a map of the new Siberian islands, 
giving the routes of Dr. Bunge, Baron Toll, Captain de Long, 
N ordenskiéld, etc. The principal islands are Ostrow Blischnij, 
Kotelnoi, Faddejewskoi, and East New Siberia. 
North of these lie Bennett Land and Sannikow. Remains of 
the mammoth, narwhal (probably two species), horse, musk-ox, 
three kinds of deer, hare and seal were found upon the island of 
Liachof (Ostrow Blischnij). 
: THE Hrrrires.—It is probable that the renowned Hittite city 
Carchemish, is to be sought at the site of Jerablas, from which the 
identical in shape and position with that worn by the Chinese. 
he wearers of the pig-tail have Mongolian countenances, and it 
seems probable that a Mongolian race had obtained the supremacy 
in some of the Hittite cities, 
e Nige b rty 
mako) on July lst, and twelve days later reached Diafarabu. Below 
