634 General Notes. 
THE GERMAN PopuLation.—M. Ch. Grad (Revue Scientifique, 
April 14th, 1888), gives the number of German-speaking people 
within Germany itself at 41,512,000, and the entire German-speak- 
ing population of Europe at 60,000,000. To make up this total 
we have 8,000,000 in Austro-Hungary, 1,900,000 Swiss, 860,000 
Russian Germans (625,000 of whom are Jews), 4,270,000 Hollan- 
ders and Luxemburgers, 3,400,000 Flemings (300,000 of whom 
are in France), and 30,000 Germans resident in Belgium. The 
number of Germans in Europe has doubled since 1820, in spite of 
the emigration. The 3,722,000 non-German speaking individuals 
enumerated at the last census by no means represents the actual 
extent of the Slavic element, since the whole course of the history 
in the provinces east of the Elbe has been one of Germanization of 
an originally Slavic population. 
THORODDSEN’S EXPLORATIONS IN IcELAND.—M. Thoroddsen 
has contributed to Petermann’s Mitteilungen an account of his 
exploration of the northwestern peninsula of Iceland in 1886. This 
part of Iceland forms a table land, averaging rather more than 
2,000 feet in height and broken up by fjords the sides of which are 
almost perpendicular. Nearly every fjord has distinct terraces 
representing ancient coast lines, now high above the sea. nks 
of shells identical with those now living in the sea, and skeletons 
of wha! and walrus have been discovered in these terraces. The 
A Discovery IN THE ARCTIC Ocran,—According to the 
organ of the Geographical Society of Stockholm, Captain Johanne- 
sen last summer su in reaching an island, situated to the 
east of Spitzbergen, in 80°10 N. Latitude, and 32°3’ E. Longitude. 
This island is a table-land rising to 2,100 feet, and is su 
to be the same as Hvide O, seen by Captain Kjeldsen, and also by 
Captain Sorensen on August 28th, 1884. This discovery confirms 
the existence of an archipelago extending from Spitzbergen to 
Franz Josef Land, preventing the ice from cia into the 
ts Sea, and thus having a great influence over the climate 
Europe. 
