6i8 The American Nahiralist. [July, 
others seem to be disappearing from the dryness of the climate. The 
region Sayan, watered by the sources of the Yenesei and its affluents, 
has no trace of a plateau, but is an Alpine country, a mountainous 
crest, with two rapid slopes. 
E. Dulio's Journey from Shoa to Assab.—" Notes of a * 
Journey from Shoa to Assab," by Kmilio Dulio {Cosmos, Vol. IX., 
1888), contains much valuable information upon the habits of the 
Abyssinians. While King Menelik was absent during his campaign 
against Harar, the news that he was dead was sjjread among the Mus- 
sulman population, whereupon the Azag Volde Tadik, Governor of 
the country during the King's absence, having heard of the conquest 
of Harar and the King's safety, imposed upon every Mussulman the 
payment of a heavy tascar, — i.e., of funeral expenses for the King 
they had believed dead. The region of Bahadu Afar is still inde- 
pendent of Shoa. Some of the Afar women are of a most splendid 
■type, while many of the men are, on the contrary, of feminine appear- 
ance. The men wear a long sash twisted two or three times round 
the body, and secured at the waist with the poignard ; the women 
have a single piece of cotton from waist to ankle, secured upon the 
the girl takes it entirely off with a graceful and tenijjting smile, and 
readjusts it in the presence of male si)ectators. Married women wear 
for their princi])al adornment two anklets so heavy as to render their 
gait ungraceful. These anklets are the gift of the spouse, are secured 
by hammering on the occasion of marriage, and are not taken off 
unless the husband dies first. 
South of Shoa the party traversed the plain of Cussurtu, visited the 
hot springs of Tiho, the mountain Aulia-hali, and the valleys of 
Galatu and Erole. Then descending into the valley of the Hawash, 
they came to the smaller branch of the river, and found it dry save 
here and there a stagnant puddle. Crossing the Hawash, the party 
reached Gambo-corria, a residence of the Sultan of Aussa. Sr. Dulio 
believes that the main Hawa.sh can be made a means of communication 
The Loess of Central Asia. — According to M. A. Krassnow, 
the Loess of the Thian-Chan is caused by tlie action of the rains upon 
the glacial mud, modified by the dryness of the atmosphere. M- 
Krassnow has discovered glaciers upon the upper courses of the rivers 
Zir-tass and Quelu. In the glacial period the glaciers of this region 
must have been almost equal to those of Europe, as the ice reached to 
