504 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IV., No. 95. 



station at Sagastyr (mouth of the Lena) were ended, 

 and the greater number of the party expected to re- 

 turn this autumn. Only Dr. Bunge staid behind, 

 on account of an entire mammoth, which has been 

 known for some years to exist not far from Sagastyr, 

 and which he was eager to secure. This work, on 

 account of the frozen soil, proved to be a rather 

 arduous task, and he is not expected back until next 

 winter. Leaving seven men of his party at Zaidam, 

 Prjevalski has started for the sources of the Yellow 

 River. He was expected to return to Zaidam in Au- 

 gust. According to the latest news, Potanin was 

 about to start from Peking, going to Kukuchoto, not 

 by the ordinary road already visited by Europeans, 

 but by Utae. This place is interesting on account 

 of a Buddhist monastery, a famous place for pilgrim- 

 ages, and on account of the proximity of mountains 

 said by the Chinese to be ten thousand feet high. The 

 secretary also mentioned the ethnographical travels of 

 three members, — Istourine, who visited Archangel; 

 and Houetz and Wolter, who travelled among the 

 Letto-Lithuanian population of the government of 

 Wilna, Witebsk, and Kowno. 



This was followed by a communication on a partial 

 ascent of the Elborus by the mining engineer, Iwanof, 

 well known for his travels in the Pamir in 1883. The 

 natives are convinced that the ascent is impossible ; 

 yet the south-eastern summit was ascended in 1869 

 by Freshfield, Moore, and Tucker; the north-western, 

 by G rover, Gardiner, etc., in 1874 ; and the western, by 

 Dechy in 1884. Unfortunately these travellers were 

 not scientific men. Russian travellers were less for- 

 tunate in their attempts, but their work was more 

 useful to science ; for example, that of Muschketone 

 who explored the glaciers on the south-east of the 

 mountains. Iwanof could not ascend farther than 

 15,700 feet, being prevented by a severe snow-storm. 

 He was obliged to go with his travelling companion 

 only above 13,000 feet, their native porters refus- 

 ing to go farther, notwithstanding the steepest slopes 

 were below; the gradient from that place upward 

 being very easy, mostly 10° and below. At nearly 

 15,0u0 feet, before the snow-storm was reached, the 

 temperature was rather high, — 1$° C. Iwanof thinks, 

 that, though access from other directions may be easy, 

 the Elborus will be ascended from the south-east, as 

 on that side there is a considerable population to an 

 elevation of more than 8,000 feet; and thus supplies, 

 porters, etc., may easily be obtained, and the great 

 drawback of mountain travelling in the Caucasus 

 avoided. He mentions especially the assistance which 

 can be obtained here from a native gentleman, Prince 

 Ismael Uruskief, through his practical knowledge 

 of the mountains. 



— The Oil and colour-man's journal for October con- 

 tains an interesting article on the Scottish mineral- 

 oil trade. It is only about thirty years since James 

 Young began his famous Bathgate oil-works, and 

 only about twenty since the attempt was first made 

 to start shale distilling-works. Now the amount of 

 oil shale brought to the surface daily is about 5,000 

 tons. The whole of that is distilled for the produc- 

 tion of solid paraffine, paraffine-oil, and collateral 



products yielding at the rate of 50,000,000 gallons of 

 crude oil and 14,000 tons of sulphate of ammonia per 

 annum. From that vast quantity of crude oil there 

 are prepared about 500,000 barrels (each containing 

 40 gallons) of burning-oil, 30,000 tons (or upwards 

 of 800,000 gallons) of lubricating-oil, and 19,000 tons 

 of solid paraffine. Not less than £2,000,000 has been 

 invested in the Scottish oil-works, most of which 

 yields a handsome return. The annual value of the 

 trade is now about £1,750,000, and the number of 

 persons who directly get their living by the industry 

 cannot be fewer than 9,500. The enormous Ameri- 

 can oil trade, however, makes skilful working a 

 necessity to the Scotch. Continuous distillation has 

 been the object in view now for many years, and 

 this has at last been obtained through the process 

 patented by Mr. Horman M. Henderson of the Brox- 

 burn oil company, Which has now been in operation 

 more than a year. Under this process the stills are 

 found to work steadily, continuously, and uniformly. 

 Impurities and heavy oil never accumulate, and the 

 quality of the products is improved. The purified 

 once-run oil is fractionated continuously in a con- 

 nected series of three cylindrical stills. 



— The producers of petroleum on the western shore 

 of the Caspian Sea, it is said, have been seriously 

 contemplating laying a pipe-line entirely across Per- 

 sia to the Persian Gulf. If this were done, they 

 claim that they would have the Asiatic market to 

 themselves. This pipe-line would have to be some- 

 thing more than seven hundred miles long to reach 

 the coast ; and as it would for a long distance pass 

 through a territory of savage Kurds, and other no- 

 madic tribes, it is feared that it could not easily be 

 kept in operation. 



— The municipality of Issoudun has resolved to 

 erect a monument to Nicholas Leblanc, the pioneer 

 in the artificial soda industry. A hundred years ago 

 the French government consulted the academy as 

 to the best means of replacing the soda-supply, for 

 which they had been dependent on Spain; and a 

 prize of twelve thousand francs was offered to the 

 inventor of a successful process for extracting the 

 alkali from sea-salt. When Leblanc had fulfilled 

 the conditions of the prize, the academy had ceased 

 to exist: the inventor was obliged to renounce his 

 rights, to close his factory, and to live in the ex- 

 treme of penury, until finally he committed suicide. 



— The council of the re-organized Archaeological 

 institute of America met in New York, Nov. 20, and 

 elected Prof. C. E. Norton of Cambridge, president; 

 Prof. H. Drissler of New York, vice-president; Mr. 

 George Wiggles worth of Boston, treasurer; and Dr. 

 Frothingham of Baltimore, secretary. 



— Mr. F. de la Touche, of the geological survey of 

 India, has written a report on the Langrin coalfield, 

 which is situated in the south-west Khasia hills, 

 Assam. Mr. de la Touche says the coal-bearing rocks 

 are exposed over an area of nearly eighty miles, and 

 he thinks there is a large amount of coal available 

 within a short distance of the plains. Limestone is 

 also to be found in many parts of the country, and, 



