76 The Australasian Scientific Magazine* [Sept. 1, 1885. 
the Irtisch there are 1,200,000 head of cattle. There are a great many 
manufactures in the country, and they supply nearly the whole of Western 
Siberia. Upon the other hand, the lower course of these two rivers offers 
a striking contrast. Even as far up as 700 miles from its mouth the Obi 
is from one to two miles broad, and towards the mouth itself it is as much 
as thirty miles across. The banks become more and more thinly inhabited, 
vast marshy plains extending out towards the sea, inhabited by a few nomad 
tribes. The climate in the region is very severe, and during the winter, 
which lasts from September until May, the snow storms are terrible in their 
effects. The ice does not generally break up before the latter part of June, 
and the summer is cold and rainy. The sedentary part of the population 
earn their living by fishing and shooting, and in the vicinity of Tomsk and 
Tobolsk the fish, which is taken in large quantities, is frozen and sent off 
to Russia. The inhabitants have for a long period done very well with the 
game which they have killed, but of late years such a vast area of forest 
has been cleared that game of all kinds is much less abundant than it was. 
At Tobolsk the women make fur coats and pelisses, besides gloves made 
of reindeer and goat skins. The trade in squirrel skins is very large also. 
Most of the animals are snared, a gun being rarely used, and the nomad 
tribes are principally engaged in their pursuit, the Russian inhabitants 
preferring to dress the furs and sell them. Obdorsk, which has a popula- 
tion of 500, and is situated at the extreme limit of the region which is 
inhabited, is celebrated for its fur trade, the fair held there every December 
attracting dealers from all parts of Siberia, Archangel, and the North of 
Russia generally, who bring with them corn, manufactured goods, and 
spirits of wine, which they give in exchange. No exact figures are forth- 
coming as to the number of skins sold, but they may be estimated approxi- 
mately at 500,000 squirrel skins, 10,000 white fox, and 15,000 ordinary 
fox skins, while Obdorsk itself supplies as many as 12,000 reindeer hides 
and as many fox skins. 
The committee of the International Ornithological Society, appointed 
at the Congress held in Vienna, have forwarded a communication to the 
Imperial Academy of Science in Vienna, requesting that they will arrange 
for the appointment of persons willing and capable of making regular 
observations at different stations, all over the globe, in regard to the migra- 
tion and habits of birds. Publications giving the observations made at the 
different stations will be published yearly. 
Mr. VV. Allbones, of Brigg, Lincolnshire, is this year taking out a fresh 
consignment of stoats and weasels to the number of about 160, which he 
has procured from various parts of Lincolnshire, for the Government of 
New Zealand. The weasels and stoats are kept during the voyage in 
specially constructed boxes, lined with zinc, three in a box, and to feed 
them during the voyage 2400 live pigeons are taken, and sixteen quarters 
of Indian corn for the consumption of the pigeons. 
Rheumatism. — In the interesting paper on the treatment of rheuma- 
tism, published in a recent number of Land and Water , no mention is 
made of salicylic acid, which is somewhat surprising. It is, of course, 
quite possible that this drug may have been prescribed by veterinary 
surgeons in cases of rheumatism attacking dogs, and that the result has 
been such as not to justify them in continuing the treatment. We should 
hardly think this likely, however, as the salicylates are now so universally 
prescribed for the cure of the disease when it attacks man. Dr. Chateris, 
in his “ Handbook of Medicine,” speaks unhesitatingly of the benefits 
