IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
139 
above the level of the Black sea, or nearly 8,000 feet beyond 
the highest level of Mt. Blanc. As an elevation Mt. Elburz 
is a much more striking object of the landscape than the 
Swiss mountain, for the reason that it rises directly out of 
the low-lying steppes, the level of which is only a few 
hundred feet above sea-level, so that it slopes from peak to 
foot nearly down to the datum plane, while the base of Mt. 
Blanc is several thousand feet above the sea. Kasbec 
(16,546 feet), Dikhtau (16,925 feet), Koshtantau (17,096 feet), 
and Ihkara (17,278 feet) are names of other high peaks in 
the more central parts of the Caucasus. 
Mt. Blanc is visible about 100 miles. Mt. Elburz is said 
to be visible 200 miles distant. That is to say: If Elburz 
were located at Kansas City we could from the State House 
steps on clear days catch glimpses of its snow-crowned 
top. The photographs were taken on one of the excur- 
sions of the International geological congress, and the 
larger one is probably the best ever obtained of the 
mountain. 
A COMPARISON OF MEDIA FOR THE QUANTITA- 
TIVE ESTIMATION OF BACTERIA IN MILK. 
BY C. H. ECKLES. 
During the past three years the writer has made quanti- 
tative estimates of the bacteria in a large number of milk 
samples. During this work certain facts developed which 
have very important relations to the accuracy of such esti- 
mates. 
It was early observed that ordinary peptone agar is 
entirely unsuited for the purpose as a very small number 
develop as compared with the same medium to which 2 
per cent, of lactose has been added, or with gelatine. It was 
also observed that when students were given peptone agar 
to use in isolating milk bacteria, that they very rarely, if 
ever, found the acid organism, although it often consti- 
tuted a majority of the entire number present in the milk. 
