remain in that state for many years. The most striking example of this is afforded by the great Baryn-Tarei lake, lying south of the Kulussutaefski frontier station, which was found dry by Pallas in 1772: since then it filled with water, which again entirely evaporated five years ago, so that it now only presents a dry saliferous and muddy bottom, cracked in numerous wide fissures by the burning rays of the sun. With the exception of a few rills, generally filled only by snow water in spring, and remaining perfectly dry during the greater part of the year, a small number of spring morasses are alone to be found there. Not unfrequently such morasses occur in the vicinity of saline lakes; but often, having no efflux, they drain themselves, when, owing to the pressure of water beneath, the surface around their swampy edges rises several fathoms in winter with its icy covering. The ice remains in such places until the middle of summer; and even so late as the month of June have I seen on a freshwater morass near Kulussutaefski, in the neighborhood of Tarei lake, blocks of ice one inch thick, capped, as it were, with a layer of earth of the same thickness, overgrown with reeds.

With such a scarcity of water and so great an elevation, it is conceivable that the atmosphere of this region must be very dry.. To the south of this frontier zone, at the same time, extends an immense desert, and on the north, the rain-clouds, being attracted by a dense forest, and arrested by elevated ranges, discharge their waters to superfluity over the wooded district of Nertchinsk; whilst some 7 to 14 miles to the south not a drop of rain or dew will fall for months together. At the village of Tsagan-olu, I witnessed, at the beginning and latter part of the month of June, examples of such an unequal distribution of moisture; whilst the heaviest rains and storms, continually interfering with my excursions, prevailed at midday in the forests only 5 miles to the north, buckwheat was being scorched 3 miles to the south of the village, and no rain had fallen since the middle of May at the frontier stations of Soktuisk, (40 miles farther to the south), and Kluichefski and Chindan (33 miles more westerly). It is to be regretted that scarcely any observations on the moisture of the atmosphere of this elevated region have hitherto been made, as, together with a better knowledge of the chemical properties of the soil, they might have led to some definite conclusion on the greater or lesser fitness of the country for agriculture. At the same time we find that almost useless experiments on the growing of corn have for many years been repeated with great perseverance at the military settlements on the frontier. In none of the extensive and remote regions of Russia, in the same latitude, are there, probably, presented so many local conditions unfavorable to agriculture as in the frontier steppes of Dáuria; and it is very doubtful whether, even with increased

labor, and the introduction of a better system of tillage, any regular or even moderate harvests can be obtained. Not only is there on one side the want of rain and snow, and the great elevation to influence the early autumnal frosts, but on the other the very properties of the soil offer still greater obstacles to cultivation; to be surmounted perhaps only by a Chinese density of population, and Chinese industry.

The very soil of these regions is of a twofold nature: a great part of the steppes, and all the mountain-chains in particular, are as if sown with flint, jasper, and chalcedony, deeply buried in a hard argillaceous sand, and forming also the upper vegetable strata, which present no traces of fertility; whilst all the depressions of the surface are impregnated with salt, and therefore produce only a few saline plants. The climate is at the same time unfavorable to the growth of any plant. Severe snowless winters prevent the cultivation of winter wheat, while the early autumnal frosts are generally prejudicial to crops, and impede the fallow tillage. Spring wheat and buckwheat are consequently alone sown; and even these crops perish in great part from the droughts in May and June, no shade being afforded to their roots by their thin foliage and feeble growth of stem, which rises only one foot from the ground. As a rare exception, a snowy winter will sometimes follow a series of dry years; but this, although acting beneficially on the fields, is of great injury, by its long continuance, to the cattle, which are not unfrequently entirely destroyed by the want of fodder. Under ordinary climatic conditions, the want of snow is the chief impediment to their safely passing the winter; so that, on the freezing of the few fresh springs, the animals suffer much more from thirst than from hunger, and from the first half to the end of December are often so reduced that, even with a sufficiency of food, they are unable to survive the second half of that month.

Appreciating the advantages which Eastern Siberia derives from the opening the Amúr to commerce, Mr. Radde proceeds to consider the present agricultural wealth of the Daurian Steppes, and its future influence and development. The first part of the paper has already shown the unproductiveness of the country, and the great obstacles presented by its climate, Cattle-breeding and sheep-farming in particular, would alone appear to admit of some development, as the lowlands and steppes afford good pasturage; and the prejudicial climatic conditions might, with perseverance, foresight, and industry, be rendered less unfavorable.

Wool is the only article which Mr. Radde adduces as an export, and he considers there will be no difficulty in finding a mar

ket for it in the United States. The frontier region of Dáuria and Mongolia is capable, the author thinks, of producing two millions of sheep; whilst cattle-rearing must for some years remain in its present state, owing to the scantiness of population, and the difficulty of making provision for the winter."

KHANIKOFF'S TRAVELS IN PERSIA.-Through the attentions of D. W. Fiske, Esq., General Secretary of the American Geographical Society, we have received the Proces- Verbal of the meetings of the Imperial Geographical Society of St. Petersburg, held Dec. 16, 1859, and Jan. 13, 1860.

At the latter sitting, M. Khanikoff presented an account of his researches in Persia, to which, in a former number of this Journal, a brief allusion was made. His remarks were chiefly directed to the Province of Khorassan, as will be seen from the following abstract which we translate from the Proces- Verbal.

The limits of this vast province, bounded on the north by a plateau which stretches in the direction of latitude from HindouKousch to the southern extremity of the Caspian Sea, and toward the west by another plateau, making an angle of from 20 to 30 degrees with the meridian, are far less clearly defined toward the east. This traveller is of the opinion that Khorassan may be justly considered as bounded in this direction by the western slopes of Hindou-Kousch, which stretch from Hérat to Kandahar, as well as by the mountains which separate Séistan from Béloudchistan. The space thus enclosed presents four na tural sub-divisions, to which M. Khanikoff gives the name terraces. The first embraces the salt desert lying between Kaschan, Koum, Bastam, Nichibour, and Tebbès. Its general inclination is directed from northeast to southwest, and its lowest point is on the line joining Bastam and Tebbès. The second comprehends the dry desert of Lut, and toward the north borders on the preceding; the mountains of Kirman are its southern limit; its general inclination is from north-northwest to south-southeast, and its lowest point is probably no more than 500 feet above the level of the sea. The lowest point of the third, which includes Séistan, is at the surface of Lake Hamoun, of which the waters are 1,545 feet above the level of the sea. Finally, the fourth terrace, which is the least extended, is bounded by the line which, on one side, joins Birdjand and Sebzar, and on the other stretches from the first of these villages to Toun, Haff, and Yezdoum; its general slope inclines from southwest to northThe limits of these four divisions of Khorassan are not everywhere well defined, but they are clearly indicated by the directions of the water courses and the inclinations of the ravines. The northern frontier of Khorassan coincides with the isother mal line of 12° Cent., a fact which gives plausibility to the conclusion, that over all the expanse of the northern plateau of cen

east.

SECOND SERIES, VOL. XXIX, No. 87.-MAY, 1860.

tral Asia, from Orenbourg to Meshed, over a space of 20 degrees in breadth, the annual temperature seldom falls to 6° Centigrade; at the southern limit of the first terraces described above, date trees grow and produce fruit in abundance, from which we must conclude that the annual temperature here is not below 18° Cent.; hence, in this direction and in moving toward the equator two geographic degrees only, the mean annual temperature acquires an increase equal to that gained to the north of Meshed by a progress of 20 degrees along the meridian. M. Khanikoff calls the attention of the Geographical Society to this point, that the rapid elevation of the degree of the annual temperature cannot be explained by the astronomical and hypsometrical coördinates alone, of the regions where this increase has been observed. He thinks that one of the essential causes to which it should be referred is the dryness of the air, which rapidly increases from the southern shore of the Caspian Sea to the frontier of Béloutchistan, so that in the desert of Lut the atmosphere contains only ths of relative humidity.

After entering into detail relative to the probable limits of the highest temperature, determined from the softening observed in the stearine which was in the baggage of the members of the expedition, M. Khanikoff has described some of the most striking atmospheric phenomena which he has himself studied in Khorassan. He mentions, among others, waterspouts and whirlwinds of dust, the dry mist, the atmospheric fluctuations, the mirage, and finally, observations upon the zodiacal light, which was seen by the expedition while traversing the space between Anarderré and Kirman. In conclusion, M. Khanikoff presented to the assembly the whole trigonometrical network, by aid of which the sketches which he has traced were drawn, adding the details of the circumstances which accompanied the operations. For want of time he reserved to another meeting the enumeration of the ethnographical labors of the expedition.

ART. XXXVII.-Correspondence of Prof. Jerome Nicklès, of Nancy, France, dated Feb. 26th, 1860.

French Academy of Sciences. Public meeting and distribution of the prizes. This meeting was held Jan. 30; it was concluded with the eulogy upon Thénard, pronounced by Flourens, one of the Perpetual Secretaries. The following is a summary of the principal prizes awarded.

Prize for Astronomy.-This prize was awarded to Robert Luther, for the discovery of Mnemosyne, the only new planet of the year 1859. Mnemosyne is the 57th of the group of telescopic planets between Mars and Jupiter, and the 8th of those which are due to Mr. Luther. The

Academy has already four times awarded the prize to this astronomer for the discovery of the five planets, Thetis, Proserpine, Bellona, Leucothea, and Fides.

The prize for Mechanics was awarded to Mr. Giffard for the invention of a new feeding apparatus for steam boilers, which he calls an "automatic injector." The report, made by Combes, gives great praise to this apparatus. The injector very advantageously replaces the feeding pumps of steam boilers. In addition to the fact that it avoids all loss of heat, other than that which results from the cooling of the exterior of the tubes in which the steam and hot water circulate, the absence of any movable solid parts, exposed to wear and derangement, the extreme facility with which the quantity of water supplied can be regulated between limits sufficiently narrow, &c., render it very valuable for locomotive machines. Accordingly several great railroad companies have already applied it to machines of this kind.

The automatic injector takes its origin from an observation made by Savart in 1832, in his experiments upon the fall of liquid veins; a current let fall from a vessel where the level is maintained at a given height, penetrates directly and quite unbroken into a vessel where the surface is less elevated.

The observations of Savart; the phenomena, long known, of the communication of lateral motion to fluids by which is explained the action of those blowing machines called trompes; the forcible drawing in of air through the intervals which separate the bases of the tuyeres of high furnaces; the effects of the blast pipe of locomotive engines, &c., have given Mr. Giffard a hint which has led him to the invention for which the Academy have just awarded a prize.

Mr. Giffard, who is a person of very earnest spirit, is known in France by his attempts at guiding balloons. Some years since he obtained evident results in directing them, since he succeeded in making his balloon move against the wind, at the Hippodrome in Paris. This fact was stated in a report signed by intelligent men. Although without means to continue his researches upon this point, Giffard was not discouraged. Instead of making a show of his misery, and representing himself as persecuted by science, or as a martyr to an idea, he left balloons for the time and set about the construction of locomotive machines; he thought of his injector, and put off his researches upon ballooning until by his labors he should again be furnished with means to continue them; complete success crowned his investigations; he has now placed himself in a condition to take up again his favorite pursuits.

Physical sciences.-A prize has just been divided between Daubrée, Dean of the Faculty of Science at Strasbourg, and Delesse, mining engineer at Paris. The question proposed for competition was in respect to the Metamorphism of Rocks. The report of the committee will not convey to the readers any more knowledge than they have already obtained from this Journal which has often made mention of the labors of Messrs. Delesse and Daubrée.

The Prize for experimental Physiology has been awarded to Pasteur for his researches in regard to fermentation. They bear upon alcoholic fermentation, lactic fermentation, and tartaric fermentation, and of their