Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/398

 IVoL. v.. So. 111.

having laboriously waded through half a dozen of the ponderous tomes with which English travellers—and American too, for that matter—conscientiously afflict mankind, it is really a pleasure to take up this light, and we fear ephemeral, narrative of the exploits of Mr. Orsolle. To be sure, there are few dates and no statistics in the volume. Neither are there any pictures, not even a portrait of the author. There is a map, but as it was evidently drawn to illustrate a condition of affairs considerably anterior to our author's journey, and as no attempt seems to have been made to adapt it to the book it accompanies, it is of little use: nevertheless, it is a good map, in its way, and, a few years ago, might have been regarded with a more favorable eye.

It was in July, 1882, that Orsolle said good-by to his mother, and made the best of his way to the 'gare du nord.' where his travelling companion, M. Ad. Nihlein joined him. Thence by Cracow, Odessa, and Sebastopol, he proceeded to Poti, where he arrived on the 14th of August. From Poti, at that time the Black-Sea terminus of the Caucasus railway, he journeyed to Tiflis. His description of the latter place occupies a dozen pages, and will well repay a cursory perusal. At Tiflis he left the railroad, and travelled in the manner of the country, which he found much more agreeable than did O'Donovan, to Kars, the ruins of the ancient city of Ani, of which a plan is given, and Erivan. Thence, by a route not to be traced on the 'Carte pour le voyage de M. Orsolle,' he found his way to the Tiflis-Baku railway, and eventually to the Caspian itself.

There are many descriptions of Baku in the books, but none so interesting as this. M. Orsolle does not tell us how many gallons of oil are refined per hour, nor does he go into the details of the use of the refuse products of that distillation on the Caspian steamers. He gives no information on such points; but he does tell us what Baku is like, who its denizens are, and how they eat, drink, play, bathe, and exist. We say exist, because, judging from this description, it is a bare existence that the Bakunians lead in their naphtha-soaked town, which, he says, is destined to become the Marseilles of the Caspian.

The remainder of the book is devoted to Teheran and north-western Persia, and possesses no especial interest at the present time.

f.t fiinrair n la rrrw. FirJ-:. Ob.«olle. l*nrJ-, /V-.j., IMS.

��NOTES AND NEWS.

The following is a complele list of llie papers read ttl the tnMting of the Nalioiiftl aciulemy of sciences, Api-il 21-24:- J. S. Billings and Dr. Matlbewd. U.S.A., Metliods n1 meHsuring the piibic capatliy of crania; S. H. Svudder, Winged insectH from & paleontoliiglcal piilnl of view; A. S. PacUnl, The Syncarida, a hith- erto undescrlbed group of extinct mBlacostmcous Cnisiacea, The Gampsonychldae, an nndeicribed lanilly of foaail schiEopod Crustacea. The Antbra- earldae, a family of carboniferouB maenirous decapod Cruetacea, allied lo the Eryonldae; Alexander A gas- siz, The coral reefs of ihu Sandwich Islanda, The ori- gin of the fuuna and flora of the Sandwich Islands; T, Slerryllunt, The clftssificatfoii of natural tilicatei; Elias Loomls, The cause of the progressi™ move- ment of areas of low pressure; C, B. Comitock, The ratio o[ the metre to the yard; ('. H. F. Peten, An ncnoiuit of certain stars observed liy Plamsleed, supposed to have disappeared; .1. E. Hllgard and A. Llndenkolil, The suliinarliie geology of the ap- proaches lo New Tork; Theodore Gill. The orders of llBhes; J. W. Powell, The oi^anlzation of the tribe; G. W. [fill. On certain lunar Inequalities due to the action of Jupiter, and discovered by Mr. E. Nelson. E. D. Cope, The pretertiary Vertebrata of BraEil, The phylogeny of the placental Haiiimalia; C. A. Young. Some recent observations upon the roIaLion and surface- markings of Jupiter; H. A ItowUud. On the value of the ohm; F. A. Genth and Gerhard vom liatb. On ibe vanadium minerals — vanadinile, endllchite, and descloizlte — and on fodvrite. from the Sierra Grande Mine, Lake Valley, N. Mes.; A. X. Skinner (by invlCatlon), On the total solar eclipse o( Aug. 28, 1SS8; Theodore Gill and John A. Ryder, The evolution and homologies of the flukes of cela- ceans and slrenians; Ira Remsen, Cheraical action in a magnetic tield; A. Graham Bell, The measure- ment of hearing-power; A. (jraham Bell and F. Delia Torre. On the possibility of obtaining echoes from ships and icebergs In a fog. The following biographi- cal notices of deceased members were also pretented: of Dr. J. J. Woodward, U.S.A., by J. t.. Billings; of Gen. A. A, Humphreys, U.S.A., by H. L. Abbot; anti of William Slimpson, by Theodore Gill,

— At a recent meeting of the Bavarian geograph- ical .lociety. Professor Rulr.el ommuiilcaied lomn particulars concerning a map which he \% designing lo show the political circumdances of Africa; the aclual limits of the various stales, native and other, being defined accordiu); to the extent of the territo- ries actually possessed by each. The map will show several 'centres' of stale formation. The whole of the continent la. however, far from being divided amongst the existing tribes, a* there are many dis- trii'is which do not belong to any of them. The ex- isting native stale, moreover, nicli as Ihe Suuda and the Zulu kingdoms, arc of varying importance, and subject to very different systems. The native i^tntes, it is asserted, rent mainly on the boundary be- tween the Sahara and the Sudan, the hi^h plateau of east Africa, and Lbu Guinea coast. The remain-

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