Abstract
THE last number of the Isvestia of the Russian Geographical Society (xxi. 3) contains a variety of interesting papers. M. Ivanoff describes some Turkestan antiquities: namely, the Akhyr-tash, situated at the foot of the Alexander ridge, twenty- seven miles from Aulie-ata, one of the grandest buildings of antiquity, which covers nearly 20,900 square yards, and must have been some projected immense temple or palace; it was built from immense stones, weighing about one ton each, and brought from Tash-tube. M. Ivanoff gives for the first time a plan and a detailed description of the ruins of this immense building. Stone idols on the Issyk-kul, as also a burial-ground onthe shores ofthe same lake, are described and represented by drawings. The whole is a most valuable contribution M. Trusman's paper on Finnish elements in the Gclov district of St. Petersburg will be welcome to Russian archzeologists. Capt. Gedeonoff gives a list of forty-three places in the Transcaspian region, whose positions have been determined by means of astronomical observations, as also their heights, determined by barometrical measurements. We notice the following: Khiva (house of Mat-murat), 41° 23′ 0″.1 N. lat., 60° 22′ 18″.9 E. long., 351 feet above the sea-level; Merv (Koushut-khankala), 37° 35′ 37″.6 N. lat., 61° 50′ 27″.9 E. long., 565 feet; and Tchardjui, 39° 1′ 33″.8 N. lat., 63° 36′ 12″.9 E. long., 433 feet. M. Konshin's paper on the Sary-kamysh lake basin and the western basin deserves more than a short notice, as it sums up the latest researches in this region, and presents the whole que-tion as to the bed of the Amu-claria in qute a new light. A report on cartographical won: in Russia in 1884 will be summed Uf) under a separate head, as also two letters from Col. Prjevalsky and M. Potanin. Finally, the same issue con- tains two most valuable maps, by Gen. Tub. One of them, on a larger scale, gives the lines of equal magnetic intensity, full and horizontal only, for Russia in Europe, reduced to the year 1880. On this map all places where observations have been made, as also where anomalies have been observed, are marked. Two other maps, on a smaller scale, give the lines of equal secular variation, both of the horizontal and of the total magnetical intensity. All three have explanations in German. These maps thus complete the remarkable work on “Earth-Magnetism in Russia,” undertaken a few years since by M. Tillo, and already mentioned in NATURE.
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Geographical Notes . Nature 33, 43–44 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/033043b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/033043b0