ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 15 



Tsad. This is a fact of no little importance, as such a height allows 

 no fall for any of its rivers, if connected, according to some writers, 

 with the Nile, or the Kowara, or Niger. 



Respecting the botanical features of the country, Dr. Vogel was 

 surprised to find, among other plants, the Ficus elastica, the tree that 

 furnishes the caoutchouc, inasmuch as it was not noticed by any 

 previous traveller. It grows in considerable quantities in Bornu ; but 

 the inhabitants are not acquainted with the nature and use of the 

 product it bears. 



It is known that M. Andersson, a young Swedish naturalist and 

 traveller, is making explorations in Central Africa. Letters just 

 received from him, via the Cape of Good Hope, announce that he had 

 succeeded in reaching the great Lake of Nigami. He is the first 

 European who has penetrated so far from the western coast. 



Special reports by Sir Charles Lyell have appeared on the Geological 

 and Topographical and Hydrographical departments of the New York 

 Exhibition, which are highly valuable and interesting for the sum- 

 mary they present of what the United States contain and are capable 

 of in those important subjects. The facts adduced in matters 

 geological, owing to the vast extent of country, are truly amazing, 

 and the sources inexhaustible. 



After passing the whole subject in review, Sir Charles concludes 

 by stating that " the natural distribution of these sources of wealth 

 and power, combined with the physical features of the entire country, 

 leave nothing to be desired with respect to the materials and incen- 

 tives for its physical progress and development." " If in a pecuniary 

 sense," says the editor of Chambers's Journal, " the American Exhibi- 

 tion was a failure, the loss has been largely compensated by the inter- 

 esting reports it has called into existence." 



The following are among the prizes offered by the French Academy 

 during the past year : 



For the year 1856. A vigorous and methodical investigation into 

 the metamorphoses and reproduction of the Infusoria, properly so 

 called, (the Polygastrica of Ehrenberg.) 



2d. For 1855. An exposition of the laws governing the distribu- 

 tion of fossils in the different sedimentary strata in their order of su- 

 perposition ; and a discussion of the question of their appearance or 

 disappearance, successive or simultaneous. 



A research into the nature of the relations existing between the 

 present and past states of the organic kingdom. 



Another for 1856. The determination through the study of the 

 development of the embryo in two species, one taken from the class 



