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POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



The Last of tbe Gases. The last of 

 the gases that had never been condensed 

 to liquids oxygen, hydrogen, and nitro- 

 gen have at length yielded to pertinacious 

 experiment, and, under the joint influence 

 of greater degrees of cold and pressure than 

 had ever before been employed, have been 

 reduced to the liquid form. This great ex- 

 perimental exploit has been performed by 

 two chemists independently, and almost 

 simultaneously Raoul Pictet, of Geneva, 

 and M. L. Cailletet, of Paris, by different 

 processes. Pictet condensed oxygen, which 

 was first announced ; but Cailletet had al- 

 ready done it, and he also liquefied nitrogen, 

 hydrogen, and the air. We give a repre- 

 sentation of his apparatus, and an account 

 ef his processes, and shall give fuller state- 



ments of the results as they are more'fully 

 announced. 



Stanley's Trip down the Congo. The 

 exploration of the Congo River from Ny- 

 angwe to the sea, by Henry M. Stanley, 

 must be esteemed one of the most important 

 achievements in the whole history of African 

 discovery. He set out on November 5, 1876, 

 from Nyangwe (latitude 4 20' south, longi- 

 tude 26 40' east), at the head of a numer- 

 ous band of native followers, marching north- 

 ward by land forty miles, till he again came 

 to the river known here as the Ugarowa, 

 or the Lualaba. Putting his men in canoes, 

 and himself embarking on the portable 

 Lady Alice, he commenced his long jour- 

 ney of alternate boating and portaging 

 which lasted for nine months. The party 

 soon began to experience the hostility of 

 the native tribes, who again and again at- 

 tacked them from the banks of the stream 

 or in canoes. On December 6th seventy-two 

 of Mr. Stanley's men were down with small- 

 pox, which rendered defense all the more 

 difficult ; he seized a town, and there housed 

 his sick and wounded, but for two days and 

 nights he and his party had to repel the 

 fierce attacks of the natives. Soon he was 

 boating down the river again, his force on 

 January 4th numbering 146 men. In lati- 

 tude 32' 36" south is a series of cata- 

 racts, and Stanley's men had to cut a road 

 through the forest and drag their canoes 

 round the falls, the natives constantly har- 

 assing them in the mean time. Just be- 

 low these cataracts the river widens enor- 

 mously, receiving several considerable afflu- 

 ents ; its course, too, becomes westerly, 

 though still tending toward the north till 

 it reaches latitude 1 40' north, longitude 

 23 east, when it takes a southwesterly di- 

 rection to the sea. One of the great tribu- 

 taries of the Congo below the cataracts is 

 the Aruwini, supposed to be the Welle of 

 Schweinfurth. Here, on Stanley's map, is 

 the legend " The Cannibal Region," and a 

 little to the south " The Region of Dwarfs." 

 At one place the expedition was attacked 

 by the cannibals in fifty-four canoes with 

 paddles eight feet long, spear-headed and 

 pointed with iron blades. Stanley's breech- 

 loaders soon forced the enemy to retreat in 

 confusion. After receiving, in latitude 



