OX THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. XVII 



travel in the incognito of a Turkish physician, provided with allopathic 

 and homoeopathic medicines, and attended by an Algerian Moor, who 

 is acquainted with the native method of practice. An aneroid baro- 

 meter, several thermometers, two compasses, a chronometer, a sextant, 

 and a telescope, are the instruments which he carries. He intends, 

 however, to devote himself chiefly to such observations as can be made 

 without his instruments; to collect minerals and plants; to inquire into 

 the trade, language, history, and literature of the people whom he visits ; 

 and to determine with the greatest possible accuracy the various routes 

 of caravans, and their various stopping-places. The route of travel 

 which Baron Krafft has marked out for himself is from Tripoli to 

 Ghadames, and thence to Ain Salah and Timbuctoo. Then he pro- 

 poses to visit Lake Tsad, and afterwards to go, according to his strength 

 and means, either east to Wara and Dar Fur, or north to Bilnia, Seg- 

 gadem and Murzuk. 



Robert Stephenson, the eminent English engineer, in a letter ad- 

 dressed to the London Times, thus expresses his views in reference to 

 the feasibility of the proposed ship-canal across the Isthmus of Suez : 

 " I should be delighted," he says, " to see a channel like the Dar- 

 danelles or the Bosphorus penetrating the isthmus that divides the Red 

 Sea from the Mediterranean ; but I know that such a channel is 

 impracticable, that nothing can be effected, even by the most unlim- 

 ited expenditure of time, and life, and money, beyond the formation 

 of a stagnant ditch between two almost tideless seas, unapproachable 

 by large ships under any circumstances, and only capable of being 

 used by small vessels when the prevalent winds permit their exit^and 

 their entrance. I believe that the project will prove abortive in itself 

 and ruinous to its constructors ; and entertaining this view, I will 

 no longer permit it to be said that by abstaining from expressing my- 

 self fully on the subject, I am tacitly allowing capitalists to throw away 

 their money on what my knowledge assures me to be an unwise 

 and unremunerative speculation." 



At a recent show of the Roval Agricultural Societv, held at Ches- 



J O / i 



ter, England, five steam ploughs contested for the handsome prize of 

 .300 ($2,425). Four of the ploughs were operated by steam-engines 

 fixed on the field, and moving the " shares " back and forth by ropes 

 and windlasses. The fifth plough (Boydells') had a traction engine 

 which moved over the field. Each of these turned over four furrows 

 at once, and the work was well done by them, all but one, which 

 broke down. The soil was a hard, dry, stiff clay. Furrows of nine 

 inches depth were turned over, and the competition was very spirited. 

 The successful plough was Fowler's ; it executed one and three-quarters 

 of an acre in two hours. 



At the present time, the Sorgho, or Chinese sugar cane, is ex- 

 tensively cultivated in the South of France, and its products have 

 constituted a prominent feature in recent agricultural exhibitions of 



2* 



