GEOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES. 3G5 



greatly deteriorated. Ajnon^^st the natives, all traditions of tlie 

 orio^in of tlie monuments are lost. 



No Bronze Age in Africa. — Col. Lane Fox quotes several 

 authorities to show that Africa was an iron-producing country, 

 and is of opinion that the iron age followed immediately after the 

 stone age instead of passinsr throujrh a bronze ao"e. 



News from Dr. Livingsto)ie. — Sir Roderick Murchison an- 

 nounces the receipt of letters from the explorer Livingstone, writ- 

 ten in October and December, 1867, and dated at Marungu and Ca- 

 zembe, places lying south and south-westerly of Lake Tanganyika. 

 When these letters were written, Livingstone had been living for 

 three months with friendly Arabs, waiting for the close of a na- 

 tive war before proceeding on his way to Ujiji, and he told an 

 Arab messenger that after exploring Lake Tanganyika he intended 

 to return to Zanzibar. This is the first announcement from him- 

 self that he intends to quit Africa by that route. 



Fate of Sir John Franklin. — By the recent arrival from the 

 polar regions, of Dr. Goold, of Dublin, interesting intelligence is 

 afforded respecting the search now prosecuted by Captain Hall for 

 traces or remains of the "Erebus" and "Terror," and their 

 crews. In August, 18G7, Captain Hall was at Repulse Bay, pre- 

 paring an expedition to King William's Land, where, from infor- 

 mation obtained from the Esquimaux, it seems that important 

 records and some relics of the Franklin expedition are still pre- 

 served. The jDoint to be readied was 450 miles north of Repulse 

 Bay, and in a country the inhabitants of which were known to be 

 hostile to Eui'opeans and to the Esquimaux living at Repulse Bay. 

 It was the opinion of the latter, who are known as King Albert's 

 followers, that Franklin's men had been killed by King William's 

 men. According to native information, the last six survivors of the 

 party built a rude vault of stones, and deposited in it some docu- 

 ments and such articles as they had no use for, or would be an in- 

 cumbrance to them in their journey southward. It is Capt. Hall's 

 object to reach this depository. 



It will doubtless cause a thrill of mingled surprise and sor- 

 row to learn that, after all that has been done to discover the 

 Franklin expedition, two of its members survived to as recent a 

 period as 1864. These were Captain Crozier and a steward of 

 one of the lost vessels, who died near Southampton Island while 

 endeavoring to make their way to that place, in the belief that 

 they would there find a whaler which would carry them home. 

 Capt. Hall is confident of the identity of Captain Crozier with one 

 of the men described to have perished, and has in his possession 

 several articles that belonged to him. 



Tlie German Arctic Expedition. — European papers announce the 

 unexpected return of the " Germania," and the failure in one as- 

 pect of the expedition. While unsuccessful in their attempts to 

 penetrate to an open polar sea, or to make the coast of Greenland, 

 on account of the solid masses of ice which they found in their 

 way ; they reached, however, the highest degree of northern lati- 

 tude ever attained by any ship; namely, 81° 5', their longitude 

 being at the time 1G° east. The}' sighted the coast of Greenland 

 31* 



