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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



and possibly given rise to, the entire terres- 

 trial fauna. And because the ancestors of 

 nearly all animals have passed through a 

 littoral phase of existence, preceded mostly 

 by a pelagic phase, the investigations now 

 carried on, on the coasts, in marine labora- 

 tories, throw floods of light on all the fun- 

 damental problems of geology. 



General Lef roy, in his address before the 

 Geographical Section on " Kecent Geograph- 

 ical Discovery " referred to the more exact 

 identification of the pole of vertical mag- 

 netic attraction or magnetic pole, which was 

 visited by Ross and by officers of the Frank- 

 lin Expedition, and nearly reached by Mc- 

 Clintock and Schwatka ; and of the focus of 

 greatest magnetic attraction, which is near 

 Cat Lake, and has never been visited ; and 

 the exploration of the newly discovered 

 great lake Misstassini, as worthy objects of 

 Canadian research. Among the later achieve- 

 ments of geographical exploration are the 

 journey of Mr. Thomson through the region 

 between Mount Kilimanjaro, Lake Nyanza, 

 and Mount Kenia, touching Lake M'Barin- 

 go on which no European had ever before 

 stood, among tribes who had never seen a 

 white man ; Stanley's and De Brazza's con- 

 tinued explorations of the Congo region ; 

 and the work of Dr. Pogge, Lieutenant 

 Wissman, and the Portuguese explorers in 

 the southern Congo, Upper Quango, and Lo- 

 ando regions. According to Dr. Pogge, much 

 of the interior of Africa belongs, by reason 

 of its elevation above the sea, to a far more 

 temperate zone, and is better suited to Eu- 

 ropean constitutions than its geographical 

 position promises. In illustration of the 

 rapid extension of white occupation in Cen- 

 tral Africa, a table is given of about one 

 hundred and twenty actual centers of com- 

 munication or trade, or of missionary in- 

 struction, now established there. Lake Ny- 

 assa is becoming a busy inland sea. There 

 are two steamers upon it, and one on the riv- 

 er Shire ; upon Tanganyika three. Donkeys 

 have been already introduced, with good 

 promise, by the universities' missionaries 

 and the African Lakes Company, although 

 they have not been a success on the Congo. 

 The African Lakes Company, of Glasgow, 

 has ten small depots between Quillimane 

 and Malawanda on Lake Nyassa, and from 



this place a practicable road of two hundred 

 and twenty miles has been carried to Pam- 

 bete, on Lake Tanganyika. — In Asia, Mr. 

 W. W. Graham has reached in the Hima- 

 layas an elevation of 23,500 feet, or about 

 2,900 feet above the summit of Chimbo- 

 razo ; some progress has been made, by the 

 aid of disguised Indians, in the surveys of 

 territories from which Europeans are ex- 

 cluded ; the primary triangulation of India, 

 begun in 1800, is practically completed ; and 

 the upper Oxus has been traced from its 

 sources in the Punjaub. Australia has 

 been crossed again from east to west, and 

 also through four hundred miles of new 

 country north of Cowarie Station on the 

 Warburton River, and the usefulness of 

 camels in that service has been demonstrat- 

 ed. — The international circumpolar expedi- 

 tions have added, perhaps, to local knowl- 

 edge, but not much, so far as reported, to 

 geography generally. The discoveries made 

 by Greely's party are mentioned apprecia- 

 tively. The results of the marine research- 

 es of the Talisman and the Dacia in the At- 

 lantic Ocean are of great value. Reference 

 was made to the extension of railroads in 

 Mexico, South America, the Senegal, the 

 Caucasus, and Central Asia, as marking 

 steps in the advance of man's mission to 

 subdue the earth and replenish it ; and the 

 importance was insisted upon of obtaining 

 accurate map delineations in aid of the ex- 

 act determination of boundary-lines and the 

 avoidance of disputes about them. 



" The Relation of Mechanical Science to 

 the other Sciences" was the topic of Sir 

 F. J. Bramwell's address before the Me- 

 chanical Section. He called attention to 

 the fact that it was the engineer who had 

 made a meeting of the Association in Cana- 

 da possible. Every one must agree that the 

 engineers are those who make the greatest 

 practical use, not only of the science of me- 

 chanics, but of the researches and discov- 

 eries of the members of the other sections of 

 the Association. Knowledge of the laws of 

 heat is requisite in the construction of ther- 

 mal motors ; in the applications to metal- 

 lurgy, as exemplified in the hot blast, in the 

 regenerative furnace, in the dust-furnace of 

 Crampton, in the employment of liquid fuel, 

 and also in operations connected with the 



