1885.] THE ELECTRIC TREE OF NEW GUINEA. 505 



plant-life nothing of the sort, however possible, has been proved to 

 exist, and the New Guinea discovery is neither more nor less than a 

 gigantic vegetable gymnotns. The scientific interest of the find is 

 immense, and not less, probably, its future practical bearing on the 

 lives of our descendants. The electric eel could scarcely be used as 

 a regular source of electric currents, but the Msassia clectrica, as 

 Dr. Kummel has patriotically named it, can, to all appearance, be 

 readily acclimatized and cultivated, and, if not overdrawn on, vv^ill 

 give, if one may use the expression, a steady crop of energy available 

 for all the multitudinous uses for which modern civilization now 

 uses the dynamo or the battery. It is true that the current given 

 by one tree is, though considerable in quantity, of much lower 

 intensity than is wanted for many purposes ; but even if it is found 

 that this defect cannot be remedied by coupling up a number of 

 trees in series without damasjin^ them, science has methods of 

 transforming, with little loss, larger weak currents into smaller 

 strong ones, and there need be no difficulty on this score. The 

 outlook is immense : parks which will form a pleasant recreation- 

 ground to the citizens will light our cities almost free of cost or 

 care ; our gardens will themselves illuminate the villages of their 

 owners, whilst the very hedgerow trees on our farms will supply 

 the power for agricultural operations in the fields which they 

 surround, I purposely refrain from the greater question of the 

 application of electricity from this source to the general supersession 

 of steam and other motors, but that it will come I have little doubt. 

 However, I have said enough both on the theory and the 

 prospects of the discovery, and cannot now do better than relate 

 in his own words the account given me by Lieutenant von 

 Immer Gassende, the fortunate discoverer, who is now on his way to 

 Sydney, where he catches the French mail steamer, the Salazie, 

 on the 6th October and proceeds to Europe. The Lieutenant, 

 though much pulled down by the dangerous fever he has had, 

 and which is indeed the cause of his return home, is anxious to be 

 again in New Guinea, and to pursue those explorations which have 

 been already so fruitful in result. He is a fine type of the German 

 gentleman and sailor. He said : ' It is unnecessary to trouble you 

 with many details of our journey. Dr. Kummel and I, with some 

 half-a-dozen men, left the ship at anchor in a small bay to the east 

 of Cape Delia Torre, and at once commenced working our way, as 

 nearly due south as we could manage, over the low jungle-covered 

 range which here skirts the coast. We saw for the first two days 

 a few natives of the type prevalent in this part of Papua, with 

 small patches of bananas and other cultivated ground ; we were 

 not, however, molested by them, and farther on the country seemed 



