142 NATURAL SCIENCE. February. 



of research, both in pure science and in the appHcation of geology to mining, but 

 it has also contributed very largely to the fine collection of geological specimens in 

 the Manchester Museum, now in the Owens College, of which it provided the 

 nucleus many years ago. 



Mr. R. L. Jack sends us an unpaged (? unpublished) extract from vol. xii., 

 Proc. Roy. Soc. Qtieensland, announcing the discovery by Mr. J. Coghlan, of two 

 undoubted specimens of Orthoceras in the Cairns Range of Western Queensland. 

 This appears to prove the extension of Ordovician rocks from S. Australia. 

 Hitherto the oldest fossiliferous rocks known in Queensland have been the Burdekin 

 Beds of Middle Devonian age. 



We understand that important results have been obtained by Mr. J. E. S. 

 Moore, who has been investigating the fauna of Lake Tanganyika. His collections 

 seem to show that it cannot be very long, geologically speaking, since this body of 

 water, now fresh, formed a part of the sea. 



Captain Bottego has reached Lake Rudolf, and is on his way back to 

 Mombasa. Mr. A. H. Neumann, who has returned to England also from Lake 

 Rudolf, followed the eastern shore into the Randile country. He will present some 

 of his spoils to the Brisish Museum (Nat. Hist.). 



G. KoLB, a Bavarian explorer, has, during the past two years, made two 

 journeys in the country between Kilimanjaro and Kenia in Africa. On his way to 

 the latter he passed the Gunga Lake, situated in a crater and surrounded by steep 

 walls ; though 6,500 feet above sea-level, it is inhabited by hippopotami. Attempting 

 the ascent of Kenia from that side, he found a large oval plain, thinly covered with 

 grass ; at one end was a glacier brook, round which the temperature dropped at 

 night to 9-5° Fahr. 



The following details about French explorers are gleaned from L'Anthropologie. 

 Mr. Clozel, Administrator of the French Possessions on the Ivory Coast, is 

 endeavouring to make valuable ethnographic and geological collections. Important 

 results are expected from two such enthusiastic explorers as Messrs. Bonnel de 

 Mezieres and de Behagle, who are starting for Central Africa. Mr. Bonin has 

 returned to Tonkin from the south-western provinces of China, whence he brings 

 much material and many facts of ethnographical and anthropological nature. On 

 their way from Turkestan to Siberia, Mr. Chaffanjon and his party have gathered 

 large collections of the fauna and flora, and accumulated much information regarding 

 ethnography and geography. In Siberia, too. Baron de Baye has been carrying on 

 his archaeological and ethnographical studies. Mr. E. Blanc, who has been to 

 Nijni-Novgorod, is bringing back rich scientific collections. Mr. Raoul, official 

 Colonial chemist, is starting on Government business for Borneo, where he hopes to 

 carry on scientific studies. The Hourst expedition, whose return was noted in our 

 last, has proved the navigability of the Niger from Bammako to the sea. 



Reuter states that Messrs. Oloufsen and Philipsen, two Danish officers, have 

 returned from portions of the Pamirs hitherto unexplored by Europeans with rich 

 collections for the Natural History Museum, Copenhagen, over 300 photographs of 

 places and racial types, and valuable meteorological observations, some from 14,000 

 feet above sea-level. Some of the tribes met with were of diminutive stature, their 

 domestic animals being small in proportion ; they are fire-worshippers, have no 

 money, and buy wives for five or six cows, or fifteen sheep, apiece. 



The University of Washington at Seattle sent a natural history expedition, 

 consisting of H. H. Hindshaw, Mrs. Hindshaw, and T. C. D. Kincaid to the Snake 

 River, and its results are given in the American Naturalist for December. The sand- 



