548 SCIENTIFIC RECOED FOR 1885. 



Benin. Much weight attaches to the opinion of M. Mer, who is a retired 

 naval officer of forty years' experience, including three years of cruis- 

 ing between the equator and Gibraltar, on the west coast of Africa. 



A catalogue of the i)rinted maps, plans, and charts in the British 

 Museum has been prepared by Professor Douglas, and will be issued 

 in two large volumes. 



AFRICA. 



¥. S. Arnot has sent to the Koyal Geographical Society a sketch map 

 of his route from Shoshong to Bih6. He followed the Zambesi from 

 his point of crossing, a little above Victoria Falls, to Lialui, from which 

 he proceeded west-northwest to the great plateau on which Bih6 is 

 situated. 



The route from Benguela to the mission village of Bih6 has been ap- 

 proximately surveyed by the Eev. William E. Fay. The sketch maps 

 cover an area 60 miles wide, extending over four degrees of longitude. 

 The first human habitations met with are at the eastern foot of the 

 coast range. 



According to J. M. Cook, wha has recently returned from Dongola, 

 it appears that the cataracts of the Nile are not correctly placed upon 

 the map. The so-called third cataract at Hannek is no cataract at all, 

 only a very small riapid. Between the second and so-called third cataract 

 four or five cataracts occur, and these explain the delay in the concen- 

 tration of the British troops at Dongola. From Sarras to Sakarmatta 

 (74 miles) the rise was 450 feet. 



The map of Africa, on a scale of 27 geograi)hical miles to the inch, in 

 course of publication by the French D6pot de la Guerre, will consist of 

 sixty sheets. Twenty-four of these have been published, 18 of West and 

 Central Africa, 6 of South Africa and Cape Colony. Sheet number 9 

 shows the Canaries and the sterile country called by Dr. Barth "Tiris 

 el Ferar," or the country of deep wells. Sheet No. 10 gives the western 

 half of the Sahara, and shows the routes of travellers, with many notes 

 on the inhabitants, nature of the country, and position of the oases and 

 wells; and Sheet No. 11 has a portion of the Ahaggar region, of which 

 little is really known, and the better-known Terab oasis. 



M. Giraud has finally been compelled to desis t from his attempted 

 explorations. His men deserted him, retaining the French flag and 

 Chassepot rifles, and turned highwaymen on their way back to Zanzi- 

 bar, where they were cast into prison by the French consul. 



The results of Dr. von Wilhelm Joest's circumnavigation of Africa 

 are of ethnographic rather than geographic interest, since he scarcely left 

 the coast at all, and when he did penetrate into the interior it was in 

 such well-known places as the Orange Free State and Zululand. Still, 

 what he did was well done, and several advantageous map corrections 

 can be made from his notes. 



A work of interest to the philologist, geographer, and anthropologist 

 is that of rAbb6 Pierre Boucbe on the Slave Coast and Dahomey. 



