GEOGRAPHY. 477 



recently published an account of all the scientific expeditions sent to 

 this country by the French Government, commencing - in 1680, and num- 

 bering- seventy-seven up to 1881. These are in addition to the military 

 expeditions and Government surveys. In spite of all this research there 

 are large tracts of country and very manj r water-courses about which 

 little or nothing is known. 



Mr. Carl Bock, in a paper in the Geographische Mittheilungen for May, 

 1883, describes a journey undertaken by him from Bankok toward the 

 Chinese frontier by way of the Menam River to Zimme and Kiangtsen 

 on the borders of the Shan states. This account is chiefly important 

 as indorsing and verifying Mr. Colquhoun's conclusions as to the prac- 

 ticability of a railroad from the sea to the southwestern frontier of China- 

 Mr. Bock was prevented from traveling through the Shan states by 

 native hostility. 



The general census of Japan, taken on .lanuary 1, 1883, gives 36,700,1 10 

 as the population of the country, made up of 18,598,998 males and 

 18,101,112 females. The population of the larger towns is given as fol- 

 lows : Osaka, 1,772,333 ; Hiogo, 1,418,521; Nagasaki, 1,201,629; Tokio, 

 987.887; Kioto, 835,215. These figures do not represent the population 

 of the towns named, but of the districts known asfu or ken bearing these 

 names. 



In the Japan Gazette have appeared during the last year a series of 

 valuable letters relating to the island of Yezo, its geography, geology, 

 fauna and flora, its mineral productions and ethnology, as well as the 

 records of numerous journeys over the island. The author is Captain 

 Blakiston, who has been for many years a resident at Hakodate, and 

 who has thus amassed an enormous quantity of valuable material. 



An admirable method of teaching physical geography has been de- 

 vised and put in practice by the teachers at the school for the sons of 

 Japanese nobles, at Tokio. A physical map of the country has been 

 constructed between 300 and 400 feet long of turf and stone, showing 

 every inlet, river, and mountain. The meridians and parallels are indi- 

 cated by telegraph wire, and the positions of cities and towns are shown 

 by tablets. 



In the hopes of securing a well-directed scientific exploration of the 

 interior of ^New Guinea the British Association at their annual meeting 

 at Southport appointed a committee to confer with the council of the 

 Royal Geographical Society as to the best means of attaining that object. 

 The result of their deliberations has been to recommend an expedition 

 now preparing by Mr. Wilfred Powell, whose plan is to ascend the Am- 

 bernoli River, which empties near Point d'Urville on the north coast, 

 and when the river can be no farther ascended to cross the country to- 

 ward the Finisterre Mountains, then, after renewing his provisions, to 

 attempt to cross the island from Astrolabe bay to Port Moresby. The 

 Melbourne Argus sent an expedition in July, 1883, under Captain Armit, 

 with the intention of crossing the southeastern end of the island from 



