552 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1885. 



initted to start for Katanga, which he reached on May 27, and visited 

 the two copper mines, which he found to be exceedingly rich. His at- 

 tempt to trace the Lufira to its source was frustrated by the hostile 

 attitude of the Wa-ramba, and he was compelled to turn back on June 

 2, when within a few days only of his goal. Owing to the hostile atti- 

 tude of Msiri, and the annoyance consequent thereon, the valuable col- 

 lections made by Dr. Bohm had to be abandoned. On November 6, 

 1884, the Luapula was crossed once more, and after another long march 

 through a hostile country the hospitable station of Mpala was reached 

 again on November 30, 1884. According to Herr Reichard the Lualaba 

 is the real head-stream of the Congo. Where he saw that river, a short 

 distance above the Upembe Lake, it is 1,000 to 1,500 feet wide, and the 

 natives assert that it can be navigated as far as Manymma. The Lua- 

 j)ula, on the other hand, has a width of only 500 feet, and forms numer- 

 ous rapids in its course through the Mitumba Mountains. The Lufira, 

 where crossed, was only 150 to 200 feet wide. It forms two waterfalls, 

 one in the salt plain of Muacha, and another, Juo, at the head of the 

 gorge through the Yiano Mountains. The Juo falls are 80 feet high, 

 the breadth of the river being 330 feet. 



The two Portuguese explorers. Captain Capello and Commander Ivens, 

 who started last year upon an expedition across Africa, eventually 

 reached Cape Town after a most adventurous journey. They subse- 

 quently left for Mossamedes, and returned to Europe via the Congo. 

 They reached Lisbon on the 17th of September, where they were re- 

 ceived by the King, and welcomed by an enthusiastic demonstration of 

 their countrymen. They have traversed a region which no European 

 had ever set foot in. Leaving Mossamedes in March, 1884, with an es- 

 cort of one hundred and twenty men recruited along the coast between 

 that place and St. Paul de Loando, they reached Quillimane, upon the 

 eastern coast, to the south of Mozambique, in May, 1885, after having 

 discovered the watershed whf^nce the rivers of Central Africa flow north 

 and east towards the sea. They travelled over 4,500 miles of territory, 

 3,000 miles of which were previously unexplored, and they are said to 

 have discovered the sources of the Lualaba, an affluent of the Congo 

 (which has been so frequently referred to in recent geographical discus- 

 sions), as well as those of the Luapula and Chambeze, the upper waters 

 of the Congo. They also visited the copper region of the Yarauganga 

 district, situated between the Lualaba and the Luapula Eivers. Messrs. 

 Capello and Ivens found the tse-tse fly very abundant; sixteen of the 

 party died from their bites, without counting cattle and hunting dogs. 

 They lost, all told, sixty-two men in fifteen months, and were almost 

 exhausted when they reached Fet6. (See Proceedings of Eoyal Geo- 

 ' graphical Societj^, December, 1885.) 



Mr. J. T. Last left England on the 2d of September, on his way to 

 Zanzibar, where he will equip his party for the expedition in which he is 

 engaged under the auspices of the Eoyal Geographical Society. He will 



