5a NATURAL SCIENCE. July, 



Count von Gotzen's Journey across Africa. 

 DuRCH Afrika von Ost nach West. Resultaten und Begebenheiten einer 

 Reise von der Deutsch-Ostafrikanischen Kiiste bis zur Kongo-mundung in den 

 Jahren 1893-4. Von G. A. Graf von Gotzen. Mit zahlreichen Original-Illus- 

 trationen von W. Kuhnert und Siitterlin nach den Photographien, und 2 grossen 

 Karten von R. Kiepert nach den Original-Aufnahmen des Verfassers. 8vo. 

 Pp. xii., 418. Berlin : D. Reimer, 1895. 

 The active volcanic vents on the earth's surface are at least four 

 hundred in number, counting only the principal cones, besides which 

 numerous smaller vents usually occur in the neighbourhood of the 

 larger orifices. According to some of the older authorities, active 

 volcanoes are found only in islands, or in districts immediately 

 adjacent to the seashore. But this rule, although it may be true in 

 the majority of cases, is by no means invariable. Besides the 

 existence of active volcanoes in the Thian-shan range in Central 

 Asia, which, although once regarded as mythical, has been now 

 completely established by the Russian savants, there are known to 

 us at least three active volcanic districts in the far interior of Africa. 

 On Lake Rudolf, according to the testimony of Count Teleki and 

 Lieut, von Hohnel, there is a perpetually raging volcano on one of the 

 islands, and a large volcanic tract adjacent to it. Donyo-Ngai 

 frightens the natives of the region to the west of Kilimanjaro by its 

 thundering noises and fiery ejections, and has several "smoking 

 companions." And now an enterprising German explorer has reached 

 the volcano of Kirunga, lying south of Lake Albert-Edward on the 

 extreme eastern border of the Free Congo State, and has not only 

 witnessed its eruptions from a distance, but has actually ascended to 

 the rim of its crater. 



Count von Gotzen, a lieutenant in the Prussian Guards, who has 

 achieved this notable feat of travel during his traverse of Central 

 Africa from east to west, accompanied by Dr. W. von Prittwitz as 

 chief of his staff, and Dr. H. Kerstrug as physician, and attended 

 by a caravan of 620 natives of various origins, left the east coast at 

 Bweni, near the mouth of the Pangani River (about 5° 50' S. lat.), in 

 December, 1893. It took the party eleven months and eight days to 

 reach the Atlantic at the mouth of the Congo. Passing through the 

 coast-district on to the Masai Plateau they arrived at Kondoa, in 

 Irangi, at the end of January, 1894, ^^^ shortly afterwards crossed 

 Baumann's route from south to north. Here the travellers' attention 

 was attracted by the lofty mountain Gurui, which rose conspicuously 

 to an altitude of some 10,000 feet to the left of their route, and a 

 diversion to the west was made in order to ascend it. The attempt 

 was not successful, but a height of over 3,000 metres was reached ; 

 and although Gurui is extinct, if it were ever a volcano, and no crater 

 was observed, it is, no doubt, of volcanic origin, and has five or six 

 small volcanic satellites on its southern slope. 



At Vurumanangi, on February 10, the party climbed the steep 

 ascent of the western edge of the great Rift Valley, which passes 

 north to Lake Naivasha, and followed its western edge for several 

 marches. Then, turning sharp to the left, they traversed another 

 wide depression, the lowest part of which is occupied by the salt-lake 

 of Nyarasa, and again ascended the plateau. Proceeding onwards 

 they entered Unyamwesi, and on March 10 arrived at the Catholic 

 Mission Station of Msalala, maintained by the "White Fathers" of 

 Algeria. After a few days' rest here, another mission station in 

 Uschirombo, further westwards, kept by the same society, was 

 reached, and three weeks' rest was ordered, during which some of the 



