NATURAL SCIENCE 



A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress. 



No. 18. Vol III. AUGUST. 1893. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



The Exploration of East Africa. 



AMONG the latest news of interest that reaches us this month is 

 a communication from Dr. J. W. Gregory, giving a brief account 

 of his expedition in East Africa up to the date of writing, May 8. It 

 appears that he left Mombasa on April 23, taking with him a small 

 force of only forty men, thus hoping the more easily and quickly to 

 traverse any territory where food was scarce. He passed Kilwezi, 

 the Nyika plateau, Nzoi, Kilungu, Zuni, Machakos, the Athi river, 

 Lanjoro, and through the Kikuyu country to Fort Smith. His 

 present letter reports very satisfactory, and is dated from Longenot, 

 450 miles from the coast, and to the north of Lake Naiwasha, Masai- 

 land. 



Dr. Gregory has had little trouble with his men ; there have not 

 been any desertions ; and food, though not abundant, was to be had ; 

 indeed, he says that on the banks of the Malewa he lived in luxury, 

 game and birds being abundant, and a whole sheep costing less than 

 a 2lb. tin of corned beef. There are no vegetables, except Indian 

 corn and dry beans, of which he bought a ton at Fort Smith. His 

 progress has been much delayed by heavy and persistent rains. 



Dr. Gregory states that he has found Senecio johnstoni (a remark- 

 able composite tree which attains a height of from 20 to 25 feet, 

 previously recorded three times from Kilima-njaro, at heights over 

 8,500 feet) in considerable abundance near Naiwasha. His traverse 

 of, and occasional branch excursions into, the Ulu Mountains have 

 yielded considerable evidence with regard to the earth-movements of 

 that district. He has found traces of the former existence of a vast 

 lake to the south of Naiwasha, which was probably destroyed by the 

 east and west line of elevation to which the volcanoes of Longenot and 

 Kenia were due. 



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