144 Annual Retrospect, [Jan., 
Dead Sea relative to the Mediterranean has been set at rest. Much 
progress has been made towards raising the fund necessary for a 
complete survey of the Holy Land. It is contemplated, if money 
enough for the work can be obtained, to place each special subject 
in the hands of well-known men, and thus ensure the best possible 
information on the Archeology, Geology, Geography, History, 
Zoology, Botany, and Meteorology of this interesting region. 
In African exploration we have to record the failure of the 
Kast African expedition, under Baron C. von der Decken, and that 
of Du Chaillu in the West. At the same time we have the satis- 
faction of having Mr. 8. W. Baker amongst us, the discoverer of a 
vast lake, the Albert Nyanza, “a limitless sheet of blue water, 
sunk low in a vast depression of the country.” The western shore, 
some sixty miles distant’ from Mr. Baker’s place of observation, 
consisted of a range of mountains, 7,000 feet in height. There is 
no doubt but that this lake and the Victoria Nyanza of Speke ~ 
and Grant are the great reservoirs of the Nile. 
Of Mr. Palgrave’s interesting journeys in Arabia full mention 
has been made in the Geographical Chronicles of this journal, and 
we must now in conclusion add a few brief words on the subject of 
Natural History. 
A record of Zoological progress will be found in another portion 
of this number, and as far as the application of Zoology and Botany 
to the Arts is concerned, there is but little of. mterest to be noted. 
Of the most vital importance to man are the efforts beng made, 
and we are happy to say successfully, to cultivate the Cinchona 
plant in India. The plantations on the Neilgherries are thriving 
beyond expectation, and a large supply of quinine may doubtless be 
looked for from this source. And the successful cultivation of this 
useful plant in one of our colonies is an unanswerable argument in 
favour of further researches in all our colonies on the subject of their 
floras generally. These researches have been pushed forward most 
vigorously of late by Dr. Grisebach in the British West Indies, by 
Bentham and Miller in Australia, by Dr. G. Lawson in Canada, 
and Dr. Hooker in New Zealand. Indeed, if there be one lesson 
more than another that an enterprizing people should lay to heart, 
it is that they should not judge hastily which of their colonies are 
useful, and which are not. The only justification that a nation such 
