GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS IN 1890. 



359 



there in 1864 of Baron Meitel, one of Mr. Herz's 

 two predecessors in this region. 



Eight miles from Klutschefskol [said Mr. Herz] 

 is the Klutscbefskaya volcano, 15,760 feet in height. 

 Tremendous clouds of smoke are puffed up from it 

 constantly. Its twin peak, Uschkinskaya, is 12,880 

 feet high. We undertook the ascent of the big mount- 

 ain, and, curiously enough, we tried it in sleighs. 

 We managed to get up about 6,000 feet in this fash- 

 ion, and there left the sleigh, to go about 2,000 feet 

 higher to the saddle formed by the junction of the 

 two volcanoes. From that point I saw a magnificent 

 view, one that no other traveler from foreign lands 

 had ever looked upon. To the northeast was the 

 Klutschefskaya, to the southeast the Uschkinskaya, 

 to the south a third active volcano. Tolbatschin- 

 skaya, 8,300 feet above the sea level, and in the very 

 far distance just a glimpse of the Behriug Sea. To 

 the north, thirty miles off, there was in sight a fourth 

 active volcano, Schivelitsch, 11,000 feet high, which 

 in 1854, by an unparalleled eruption, laid waste the 

 countiy for 250 miles around. The ascent to the sad-' 

 die occupied two days and a half, while the descent 

 was made in four hours and thirty minutes. 



Mr. Herz left Klutschefskol on April 17, and 

 on Sunday, ten days later, arrived at his destina- 

 tion, Petfopaulovski, after having covered, ac- 

 cording to his calculation, 15,000 kilometres, or 

 about 9,000 miles, since his departure from St. 

 Petersburg. 



Australia and Islands. Mr. A. Weston led 

 a party from Cairns in June, 1889, for an ex- 

 ploration of the Bellenden Kerr hills, in the 

 northeastern part of Queensland. The highest 

 point of the range, Center Peak, was found to 

 be 5,240 feet in height; it thus ranks second 

 among the mountains of Queensland, the height 

 of Mount Lindsay, near the southern border, 

 having been determined by the Norwegian ex- 

 plorer Borchgrevink to be 5,711 feet. Mount 

 Bartle Frere was found to be 5,000 feet in height. 

 This is the first excursion sent out in Queensland 

 for exclusively scientific purposes. The explorer 

 has made an attempt to learn and preserve the 

 native names of the places visited, and makes 

 the very sensible suggestion that these names be 

 used in preference to the unmeaning repetition 

 of the same English names that appear in all 

 the British possessions. 



Sir Thomas Elder, who has furnished the 

 means for three expeditions of discovery into 

 the interior of Australia, is making preparations 

 for another, this time to explore the territory 

 north and northwest of Lake Amadeus, where 

 it is supposed that great reaches of pasture land 

 can be opened up for use. In a journey to this 

 lake, Mr. W. H. Tietkins " succeeded in defining 

 its western boundary, which he found to lie near 

 Mount Unapproachable of Giles. The western 

 end, for a distance of 20 miles, was found to be 

 nowhere more than five miles in width." 



It is reported that traces have been recently 

 found of the Leichhardt expedition, which was 

 lost in western Australia forty-two years ago. 

 Some natives in the neighborhood of Lagrange 

 Bay, in the Kimberley district, reported to Alex- 

 ander M'Phee, who has learned their language, 

 that a white man called Tun-Gun was living 

 with a native tribe many days' journey to the 

 southeast. Taking some of them with him, he 

 sought out Tun-Gun, who, though light-colored, 

 was of genuine Australian type, and took him 

 to Melbourne. The old men of the tribe to 



which he belongs told Mr. M'Phee of the fate of 

 an expedition of white men, which they had 

 learned from a neighboring tribe. It was to the 

 effect that two white men and two clothed black 

 men had come long ago from the northeast on 

 horseback, and had perished for want of water. 

 The horses had died first ; then the white men, 

 after desperate efforts in all directions to find 

 water. Tun-Gun's tribe had seen them pass 

 through on their horses, and afterward found the 

 corpses of the white men. The region is almost 

 destitute of water, though there are isolated 

 places among the rocks where a little may be 

 found, but hardly without help from the natives. 

 It was further reported that the other tribe 

 still held an axe that had belonged to the party, 

 and some bones, fragments of the harness, and 

 other relics. Steps have been taken" by the Mel- 

 bourne Society to verify these statements if pos- 

 sible, recover 'the relics, and erect a pyramid of 

 stone over the place where the explorers lost 

 their lives. Leichhardt crossed the continent 

 forty years ago, without camels and with a very 

 poorly equipped expedition. 



The highest peak of the Owen Stanley range in 

 New. Guinea has been known as Mount Owen 

 Stanley. It was described by Mr. Forbes, who 

 named the highest of several nearly equal pin- 

 nacles at its summit Huxley Peak, and the oth- 

 ers Mount Walker, Abercromby Peak, Wharton 

 Summit, and Coutts-Trotter Crag. He did not 

 ascend the mountain, but took observations and 

 described it as " a gigantic isolated pyramidal 

 block culminating in several acuminate rugged 

 central peaks and pinnacles." Recently the 

 mountain was ascended by the Administrator of 

 British New Guinea, who, as might, perhaps, 

 have been expected, proceeded to rechristen it 

 with a royal, name, calling it Mount Victoria. 

 He could not distinguish any one of its peaks 

 as. higher than the rest, and gives a different 

 description of the general appearance of the 

 mountain, a difference easily accounted for by 

 the difference in the point of view. The height 

 of the mountain is given at 13,121 feet, a little 

 less than former estimates. The Stanley range 

 ends abruptly with this mountain, not being con- 

 nected with the points to the southeast. The 

 waters from the northwestern slope flow toward 

 the northern coast, but the rnouth of the river 

 that receives them could not be distinguished. 

 Between Mount Owen Stanley and the northern 

 coast are lofty chains whose summits nearly 

 reach an equal height. From the southern slope 

 the Vanapa river flows away to Redscar Bay, 

 northwest of Port Moresby. The upper course of 

 Fly river was examined by the Administrator ; its 

 sources appeared to be on German territory. Ex- 

 ploring the Mai-Fussa, he saw to the west, 30 

 miles from the boundary line, a large stream, 

 which he followed up for 120 miles, finding its 

 source to be only 7 miles from the upper course 

 of the Fly. 



The Macquaria group of islands, taken pos- 

 session of by the Government of New Zealand 

 in 1889, has been officially declared a depend- 

 ence of the colony of Tasmania. 



Captain H. Dreyer, of the German schooner 

 " Neptune," has reported the discovery of a 

 group of seven small islands northward from 

 Sunday island of the Kermadec group. Three 



