304 GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1868. 



Our review of Geographical Discoveries in 

 Africa must necessarily be brief. The physical 

 geography and ethnology of Abyssinia were 

 fully developed in the reports and narrations 

 of Mr. Clement Markham, and other scientific 

 explorers, who accompanied the British Army 

 in its invasion of that country, and many new 

 facts ascertained. Mr. Gerhard Rohlfs pene- 

 trated into "Western Abyssinia, and is now en- 

 deavoring to find an entrance through Darfur 

 into TVadai. Lieutenant Prideaux, an English 

 officer, who was one of Theodore's captors, has 

 given, in Illustrated Travels, a very interesting 

 account of his journeyings and explorations 

 in the Abyssinian Soudan. 



Dr. Livingstone has been heard from during 

 the past year, and was exploring Lake Tan- 

 ganyika and its vicinity at the close of 1867. 

 A recent report represents him as on his way 

 to Zanzibar, from whence he expected to reach 

 the Nile by a route akin to that of Sir S. TV. 

 Baker ; but this is of doubtful authenticity, and 

 it is quite as probable, if he has not already fall- 

 en a victim to the ferocity of the Mazitu or the 

 still more formidable Niam-Niams, that he is 

 endeavoring to make his way westward in the 

 vicinity of the 8th or 10th parallel of south lati- 

 tude, and may at any time be heard from on 

 the west coast. There is supposed to be 

 another large lake northwest of Lake Tan- 

 ganyika which may be, as Tanganyika proba- 

 bly is not, the ultimate source of the Nile, or 

 quite as possibly, the source either of the Ga- 

 bun or of the Congo or Zaire. 



The Niam-Niam country has been partially 

 explored, and the existence of this lake ascer- 

 tained, by three adventurous explorers, the 

 brothers Poncet, Jesuit missionaries, who pene- 

 trated into that barbarous region in 18.63, and 

 remained there three years, one of them losing 

 his life by the cruelties and tortures inflicted 

 on them by the Niam-Niams ; and by C. Piaggia, 

 an Italian geographer, who in 1865 penetrated 

 into the same country. "We have as yet but 

 brief notes of their adventures and discov- 

 eries, and await with some impatience more 

 full details. The Niam-Niams are said be can- 

 nibals, and there is unquestionably some truth 

 in the statement that the os coccygis is in their 

 case prolonged so as to produce a caudal ap- 

 pendage of two or three inches in length. 



Galla-Land, the region west of Zanzibar, 

 in which Baron von der Decken lost his life, has 

 been explored during the past year by Richard 

 Brenner, a German geographer, who has pene- 

 trated fearlessly among the savage and fero- 

 cious tribes of that region. 



Passing southward, we come to the region 

 lying between the Zambesi and the Limpopo 

 Rivers, which during the past year has excited 

 so much attention from the discovery there of 

 extensive gold-fields, by the German geologist 

 and geographer, Carl Mauch. In the ANNUAL 

 CYCLOPEDIA for 1867, some account was given 

 ot the previous exploring tours of Herr Mauch. 

 The possibility of the existence of gold-veins in 



the mountains forming the water-shed between 

 the two rivers had occurred to him, and indeed 

 he had been informed of the existence of aban- 

 doned diggings by his friend Hartley, the ele- 

 phant-hunter. On a subsequent journey, he 

 found, on the river Thuti, or Tuti, an affluent of 

 the Limpopo, in S. lat. 20 40' and E. long, about 

 28 35', an extensive gold-field, extending over 

 a considerable district, and giving evidence of 

 having been formerly worked, and abandoned 

 from the influx of water. Proceeding north- 

 ward, he discovered a second tract, in which 

 the precious metal was abundant, on this same 

 elevated plateau, about 7,000 feet above the 

 sea-level, and 120 miles or more from the 

 southern field. Still farther north, on the 

 Tete, an affluent of the Zambesi, about 40 miles 

 south of the Kraal of Tete, was a third gold- 

 field of still greater extent, and about 250 miles 

 from the one first discovered. He returned to 

 Potchefstrom, the capital of the Transvaal Re- 

 public, with his specimens, and subsequently 

 went from thence to Natal and Cape Town, 

 arriving at the latter place in March, 1868. 

 His announcement of his discovery led to an 

 immediate stampede for the new gold regions, 

 which at the latest dates was still continuing. 

 In July, 1868, Mr. St. Vincent Erskine, son of 

 the Colonial Secretary of Natal, set out from 

 Leydenberg in the Transvaal Republic, and 

 marched for the junction of the Oliphant river 

 with the Limpopo, and thence descended that 

 river to its mouth, a feat which, though often 

 attempted, had not before been accomplished 

 in modern times. He reached the mouth of 

 the river on the 5th of September, and found 

 it coinciding with that laid down on the maps 

 as the Inhampura, in about lat. 25 5' south. 

 This was wholly unexpected, as it was general- 

 ly believed to be at least 200 miles farther 

 north. On the west coast, Mr. Josephat Hahn 

 has continued his articles on the geography, 

 geology, ethnology, etc., of Ova Herero Land, 

 in the Zeitschrift fur Erdlcunde, and the de- 

 scription of this singular and interesting people 

 derives an additional melancholy interest from 

 the death of the traveller, Anderssen, which 

 we have already noticed. 



In AUSTRALIA there is little new or of special 

 interest. Two or three large salt lakes in the 

 interior basin, heretofore known to exist, have 

 been more fully explored, and a grand expedi- 

 tion has been projected by Dr. Neumayer, from 

 Port Denison, near the Burdekin (20 S. lat. and 

 148 E. long, from Greenwich), across the con- 

 tinent, a distance of 1,569 miles, to Swan River- 

 Oat. 31 30' S., and long. 116 45' E.): 



The Sandwich Islands have been visited dur- 

 ing the past year with earthquakes, and in 

 March there was a terrific eruption of the great 

 volcano Mauna Loa, the floor of the crater 

 Kelauea sinking some hundreds of feet, and a 

 new crater opening, the lava from which has 

 proved very destructive to the finest part of 

 the island of East Maui. The shores of this 

 island are said to be sinking slowly. 



