MOUNTAIN EXPLORATION, RECENT. 



MUSIC. 



545 



er, warm springs were found, the temperature 

 of the trickling mud from which was indicated 

 by the thermometer at 91 Fahr. The last resi- 

 dent bird was observed at 13,700 feet. Pro- 

 ceeding along the central connecting ridge of 

 Kilimandjaro, Mr. Johnston suffered nothing 

 from want of breath or mountain- sickness, al- 

 though his Zanzibari followers were consider- 

 ably affected; but at 16,315 feet, the highest 

 point he reached, he was overcome with a 

 feeling of exhaustion and a sense of utter iso- 

 lation. This was within a little more than 

 2,000 feet of the summit. On the descent, Mr. 

 Johnston again entered the region of vegetation 

 at 15,000 feet, saw traces of buffaloes at 14,- 

 000 feet, and saw three elephants and heard 

 the trumpeting of those animals at night at 

 13,000 feet. On the 18th of October he left 

 his elevated settlement, somewhat unwillingly, 

 and returned to Taveita, passing on the descent, 

 which was by a new route, through some most 

 delightful country, which impressed him as if 

 made for a European settlement. It was "singu- 

 larly English in look, with open grassy spaces, 

 which seemed in the distance ruddy corn-fields, 

 and shady woods and copses full of fine timber. 

 Plenty of running streams of clear water inter- 

 sected this gently sloping, almost level plateau, 

 which, although such a tempting idyllic land, 

 was entirely uninhabited, save by buffaloes 

 and elephants. The average elevation of this 

 country was between 8,000 and 7,000 feet, and 

 the temperature consequently almost cool, 

 ranging from 43 at night to 70 in the mid- 

 day warmth." Mr. Joseph Thomson, who has 

 also made observations on Kilimandjaro in con- 

 nection with the Royal Geographical Society, 

 describes the mountain as a mass of which the 

 larger axis is about sixty miles and the shorter 

 one thirty miles in length. The warm springs 

 are an indication of the still persisting volcanic 

 character of the country. Mandara, one of 

 the mountain chiefs, described to him an earth- 

 quake which four years previously had shaken 

 the mountain so that one could hardly stand. 

 Aseent of Mount Cook, New Zealand. In January, 

 1884, the Rev. W. 8. Green gave an account 

 before the Royal Geographical Society of re- 

 cent explorations of the mountains of the 

 southern island of New Zealand. Accompa- 

 nied by the Swiss guides, Emil Boss and Ul- 

 rich Kauffmann, who, later in the same year 

 (1883), were with Mr. Graham in the Hima- 

 laya mountains, he first made some prelimi- 

 nary explorations in the great Tasman glacier, 

 which, at its terminal end, is 2,300 feet above 

 the level of the sea. Afterward they pitched 

 a camp 8,000 feet below the summit of Mount 

 Cook in the angle formed by the junction with 

 the main stream of a tributary glacier, which 

 was named the Ball glacier. Two or three 

 fruitless attempts were made to ascend the 

 highest peak, and then a successful one. Biv- 

 ouacking for the night near the top of a ridge 

 named the Haart Grat, at the height of 7,000 

 feet above the sea, they, on the next morning 

 VOL. xxiv. 35 A 



(March 2d), struck the head of a glacier to the 

 north, named the Freshfield glacier. Passing 

 over the Haart Grat, they found themselves on 

 the upper firn of the Hochstetter glacier, which 

 they crossed with an hour's smart walking. 

 Reaching a glacier descending from between the 

 ribs of Mount Cook, they followed it upward 

 for five hours to its source at the foot of the 

 highest peak. The summit was reached at 

 about a half-hour before sunset, so that, dark- 

 ness coming on after they had got only a short 

 distance down, they were obliged to rest on a 

 ledge during the night, and descend the next 

 morning, going twenty-two hours without food. 

 Mount Cook, 12,362 feet high, is the loftiest 

 peak of a great range of mountains, which 

 were also partially explored by Dr. Von Len- 

 denfeld and his wife. The southwestern part 

 of the New Zealand Alps, between Milford 

 Sound and Dusky Sound, is regarded as pre- 

 senting a fine field for exploration. The coast- 

 line is broken by numerous fiords, some of 

 them resembling those of Norway, but pre- 

 senting more picturesque and savage scenery. 

 Prof. Bonney, President of the Alpine Club, 

 supplemented Mr. Green's address with the 

 observation that the ascent of Mount Cook 

 was one of no common danger, and daring 

 risks are run which are not very frequently- 

 encountered in the Alps. An additional peril 

 exists in the shape of excessive precipitation. 

 The avalanches are never silent, and the an- 

 nual rainfall on the west side of the range, 

 and probably high on Mount Cook, amounts 

 to 113 inches. 



MUSIC. The Tonic Sol-fa System. A system 

 that proposes to overturn the established order 

 of things in any department of education, lit- 

 erature, or art, should have an unquestionable 

 raison d'etre. In the case of the Tonic Sol-fa 

 system, the apology for its existence and the 

 strength of its claim upon public attention lie 

 in the fact that so small a proportion, even of 

 cultivated people, have an intelligent under- 

 standing of music, while the masses scarcely 

 have any more knowledge of its laws and prin- 

 ciples than a bird that has been taught, by con- 

 stant repetition, to sing a melody. Advocates 

 of the Tonic Sol-fa system claim that this low 

 state of musical culture is an inevitable result 

 of using the staff as a medium for studying 

 music. They argue that the staff represents 

 the instrumental, which is the scientific, side of 

 music ; that each different key or gamut must 

 be represented by artificial signs, correspond- 

 ing with the mechanical appliances of musical 

 instruments ; and that the masses of the people 

 can no more acquire music through the staff 

 than they could gain a knowledge of mathe- 

 matics through the complicated Roman numer- 

 als. They point to history and the present con- 

 dition of musical development throughout the 

 world as fully confirming their views ; inas- 

 much as, even in the most musical of all coun- 

 tries, Germany, it is not the millions of the 

 people who understand music, but the boasted 



