GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



flow of the best wells seems to indicate that 

 for many years to come no fears need be enter- 

 tained of exhausting the supply. 



In December, 1886, there were, in the im- 

 mediate neighborhood of Pittsburg, six compa- 

 nies, controlling 107 wells and 500 miles of 

 pipe. The total area of cross-section of pipe 

 leading into the city is estimated at 1,346,608 

 square inches, with an aggregate capacity for 

 delivering more than 25,000,000 cubic feet of 

 gas a day, at the moderate rate of two cubic 

 feet a minute for each square foot of cross-sec- 

 tion. The Philadelphia Natural Gas Compa- 

 ny, the largest in Pittsburg, supplies more than 

 400 manufactories and 7,000 dwellings with 

 gas for light and heat. All the companies fur- 

 nish gas at so much a year, according to con- 

 tracts based upon a general estimate of the 

 amount required. A house containing twelve 

 rooms is supplied for from $70 to $90 a year. 

 Devices are in use which regulate the tem- 

 perature of rooms so that it does not vary 

 more than one or two degrees, no matter 

 what the outside temperature may be; and 

 similar devices adjust the supply of gas to 

 illuminating burners, so that it does not vary, 

 whatever may be the pressure in the pipes. 

 Leak-detectors, too, have been brought to a 

 good degree of perfection, and in other ways 

 the chances of accident have been reduced un- 

 til the gas is regarded as no more dangerous 

 than other means of securing light and heat. 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 

 Africa. Reports were received early in the year 

 that the English Bishop of Central Africa, 

 Rev. S. Hannington, and almost his entire 

 company of 50 men, had been massacred in 

 Usoga. The report was unhappily confirmed 

 by a dispatch received from Zanzibar in Feb- 

 ruary. The bishop, desiring to open a more 

 direct route of communication between Ugan- 

 da and the coast, had followed the general 

 course of Thomson's route, and arrived in Oc- 

 tober, 1885, at the northern shore of Victoria 

 Nyanza. After leaving the black missionary, 

 Rev. W. Jones, in Kawirondo, northeast of the 

 lake, he went on to the territory of Csoga, 

 east of the Victoria Nile. Here the company 

 were taken prisoners by a band of Waganda, 

 and delivered to the King of Usoga, who sent 

 messengers to his superior, King Muanga, of 

 Uganda, for instructions. The messengers were 

 sent back, October 25, with orders that the 

 execution should take place ; and neither the 

 influence of the three English missionaries, nor 

 that of the members of the Catholic mission, 

 could prevent the fulfillment of the command. 

 It took place October 31, in Usoga ; only four 

 men escaped and reached Zanzibar with Mr. 

 Jones. The only reason that can be given for 

 the crime is the suspicion with which the King 

 has been inspired toward Europeans by his 

 Arabian advisers. The bishop did not take 

 the usual route from the southern shore of the 

 lake, but reached the border of Uganda by way 

 of the province of Usoga. This is regarded as 

 VOL. xxvi. 24 A 



the most insecure part of the kingdom, the 

 people cherishing a strong feeling of independ- 

 ence. The English and the Roman Catholic 

 missionaries are placed in a very unsafe posi- 

 tion by this event. Dr. Fischer, who was at 

 the time at the south end of the lake, found 

 his mission also interfered with, as he could 

 hardly hope to accomplish the relief of Emin 

 Bey and his companions under such circum- 

 stances. 



By a fortunate accident, Bishop Hanning- 

 ton's journal fell into the hands of the English 

 missionaries in Rubaga, and a copy of it was 

 sent to England, to be published by the Church 

 Missionary Society. Mr. Mackay says that it 

 appears from the journal that the bishop fol- 

 lowed very nearly the route of Thomson's re- 

 turn journey from the Massai country. It 

 extends from July 23 to October 6 ; to the ar- 

 rival at Sakwas, near Kwa-Sundu, at the north- 

 east corner of Victoria Lake. Mr. Mackay, 

 who has been in Uganda eight years, describes 

 the danger in which the English missionaries 

 have been from the designs of the King ; their 

 position was the more critical, as the suspicion 

 of the King was strengthened by the arrival 

 of Bishop Hannington in Usoga simultaneous- 

 ly with that of Dr. Fischer in Kagei, of let- 

 ters from the Sultan of Zanzibar, of the Eng- 

 lish resident Dr. Kirk, and of the Egyptian 

 Government to Emin Bey, and repeated at- 

 tempts to relieve the latter. The missionaries 

 could do nothing for him, in the danger in 

 which they themselves stood ; but they man- 

 aged to warn Dr. Fischer in time not to take 

 the advice of the Arabs in Uganda and be en- 

 ticed to Rubaga, where it was designed to 

 murder him. 



All attempts hitherto made for the relief of 

 Emin Bey have failed a fact not surprising, 

 considering the difficulties of the undertaking, 

 and the insufficiency of all the measures taken 

 to reach him. At last, the Egyptian Govern- 

 ment seems to have awakened to a sense of 

 responsibility in the matter, and, besides be- 

 stowing upon him the title pasha, has deter- 

 mined to apply 10,000 to the support of an 

 expedition for his rescue. Some private indi- 

 viduals in England will also contribute to the 

 expedition, which is to be led by Henry M. 

 Stanley. Emin Pasha is Dr. Schnitzler, of Si- 

 lesia, in Austria, who entered the Turkish ar- 

 my as a surgeon. He was appointed by Gen. 

 Gordon, in 1878, to be Governor- General of 

 the Egyptian Equatorial Provinces, an immense 

 district having some 6,000,000 inhabitants. 

 He found the affairs of the provinces in a 

 wretched condition, but went energetically to 

 work to improve them, and with such success 

 that in three years the slave-traders were driv- 

 en from the provinces, and the finances, which 

 had formerly shown a deficit of 38,000 per 

 annum, presented, at the close of 1881, a sur- 

 plus of 8,000, gained, not by heavier taxa- 

 tion, but by honest and economical adminis- 

 tration. He taught the natives to cultivate 



