GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



311 



claim to the little islands near Corea which 

 were to be used as a marine station Port 

 Hamilton they having been found unsuitable 

 for the purpose. 



Several attempts to sound the depth of the 

 crater of the volcano of Asama-jama north- 

 west of Tokio were made by Mr. Milne some 

 time since. One hundred feet from the edge 

 of the crater the lead reached a depth of 441 

 feet; at 300 feet from the edge the lead de- 

 scended more than TOO feet, when the attempt 

 had to be given up on account of the breaking 

 of the line. 



In a report to the Geographical Society of 

 Paris, Joseph Martin, the French mining en- 

 gineer, describes his journeys in Eastern Si- 

 beria. He crossed the Stanowoi mountains, a 

 route never before taken by scientific explor- 

 ers. He was obliged to give up his first plan 

 to cross this watershed between the Lena and 

 Amoor by the two tributaries Aldan and Zea, 

 and to pass again over the watershed between 

 Olekma and Witim, and then the parallel chains 

 of the Stanowoi between the Tungir and Ama- 

 sar. In this southwestern part the range pre- 

 sents rounded summits covered with forests 

 mostly of larches and birches; its average 

 height is 1,200 metres, while single points rise 

 as high as 1,500 metres. 



An attempt made by M. Sibiriakoff to send 

 his steamer " Nordenskiold " to the Yenesei this 

 autumn, by way of the Kara Sea, was unsuc- 

 cessful. The vessel encountered much drift-ice 

 and fog, but reached the mouth of the Pet- 

 chora, where it secured a cargo, and returned 

 to Bremen after a voyage of sixteen days. An- 

 other vessel, the k ' Phoenix," in charge of Cap- 

 tain Wiggins, reached and entered the Yenesei 

 after a voyage of about six weeks, the first since 

 1880. 



Australia. The central desert of Australia 

 is gradually becoming available for pasture- 

 land, as the geography of the country is better 

 understood. Water is conveyed by ditches, 

 and great tracts from which travelers have here- 

 tofore been shut out by the want of water are 

 found capable of sustaining vast herds of cattle. 



W. J. O'Dounell has found a new route to 

 the Derby gold-fields by the Ord river from 

 West Australia. He discovered a pass through 

 the Leopold II mountains near Mount Leake, 

 whereby the long circuit by way of the Mar- 

 garet river can be avoided. 



The Melbourne section of the geographical 

 society, of Australia is planning an expedition 

 into the west Australian desert under the 

 leadership of E. Giles, to penetrate in a north- 

 westerly direction from Lake Amadeus, and 

 cross the unknown portion of the continent. 



In an account of his expedition through Cen- 

 tral Australia from Lake Nash to the border of 

 Queensland, David Lindsay describes the region 

 traversed as a high table-land, bordered on the 

 south by sandy plains and on the north by 

 the coast mountains; large tracts of it are 

 covered with nutritious grass. In the rainy 



season it is crossed by the Playford, Buchanan, 

 and other rivers, flowing westward ; in the dry 

 season they are lost in the depressions that 

 stretch eastward from the Ashburton range. 

 Water can be conveyed to all parts, and Mr. 

 Lindsay believes that the whole plateau can be 

 made available for sheep-raising. An impor- 

 tant discovery made by Mr. Lindsay in the 

 McDonell mountains has drawn there a crowd 

 of adventurers and caused the formation of a 

 mining company in Adelaide. This is the dis- 

 covery of rubies and garnets. R. Pearson, who 

 made a journey to the place for further search, 

 returned in July with a box of the stones taken 

 from a slight depth at Barrow Creek during 

 the space of a fortnight. 



Islands. An expedition left Sydney in the 

 spring, under the leadership of Theodore F. 

 Bevan, to explore some parts of New Guinea, 

 and met with good success, three new rivers 

 being discovered. Mr. Bevan's ship, the " Vic- 

 tory," entered the Aird river, discovered by 

 Joseph Blackwood in 1845, and, sailing up it, 

 found it to be only one of many subdivisions in 

 the delta of a large river, navigable. to the 

 mountains. This was named Douglas river, 

 and a large tributary was called Philip river. 

 Returning, the steamer followed another of 

 the arms of the river to Deception Bay. Near 

 Bald Head, the eastern promontory of this 

 bay, a third large stream was found, and fol- 

 lowed a distance of 110 miles, when it became 

 too shallow for farther progress. It was called 

 the Queen's Jubilee, or Jubilee river. It 

 was found to be bordered with forests seem- 

 ingly uninhabited. The Stanhope river forms 

 a common estuary with the Queen's Jubilee, 

 west of Bald Head, and is navigable for a 

 distance of forty miles. The many branchings 

 of the Queen's Jubilee indicate that this part of 

 the island is a great delta. 



Of the people encountered Mr. Bevan writes : 

 " The natives of the few villages found gave 

 indications of Dravidian origin, as well as of 

 both Moluccan and Melanesian characteristics, 

 by dialect, appearance, and customs. From- a 

 new tribe beyond Aird Hills, a long screen of 

 lattice-work was obtained, like those used in 

 Siam for stretching across the mouths of creeks 

 to insnare fish. New Guineans likewise use 

 it to form a weir. The war-shields of the 

 Kiva Pori natives resembled not indistinctly 

 those used till lately in New Caledonia. All 

 these tribes wore nose-pencils and distended 

 the lobes of their ears. They smoked sun- 

 dried tobacco (corresponding to the manila 

 leaf) by means of bamboo tubes. The Tu- 

 muans, especially, might be described as almost 

 of an intellectual cast. The canoes were dug- 

 outs, with either a bank of mud or a small 

 boy squatting in the prow and opposing his 

 back as an obstacle to the incoming water. 

 All were without outriggers. Some, however, 

 were of unusual dimensions, one Kiva Pori 

 canoe holding twenty-nine men, who all stood 

 up to paddle. Not a few were grotesquely 



