202 



NATURE 



\yan. 13, 1876 



We are in no danger of the theory of " sanitas sanitatum 

 otnnia sanitas " being pushed to excess by sanitary zealots ; 

 and fcr the present, at any rate, the teaching of the Rivers 

 Pollution Commissioners has been nothing more than 

 " take care of the sewage, and the water supply will take 

 care of itself." 



LIEUT. CAMERON IN CENTRAL AFRICA 



THE first detailed news of the latter half of Lieut. 

 Cameron's trans-African expedition was read at the 

 Geographical Society on Monday night, in the form of ex- 

 tracts from letters of the explorer, who intends to remain at 

 Loando until he has a chance of finding a genial climate 

 here. We do not yet possess details sufficient to authorise 

 us in drawing final conclus ions as to the results so far as 

 the great problem of Central African drainage is con- 

 cerned ; though we are quite justified in concluding that 

 Lieut. Cameron has proved himself to be possessed of the 

 qualifications of an explorer of the first rank, and that 

 means ought to be found of making still further use of his 

 valuable services. He has not been able to accomplish 

 all he intended when he set out from Ujiji in March 1874, 

 but he has certainly added very largely to our accurate 

 knowledge of Central Africa. He was not able, owing to 

 the hostility of the natives, and the want of pluck in his 

 followers, to follow the course of the Lualaba in order to 

 ascertain whether or not it joins the Congo. He has, 

 however, obtained data which render it very improbable 

 that the Lualaba and Tanganyika contribute to the Nile 

 system ; the only known outlet of the lake, the Lukuga, he 

 has ascertained, flows into the Lualaba. This latter river 

 at Nyangwe is only 1,400 feet above the sea, or 500 feet 

 below the Nile at Gondokoro, and lies in the centre of an 

 enormously wide valley, " which receives the drainage of 

 all this part of Africa, and is the continuation of the 

 valleys of the Luapula and Lualaba." Cameron found 

 that the river, contrary to Livingstone's report, really 

 turns to the west below Nyangw^, and the Arabs report 

 that further down it flows W.S.W. A river, the Lowa, 

 said to be as large as the Lualaba, at Nyangwe, joins it 

 from the northward a short way farther down, besides 

 other important rivers from the same direction. Cameron 

 failed to make his way to Sankorra, a lake into which the 

 Lualaba falls, and to which " trowser-wearing traders are 

 reported to come in large sailing-boats to buy palm-oil 

 and dust (probably gold) packed in quills." 



Lieut. Cameron traces with considerable minuteness the 

 course of the Lualaba to some distance below Nyangwe. 

 He shows that the true Lualaba in its upper course is the 

 river to the west of Lake Bangweolo, crossed by the 

 Pombeiros in their trading journeys to Cassembe's Town, 

 and that Livingstone's Upper Lualaba is properly called 

 the Luvwa. The river receives many tributaries during 

 its course to Nyangwe, and passes through a number of 

 lakes, so that by the time it reaches its final destination it 

 must be a river surpassed in volume by few others. 



All this seems to indicate that the Lualaba reaches the 

 sea on the west coast, but that it does so by means of the 

 Congo it would at present be unsafe absolutely to assert, 

 though if it do not, what other Central West African 

 river is of sufficient size to carry off the immense drain- 

 age which the Lualaba evidently represents ? 



On account of the vexatious obstacles to his course 

 along the Lualaba, Cameron turned southward, and 

 during his journey south and then west to Benguela he 

 made many valuable and accurate observations which 

 will help greatly in filling up that portion of the map of 

 Africa. Some distance south of Nyangw^ he came upon 

 a small lake Mohrya, fed by the rains, and apparently 

 isolated from the rest of the water-system, but which is 

 interesting as containing regular lake-villages. He is 

 inclined to believe that the Albert Nyanza is much smaller 

 than Sir Samuel Baker makes it, and he found that the 

 Lomami has no connection with the Kassabe, as shown 

 in the map published by Keith Johnston. In the south- 

 ward march Cameron passed the sources of the Lulua, 

 which runs into the Zambesi, whose sources he places in 

 23° E. long, and ii* 15' S. lat. 



Cameron gives the most glowing description of the 

 productiveness of the country through which he has 

 passed ; coal was found, gold, copper, iron, and silver are 

 abundant, and he is confident that with a moderate expen- 

 diture of capital " one of the greatest systems of inland 

 navigation in the world might be utilised." Multitudes of 

 tropical products abound, and the region is well adapted 

 for the cultivation of extra-tropical ones. A canal, he 

 thinks, of twenty to thirty miles in length, would connect 

 the Congo and Zambesi systems, and the resulting com- 

 mercial advantages would be enormous. So the enthu- 

 siastic traveller believes, and whatever may be the results 

 in this direction, the gains which have accrued to accu- 

 rate geographical knowledge from his journey are such as 

 must earn him the warmest thanks of the friends of science. 

 He has taken 400 observations, " and consequently," as 

 Sir Henry Rawlinson remarked, "has soundly established 

 all the geographical landmarks of the country." 



MORELLS ''EUCLID SIMPLIFIED'' 

 Euclid Simplified. Compiled from the most important 

 French works, approved by the University of Paris and 

 the Minister of Public Instruction. By J. R. Morell, 

 formerly H.M. Inspector of Schools. (London : Henry 

 S. King and Co., 1875.) 



EUCLID simplified! "My friend M., with great 

 painstaking, got me to think I understood the first 

 proposition in Euclid, but he gave me over in despair at 

 the second." Had Elia lived in these days of modern 

 geometries perchance he had been a moderate geometer, 

 but his wit might have been dulled. The book before us, 

 however, is not the book we should recommend to a 

 sucking geometer. We look upon it as one of those pri- 

 vate ventures which we hope the Association for the 

 Improvement of Geometrical Teaching will extinguish. 

 There is hardly a page without its crop of faults. The 

 title we consider to be a misnomer, for the method of 

 Euchd (the geometer) is departed from altogether. We 

 should look to find in a " Euclid Simplified " something 

 far different from this. The treatise is based upon good 

 geometrical authorities, as will be seen by a reference to the 

 prefatory remarks ; it is to the form in which these authorities 

 are presented that we object. Who is the interpreter ? A 

 former "H.M. Inspector of Schools." We have been 

 wont to look upon these gentlemen as masters of one or 

 more tongues, and as having a fair acquaintance with the 



