August 8, 1889] 



NATURE 



OOJ 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



We regret to learn of the death of Lieutenant Tappenbeck in 

 the Cameroons. He, with Lieutenant Kund, had been doing 

 good work in the Cameroons interior, as they had before done 

 in the Congo region. Lieutenant Kund has returned to 

 Berlin, and has been describing the results of his second journey 

 into the interior. In general, he and his companions followed 

 the same route as on the previous expedition, and were received 

 in quite a friendly way by the natives who had before attacked 

 them. Very interesting observations were made as to the 

 ethnological conditions of the South Cameroons region. A spot 

 was selected for a station, of which the late Lieutenant Tappen- 

 beck was to have been chief. The region is close to the limit 

 of distribution of the Bantus, and there is a considerable variety 

 of ethnological mixtures. Within the limits of the primaeval 

 forest, which lies behind the narrow coast stretch, the explorers 

 came upon an almost dwarfish tribe, with yellow skins, hunting 

 in scattered hordes, and building only temporary shelters for 

 themselves. On the plateau, again, the explorers met with a 

 free and friendly population of large, strong, and handsome men, 

 with a well-organized social system. Quite different from the 

 degraded coast people and the decaying forest people, these 

 highland tribes have preserved the original good features of 

 iheir race ; and among them, Lieutenant Kund thinks, the 

 scientific and industrial development of the Cameroons might 

 be carried out. 



Everyone interested in geographical exploration will be 

 sorry to hear of the death, apparently by assassination, of 

 M. Camille Douls, while on his way across the Sahara towards 

 Timbuctoo. M. Douls was born at Bordes, in Aveyron, in 

 1864. In 1881 he visited the Antilles and Central America; 

 and four years afterwards he spent some time in Morocco, 

 studying the language and manners of the Arabs. In 1887 he 

 explored the unvisited western regions of the Sahara ; and last 

 year he started on the journey which was destined, unhappily, 

 to be his last. 



Mr. Ernest Favenc describes in the August number of 

 the Proceedings of the Koyal Geographical Society, the re- 

 sults of a recent exploring journey in West Australia, in 

 the country situated about 24° S. lat. The result of the trip 

 was the discovery of several large tributary rivers of the 

 Ashburton, running through magnificent pastoral country. 

 Mr. Favenc found the physical features of the country dif- 

 ferent entirely to the conjectural ones placed on some of the 

 maps of West Australia. Still there is a very great scarcity of 

 water, many of the river beds being quite empiy. The geolo- 

 gical formation of the Ashburton is against the likelihood of any 

 valuable mineral deposits being discovered in the future. There 

 seem, however, to be indications of a gold reef at the head of the 

 Gascoyne. 



Colonel Antonio R. P. Labre, a Brazilian gentleman, has 

 for some time been doing important exploring work in the 

 region between the Beni and Madre de Dios rivers and the 

 Purus. These great South American rivers have been often 

 enough followed along their courses, but no one had attempted 

 to penetrate through the primaeval forests that separate their 

 courses. This is what Colonel Labre has done, his leading 

 object being to explore the india-rubber resources of the region. 

 There are many rubber stations along these rivers, mainly 

 occupied by Bolivians. The principal journey of Colonel 

 I>abre was undertaken for the purpose of crossing westward from 

 the india-rubber settlements on the Madre de Lios to the nearest 

 navigable point on the Aquiry tributary of the Purus, and ascer- 

 taining if the distance and the nature of the ground presented 

 facilities for the construction of a road, and ultimately of a rail- 



way. He ascended the Madeira from the Amazons, and although 

 this is the only route by which the considerable trade to and fro 

 between the Amazons and Bolivia is carried on, it took Colonel 

 Labre, with a large and well-equipped expedition, thirty-four days 

 to accomplish the 161 miles between San Antonio at the foot of 

 the long series of falls, and the town of Villa Bella at the mouth 

 of the Beni. During the overland journey several tribes of 

 Indians were met with, about whom little or nothing is known. 

 The people are mostly Araunas, and seem to have a well- 

 organized social system, with temples and some form of worship. 

 The women, some of them light-coloured, are not allowed to 

 enter the temples. The idols are not of human form, but are 

 geometrical figures made of wood and polished. Several other 

 tribes were met with. The general result of Colonel Labre's 

 expedition was to open up a route of communication between the 

 large towns of the Amazons and the whole of Northern Bolivia, 

 a route which may be extended to Southern Peru by the naviga- 

 tion of the Madre de Dios to the province of Pancastambo and 

 the rich and populous province of Cuzco. Colonel Labre be- 

 lieves that the Purus and its affluents contain about 40,000 

 indigenes speaking forty or more different languages. 



Dr. H. Meyer has arrived at Zanzibar for the purpose of 

 making another attempt to ascend to the highest summit of 

 Kilimanjaro. He will afterwards proceed to explore Mount 

 Kenia. 



Acco^'Di'^Gio Pelermantis Mitteihingert, Prof. A. Wichmann 

 has recently returned to Europe from his journey to the Dutch 

 East Indies. On the little island of Samauw, lying off the 

 coast of Timor, he found numerous mud volcanoes. On the 

 island of Rotti, at the south-west end of Timor, he discovered 

 upon the slopes, in two mud volcanoes, some ammonites and 

 belemnites, the first Jurassic fossils which have been found in 

 this archipelago. Prof. Wichmann crossed from Palos, on the 

 island of Celebes, to the Bay of Tomine, on the east coast. The 

 route lay over a mountain range about 3000 feet high, covered 

 with primaeval forests, and uninhabited. These mountains are 

 composed of gneiss, crystalline slate, and granite. 



M. H. Coudreau recently described to the Paris Geographi- 

 cal Society the results of his last expedition to the Tumuc- 

 Humac Mountains (Guiana), which were only very imperfectly 

 explored by the late M. Crevaux. M. Coudreau effected a sur- 

 vey on the scale of i : loo.oco of 2500 miles of route, 1625 miles 

 of which lay along river-courses, and the remaining 875 among 

 the mountains. A complete survey was executed of the courses 

 of the Maroni, Oyapock, and Maroni, from their mouths to their 

 sources. M. Coudreau penetrated into the trackless part of the 

 forest, where a passage had to be hewn out. Measurements 

 were made of 150 summits, and the sources of nearly all the 

 water-courses of both slopes of the range were fixed. The cli- 

 mate of these highlands is healthy, the m.ean temperature being 

 about 72° F. Immense forests cover a large belt of country 

 at the foot of the mountains. From an ethnographical point of 

 view, M. Coudreau's mission has resulted in the careful study of 

 the manners, customs, and dialects of the score or so of Indian 

 tribes inhabiting this region. 



M. Borelli, who for three years has been exploring in the 

 Shoa region and the Galla country, tracing the course of an 

 important River Omo, is convinced that this river falls into Lake 

 Samburu, the Prince Rudolf Lake of Count Teleki ; and that 

 therefore the Omo does not belong to the Nile basin, but to an 

 entirely distinct inland lake system, which has no outlet. M. 

 Borelli has brought home hundreds of photographs of the 

 people of the region he has been exploring, and large collections 

 of specimens of the products of the country which will be 

 deposited in the Trocadero. 



General Strelbitzky has just published a new edition of 

 his work, "The Superficies of the Russian Empire and the 

 Neighbouring States of Asia." He has incorporated in this 

 edition all the new data, accumulated since 1875, relating to 

 the measurement of the superficies of Russia and her Asiatic 

 possessions. Detailed data as to the superficies of interior seas 

 and lakes, islar.ds, and drainage-areas of separate rivers are 

 added ; and the writer presents the first trustworthy information 

 as to the superficies of China, Persia, Afghanistan, Bukhara, 

 Khiva, Corea, and Japan. All figures are given in geographical 

 miles, kilometres, and Russian versts. 



