Oct. lo, 1889] 



NATURE 



571 



years is reviewed, and the names of Messrs. Anderson 

 and Coates Palgrave, Lord Mayo, and P6re Duparquet of 

 the Huilla Mission are honourably mentioned. Those of 

 Drs. Hdpfner and Stapff might have been added, bringing 

 up to May 1886 the roll of authorities whose labours 

 need only some new political complication to become of 

 palpable value. Moreover, it mny here be parenthetically 

 stated that the West African Telegraph Company have 

 recently prolonged their cable south of St. Paul de 

 Loanda, opened as a station in 1886 — a proceeding which 

 should facilitate the acquisition of much new geographical 

 information in connection with the region specified. 

 Already has a contribution from one of its officers 

 appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical 

 Society, from which we learn that the harbour of 

 Mossamedes is only second to that of Loanda among the 

 harbours of Western Africa, and that the latter, possess- 

 ing less depth of water, and being smaller, suffers in 

 the comparison. Benguela is described as the more 

 important commercial port, the total amount of its 

 annual imports and exports (^268,398) being nearly four 

 times more than those of Mossamedes. 



Now that thirty-nine years have passed since this 

 exploration was undertaken it may be well to recall its 

 extent and character. As apparent from the map illustra- 

 tive of his labours, Mr. Galton moved in a north-easterly 

 direction from Walfisch Bay to Barmen, journeying a 

 distance of nearly 200 miles. After an excursion from 

 that place — called " the head seat of intelligence as regards 

 Damara and Hottentot movements" — he struck off to 

 Ovampo Land in the north by a route involving a slight 

 detour to the east. But before making a fair start from 

 Schmelen's Hope (a point somewhat further inland than 

 Barmen), he was led by circumstances to Eikhams and 

 Rehoboth in the south ; and part of the return road 

 from Ondongo, the ultima Thule of his northerly journey, 

 was by a track other than that he had at first pursued. 

 From the date that his waggons left Schmelen's Hope 

 to that of their return, a period of exactly five months 

 elapsed. Of these, we are told that " ninety days were 

 employed in journeying onwards, independently of such 

 excursions as were made from time to time to look out for 

 roads." The return distance is reckoned at about 462 

 miles, the average rate of travelling being nine and a 

 half miles a day- — fair indeed with a more or less iniprovised 

 carriage, barbarous retinue, and tired or hungry and thirsty 

 bullocks. 



Some notion of the privations endured may be gathered 

 from our traveller's statement that, on his leaving Schme- 

 len's Hope for Ovampoland, his "biscuit and every kind of 

 vegetable food had been eaten up " ; or, as later ex- 

 pressed, he had " no biscuit, no flour, or anything of the 

 sort." He and his party had to live on the oxen and 

 sheep they possessed, and the game they contrived to 

 shoot on the way, so that grain-food was a special luxury. 

 Milk, though used in profusion by the Damaras, could 

 rarely be purchased from them, owing to some impeditive 

 superstition. Their ordinary pabulum, pig-nuts, was 

 " worthless and indigestible," inasmuch as it should be 

 " eaten in excessive quantities to afford enough nourish- 

 ment to sustain life." As to water, this was a more 

 serious matter still. On some days it utterly failed ; on 

 others it was brackish, or barely drinkable — as may be 



inferred from the following descrp'ion of a I'ley, or 

 watering-place : — 



" Fancy a shallow pool, from 10 to 20 yards across, 

 and from 6 to 12 inches deep, in which a herd of wild 

 animals, say fifty zebras, have been splashing and rolling 

 themselves all night, and which they have left in every 

 respect like the water pumped out of a farmyard ; and, 

 where wild animals are wanting, the oxen, in spite of 

 every precaution, will do the same." 



The sporting adventures of the book are especially 

 remarkable. It is not improbable that more than one 

 tender-minded reader will accord sympathy to a wounded 

 giraffe hunted to the death, or a dog slain for the sake of 

 its skin — both occasions illustrating an act perpetrated 

 to satisfy the pressing wants of man. Few, however, can 

 fail to appreciate the manly qualities of a traveller whose 

 career in Africa brings him into frequent and willing con- 

 tact with the lion, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, elephant, 

 and those larger and more formidable animals contention 

 with which is risk of limb and life. The same stout- 

 heartedness is exhibited in his intercourse with the savage 

 inhabitants of the tracts through which he moves, and in 

 the fearless but efficient diplomacy which characterizes 

 his dealings with Bushman and Hottentot, Namaqua, 

 I Damara, Ovampo, or whatever the designation of those 

 with whom he has to do. 



Not the least exciting part of Mr. Gallon's narrative 

 will be found in the penultimate chapter. At this time 

 he had retraced his steps from Ovampo Land to Barmen. 

 Instead, however, of continuing his return journey to the 

 coast, he resolved to devote three and a half out of the 

 four months which would necessarily intervene before 

 the arrival of an expected schooner in Walfisch Bay, to 

 an expedition to the eastward, for the double purpose of 

 seeing something of the Hottentot inhabitants, and ascer- 

 taining how far correct was the statement that the Karri- 

 karri Desert was " interposed as an impracticable barrier 

 between the sea-coast countries and Lake 'Ngami." The 

 following extract from this particular chapter (pp. 168-69) 

 furnishes a good specimen of the writer's descriptive 

 powers. He and his associates had just repaired some 

 circular walls of loose stones intended to serve as 

 shooting-screens : — 



" It is one of the most strangely exciting positions that 

 a sportsman can find himself in, to lie behind one of these 

 screens or holes by the side of a path leading to a 

 watering-place so thronged with game as 'Tounobis. 

 Herds of gnus glide along the neighbouring paths in 

 almost endless files ; here standing out in bold relief 

 against the sky, there a moving line just visible in the 

 deep shades ; and all as noiseless as a dream. Now and 

 then a slight pattering over the stones makes you start ; 

 it jars painfully on the strained ear, and a troop of 

 zebras pass frolicking by. All at once you observe, 20 

 or 30 yards off, two huge ears pricked up high above the 

 brushwood ; another few seconds, and a sharp solid horn 

 indicates the cautious and noiseless approach of the great 

 rhinoceros. Then the rifle or gun is poked slowly over the 

 wall, which has before been covered with a plaid, or some- 

 thing soft, to muffle all grating sounds ; and you keep a 

 sharp and anxious look-out through some cranny in your 

 screen. The beast moves nearer and nearer ; you 

 crouch close up under the wall, lest he should see over 

 it and perceive you. Nearer, nearer still ; yet some- 

 how his shape is indistinct, and perhaps his position 

 unfavourable to warrant a shot. Another moment, and 



