lOO 



NATURE 



[Dec. 5, 1878 



of 350 miles, undertaken with the view of aiding the Rev. 

 C. T. Wilson, and he promises a detailed account of his 

 troubles then on another occasion. In the course of this 

 march he had to cross the extensive wilderness of 

 Mgunda Mkali, which he describes as being for the most 

 part not merely a swamp, but this year more under water 

 than above it. Day after day the party waded and 

 splashed through mud and water, now over the ankles, 

 sometimes up to the knee, and here and there up 

 to the waist or higher. Hopeless and still more hope- 

 less, Mr. Mackay remarks, the wading seemed to be- 

 come, and he found that they were crossing Avhat was 

 neither more nor less than the source at once of the Nile, 

 the Congo, and the Rufiji. This gigantic boggy plain or 

 moss Cameron calls the Nya Kun Swamp, and, where 

 Mr. Mackay crossed it, in S. lat. 5° 20', his aneroids 

 recorded an average elevation of 4,000 feet exactly. To 

 the north, in Usukuma, the swamp narrows itself into 

 the sluggish Lewumberi River, the most southerly of the 

 sources of the Nile. From this swamp, too, the rapid 

 Mdaburu River takes its rise, and flows southward into 

 the Ruaha, in Unyoro, and Uhehe, and thence to the 

 Indian Ocean, where it is known as the Rufiji. A day's 

 march east of Tura Mr. Mackay found the swamp con- 

 tract to a breadth of 300 yards, with increased depth, 

 and slight indications of flow to the southward ; it then 

 rounds to the west, steering clear of liwe-la-Singa, and, 

 after two more days, it was crossed— a flooded, five-armed 

 river, flowing rapidly north at an altitude of 3,700 feet. 

 Here it is called the Nghwala River by the Wanyam- 

 wezi, from the number of partridges on its banks. In 

 Speke's map alone it would seem that the true course of 

 the river is indicated ; it flows north-east to Mirambo's 

 country, where it is known as the Ngombe {i.e., ox) 

 River, and finds its way into the Malagarasi, thus aiding 

 that river in bringing Lake Tanganyika nearer to per- 

 manent overflowing, when the Lukuga— which has been 

 such a bone of contention to two great travellers — will no 

 longer be a swamp but a decided stream, and the water- 

 line of the Congo will run from Loango on the West 

 Coast to the confines of Ugogo. 



The London Missionary Society have received a letter 

 from the Rev. J. B. Thomson, dated from Ujiji, announc- 

 ing the safe arrival on August 23 of the main body of 

 the Society's expedition at its destination on Lake Tan- 

 ganyika. Though, as will be remembered, this expedition 

 met with a long series of disasters and delays in the 

 coast region, they have now been successful in perform- 

 ing one of the quickest and most prosperous journeys 

 from Mpwapwa to Ujiji, having been but seventy-three 

 days on the road. Messrs. Thomson and Hore hare 

 already found an apparently healthy site for their station 

 close to Kinegoma Bay, and about three miles from 

 Ujiji. 



We learn from a Japan paper that an American gentle- 

 man has been engaged for some time past in surveying 

 the Island of Yezo, as well as in making geological in- 

 vestigations. The result is said to be that there are 

 7,000 square miles of land fit for agricultural purposes, 

 and 6,000 suitable for pasture, while there are 5,000 

 square miles of forests and 9,000 of volcanic mountains 

 and mineral country. An impression appears to prevail 

 that the Government wish to encourage emigration to 

 this thinly-populated part of the Japanese empire. 



As an erroneous impression prevails that nothing is 

 known of the scientific work done by the Portuguese 

 African expedition previous to the date mentioned in 

 last week's Nature, it may be interesting to give, as 

 instances of the service which they are rendering to geo- 

 graphy, the positions of some of the places determined 

 by Senhor Serpa Pinto and his colleagues : — Benguela, 

 long, if 25' 20" 45'", lat. 12° 34' 17", alt. 7 metres; 

 Dombe Grande, long. 13° f 45", lat. 12° 55" 12', alt. 98 



metres ; Quillenques, long. 14" 5' 3", lat. 14° 3' 10", alt. 

 900 metres ; Caconda, long. 15° i' 51", lat. 13° o' 44", alt. 

 1,678 metres ; Bih^, long. 16° 49' 24", lat. 12° 22' 40", alt. 

 1,670 metres. The longitudes are stated to be chrono- 

 metrical. 



Dr. Edwin R. Heath, of Wisconsin, is about under- 

 taking the exploration of the Beni and Madre di Dios 

 Rivers of Brazil, his sojourn in South America some years 

 as secretary of legation in Chili giving him excellent 

 advantages for this purpose. Dr. Heath had arranged 

 to visit South America with Prof. Orton, but was detained, 

 and he now desires to carry out some of the work that the 

 untimely death of that well-known explorer has left un- 

 completed. 



The latest advices from Mr. Frederick A. Ober, of 

 whose explorations in the West Indies on account of the 

 Smithsonian Institution we have given notice from time 

 to time, were from Point k Pitre, Guadeloupe, on Sep- 

 tember 23. He was about to leave for the United States, 

 expecting to arrive some time between the middle and 

 end of October. Since his last report he has obtained 

 quite a number of additional collections, and hoped to 

 complete the material for the proposed catalogue of the 

 birds of the West Indies. So far the collections sent 

 forward by him to the Smithsonian Institution have been 

 found to contain some seventeen undescribed species of 

 birds, as determined by Mr. George N. Lawrence, of New 

 York. 



An interesting" account of a recent visit to Pitcairn 

 Island by Admiral De Horsey in the Shah, forwarded to 

 the Admiralty, will be found in yesterday's Daily News. 

 The people are evidently as primitive and well-conducted, 

 and on the whole as comfortable as ever. 



In a previous number we referred to a work of 

 great geographical interest — "Die Sahara, von Oase 

 zu Oase," by Dr. Joseph Chavanne, published by 

 Hartleben, of Vienna. At that time the work was in 

 course of publication, and we refer to it now to announce 

 its completion in twenty parts. The last parts are 

 in every way equal to the earlier ones, and if anything 

 the interest is rather increased than otherwise. The 

 work contains numerous woodcuts, besides seven coloured 

 plates and a map of the great desert ; its perusal will be 

 found extremely attractive by any one taking interest in 

 geographical science. The exact route which Dr. Cha- 

 vanne describes is the following : — The travellers start 

 from Tripolis through the Fezzan to Mursuk, then west- 

 ward to Rhat, the land of the Tuareg or Imoshag. From 

 Rhat they turn northward to Rhadames, thence to Biskra 

 in Algeria. Here the travellers again turn their backs to 

 the Mediterranean and proceed in a south-westerly direc- 

 tion by way of El Aruat and El Golea to Insalah. From 

 Insalah they go to Tafilet, in the extreme north-west of 

 the desert, and thence many thousand miles to the south 

 to Timbuctoo. The Oasis of Air or Asben is the next 

 station, situated due east from Timbuctoo, then Tibesti, 

 the land of the Tebbu. Thence they turn to the north- 

 east to the Jupiter Ammon Oasis, which is the furthest 

 point to the east reached. The travellers then turn west- 

 ward again and return to Tripolis by way of Audschila. 



ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GARPIKE 



THE gar or bony pike of North America is one of the 

 most interesting of living fishes. The best known 

 species of the genus to which it belongs is the Lepi- 

 dosteus osseus. This species owes the grammatical 

 form of its scientific name, and, indeed, its first scientific 

 description to the elder Agassiz, and we have now to 

 record the filling up of the last details of its life-history to 

 the younger Agassiz. Known for over three-quarters of 

 a century, it has been only within the last few months 

 that the young fish as they escape from the egg have been 



