Feb. 6, 1879] 



NATURE 



323 



History Society and Manchester Geological 

 Society, as well as a small typical collection 

 originally belonging to the College and the 

 complete mineralogical and metallurgical col- 

 lections of the late David Forbes ; the series 

 are admirably arranged for the purposes of 

 study. Prof. Boyd Dawkins is curator. 



A REAL TELEGRAPH 



A NEW invention of a real practical cha- 

 ■^^ racter, not a mere "paulo post futurum" 

 invention like many we have heard of lately, 

 has just been made by Mr. E. A. Cowper, the 

 well-known mechanical engineer. It is a real 

 telegraphic writing machine. The writer in 

 London moves his pen, and simultaneously at 

 Brighton another pen is moved, as though by 

 a phantom hand, in precisely similar curves 

 and motions. The writer writes in London, 

 the ink marks in Brighton. We have seen 

 this instrument at work, and its marvels are 

 quite as startling as those of the telephone. 

 The pen at the receiving end has all the 

 appearance of being guided by a spirit hand. 

 The apparatus is shortly to be made public 

 before die Society of Telegraph Engineers. 

 We give a facsimile of the wTiting produced 

 by this telegraphic writing machine. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



The Spanish Ministry of Public Instruction 

 has just issued a very important publication, 

 being a collection of letters of Christopher 

 Columbus, and of his contemporaries, as well 

 as of reports sent in, during the sixteenth 

 century by goremors of the new American 

 provinces, the originals of these letters and 

 reports being now in the State Archives of 

 Spain. The work, which bears the title 

 "Cartas de India" (Letters from India), and 

 forms a large volume of 877 folio pages, con- 

 tains the following highly interesting docu- 

 ments : (i) Two autograph letters from Co- 

 lumbus, written in 1502 to King Ferdinand 

 and Queen Isabella, the first letter dwelling 

 upon the necessity of measures for increasing 

 the population of the island " Espaiiola " 

 (San Domingo), and the second being a dis- 

 cussion on the art of navigation ; (2) a letter 

 from Amerigo Vespuchi to the Cardinal 

 Gimenes di Cuneros, Archbishop of Toledo, 

 dated Sevilla, 1508, and dealing with the 

 merchandise to be sent to the Antilles ; (3) 

 two letters from Fra Bartholomeo de las 

 Casas, Archbishop of Nicaragua, to the In- 

 fanta Don Filippo, dated Gracias a Dios, in 

 Guatemala ; (4) two letters from Bemaldo 

 Diaz del Castillo, one of the warriors of the 

 small army of Cortes, and author of a history 

 of Mexico, to Charles the Fifth (1552), and 

 to Philip the Second (1558); (5) letters from 

 the baccalaureates Don Pedro de Gasca and 

 Don Christophor Vaca de Castro, dated Quito, 

 1541 and Cusco (1542), announcing to Charles 

 the Fifth the death of the Marchese Don 

 Pizaro and the insurrection of Don Diego de 

 Almagro ; both letters are very interesting, 

 being accounts of eye-witnesses ; (6) a very 

 interesting letter of Donna Isabella Quivara to 

 the Regent, Donna Huana, about the remark- 



able courage displayed by women during the expedition 

 of Cortes, when all male members of the expedition 

 were exhausted by disease. The work contains 652 

 pages of text and 225 pages of appendix, in which we 

 find twenty-nine autograph letters and reports of various 

 important historical persons ; t\venty-one sheets of auto- 

 graphs of Columbus, Vespuchi, Las Casas, Diaz del Cas- 

 tillo, Gimenez, &c. ; a map of the fortifications where the 

 gems of the Incas were found ; and maps of Australia, of 

 the River Amazon, the Antilles Archipelago, and Magellan 

 Strait, drawn in the sixteenth century. We are sure that 

 all friends of historical geography will feel grateful to the 

 Spanish Government for this valuable pubhcation. 



Col. Prjvalsky has left St. Petersburg to make another 

 trip in Central Asia. He will proceed by Orenburg, 

 Omsk, and Semipalatinsk to the Chinese frontier, thence 

 to Hami, Hansu and Lassa. From Lassa he intends to 

 reach the Himalaya by the Brahmapootra. Returning 

 then to Lassa, he will visit Khotan, Kashgar, and cross 

 the intervening plateaux to Russian Khokand. The 

 journey is to occupy two years. 



Pere Horner has addressed a letter, dated Zanzibar, 

 December 12, to Les Missions Catholiques, announcing 

 that the members of the German scientific expedition 

 have returned in bad health. This expedition, xmder the 

 command of Herr C. Denhardt, started from Melinda, 

 and explored the course of the River Dana, which has 

 hitherto been supposed to take its rise in the slopes of 

 Mount Kenia. They experienced many difficulties, and 

 did not succeed in getting more than about sixty miles 

 into the interior. According to Pere Horner's report, in 

 the place of Mount Kenia, covered with snow, they found 

 only plains, and though they questioned more than 200 

 persons on the subject, they could find no one who had 

 heard of the mountain. Pere Homer thinks that the 

 German travellers have not been far enough into the 

 interior, and he says that they are going back again 

 shortly to solve the problem. The truth, however, we 

 believe is that Herr Denhardt has found that the Dana has. 

 a widely different course firom that generally assigned to 

 it, and that it does not flow anywhere near Mount Kenia. 

 The party obtained a very complete series of meteoro- 

 logical observations, and they report that at some dis- 

 tance from the coast they met with a quiet and industrious 

 tribe called the Vakopomo, who, it is thought, would 

 welcome missionaries among them, if the fanatic Somalia 

 of the coast region would allow them to pass. 



In the February number of the Geographical Society's 

 new periodical we find a curious and learned paper by 

 Sir Henry Rawlinson, entitled "Rough Notes on Pre- 

 historic Cyprus, and another on the " Upper Basin of the 

 Kabul River," from Mr. Markham's versatile pen, accom- 

 panied by a carefully drawn map of the Hindu Kush. 

 Some of the geographical notes are of considerable- 

 interest. A St. Petersburg correspondent reports finding 

 Prjvalsky restored to his habitual vigorous state of health 

 and busy preparing for his next exped ition, in which he hopes 

 to reach Lhassa by the Hami and Sha-chau road, accom- 

 panied by young Eklon. Prjvalsky's Lob-Nor plant- 

 collection turns out to be not very rich, the nvmiber of 

 species being exceedingly few. Under the heading "Explo- 

 rations North of India,' we have the leading features of an 

 unpublished report by Capt. Woodthorpe, RE., and 

 Lieut. Harman, of their recent work in the unexplored 

 Miri and Mishmi Hills. In the latter region Capt. Wood- 

 thorpe obtained a fairly accurate knowledge of the sources 

 of the Dihong River and the course of its main stream in 

 the hills. The result of these explorations proves that 

 the volum of the Subansiri is only one- fourth of that of 

 the Dihong, which tends more than ever to identify the 

 latter with the great river of Thibet. Some particulars 

 are also furnished respecting the Dar-es-Salaam road in 

 East Africa. 



