March 27, 1879] 



NATURE 



|/5f 



491- 



M. Charnay has recently forwarded to the Minister 

 of Public Instruction at Paris a series of communications 

 on the results of his investigations in Java in the summer 

 of last year. He explored the east and west portions of 

 the island, and he claims to have discovered a close 

 affinity between the remains of the civilisation introduced 

 by Hindu Buddhists and that of the ancient Mexican 

 Empire. He also calls attention to the great density of 

 the population of Java. From this island M. Charnay 

 went on to Melbourne, and when last heard from, was 

 engaged in making natural history collections in Queens- 

 land and at Thursday Island in Torres Straits. 



The death of the last chief of the Belgian caravan 

 has not abated the resolution of King Leopold and the 

 members of the International Committee for African 

 Exploration. A third expedition is to be sent out imme- 

 diately, it is said, under the guidance of Mr. Stanley. It 

 is also stated that a new Belgian expedition led by Capt. 

 Popehn will soon start for Zanzibar, in order to work out 

 the plan of establishing a chain of stations right across 

 Central Africa, viz., from Zanzibar to the Loango coast. 

 The King of the Belgians will grant the means for this 

 important undertaking. 



The last Bulletin of the Societe de Geographic Com- 

 merciale de Bordeaux contains a brief paper by M. 

 Albert Merle, advocating the exploration of Ferlo, 

 Senegambia. This is a tract of country between the 

 Senegal and the Gambia, marked in our latest maps, 

 "desert country, no water ; "' it extends from 14° to 16° 

 N. lat., and its interior is quite unexplored. Several 

 travellers have passed along the outskirts of the region, 

 and from their accounts and from native reports, it 

 appears to be covered with thick forests containing many 

 kinds of valuable trees ; tobacco, indigo, and cotton also 

 grow there in abundance. Those of its products which 

 are at present turned to account, find their way to the 

 Gambia, but M. Merle's desire is to divert the trade to 

 the French settlements on the north. 



M. Paul Soleillet, the French traveller who left St. 

 Louis in Senegal with the intention of reaching Algeria 

 through the Sahara, according to the last intelligence 

 received in Paris by telegraph, had reached Segou, the 

 capital of the negro state of the same name, and he was 

 proceeding onwards. This adventurous man received 

 only 6,000 francs from the Governor-General of Senegal. 

 The Paris Society of Geography, as a protest against such 

 indifference, resolved to send him, when possible, all the 

 money disposable from the travelling and exploring funds. 



The latest news from Dr. Rohlfifs' expedition to Central 

 Africa states that one of its members, Baron Leopold von 

 Csillagh, has left the expedition, and will return to 

 Europe after paying a short visit to Murzuk. News 

 from Tripolis states that the presents sent by the 

 Emperor of Germany, and destined for the Sultan of 

 Wadai, have at last arrived there. The latest papers 

 sent by Dr. Rohlffs contain a valuable zoological re- 

 port by Dr. Stocker, the naturalist accompanying Dr. 

 Rohlffs' expedition, besides a number of astronomical 

 observations. 



In the present demand for accurate information re- 

 specting the Zulus and their country, it may not be out of 

 place to call attention to a series of papers which ap- 

 peared in the Nautical Magazine for 1853 and 1854, 

 under the title of the " Loss of the Brig Mary at Natal, 

 with Early Recollections of that Settlement." These 

 papers were published anonymously, but were written by 

 Mr. C. R. Maclean, now an official in St. Lucia, who 

 more than fifty years ago spent three years with the 

 famous Chaka, then King of the Zulus, and consequently 

 had the best of opportunities for observing the character 

 of the countrj- and the people. 



We regret to announce the death of Dr. Friedrich 

 Wilhelm Vogler of Liineberg, well known in Germany as 



V 



the author of several excellent geographical handbooks. 

 Dr. Vogler was in his eighty-seventh year. 



The King of Portugal has presented to Dr. Oskar Lenz, 

 the well-known African traveller, the knightly cross of 

 the Portuguese Order of Christ. 



Prof. Bastiax, whose severe illness was announced 

 not long ago, is in a fair way of recovery. The inde- 

 fatigable traveller and ethnographer is at Calcutta and 

 intends soon to start for Batavia. 



We learn from the Colonies and India that those who- 

 took part in the recent expedition from Wellington, New 

 Zealand, to New Guinea, which proved a failure, intend 

 starting another one. They propose to proceed to As- 

 trolabe Bay, and will take with them two whale boat? 

 and a long boat, two horses, some goats, &c. The ser- 

 vices of a doctor, geologist, and botanist are to be- 

 secured, and a carpenter, gunsmith, and one or two other 

 handicraftsmen are to be invited to join. 



NOTES 



On Tuesday morning, in the presence of a small number of- 

 his sorrowing friends, the remains of the late Prof, W. K. 

 Clifford were placed in their last resting-place in Highgate 

 Cemetery. 



The following grants have lately been made from the Research- 

 Fmid of the Chemical Society : — 10/. to Dr. C. A, Burghardt 

 for an investigation into the constitution of topaz ; 20/. to Mr. 

 Francis Jones for the investigation of boron hydride ; 1$/. to 

 Mr. F. D. Brown for the study of the theory of fractional distilla- 

 tion ; 30/. to Dr. Dupre for the estimation of organic carbon in 

 air ; and 15/. to Prof. T. E. Thorpe for the investigation of 

 albietene, the hydrocarbon of nut-pine. 



M. BiscHOFFSHEiM, the well-known French Maecenas of 

 science, has just returned from Mentone, which he visited with M. 

 Lcewy, the Sub-director of the National Obser\'atory, to examine 

 the practicability of establishing an observatory in his mansion. 

 The site was found to be very convenient in all respects, and 

 M. Bischoffsheim resolved to spend a sum of 900,000 francs for 

 instruments, &c. The work is to begin immediately. 



M. Andr£, the well-known eclipse and transit of Venus 

 obser%er, has inaugurated the publication of meteorologicaP 

 readings taken in the Municipal Observatory established at 

 Tete d'Or, in the vicinity of Lyons. The peculiarity of that 

 establishment is that astronomical and meteorological observa- 

 tions are conducted pari passu with the same zeal. It is the- 

 only place in France where the schemes organised by Leverrier, 

 at Paris, are practised. 



The Select Committee of the House of Commons appointed, 

 to inquire into the subject of the hghting of towns by means of 

 electricity, and to which the Liverpool Lighting Bill was referred^ 

 has determined to go into the general question, settle the prin- 

 ciple, and then leave the thirty-four private Bills which ask for 

 powers to hght by electricity to be dealt with by the regular 

 Committees of the House of Commons. The inquiry will com- 

 mence on the 31st inst. As the evidence will be lengthy and 

 the committee wiU probably report late in the Session, it is 

 expected that no powers will be granted this Session for hghting 

 by electricitj'. 



The Werderman light was tried by M. Becquerel in his lec- 

 tures on electricity, delivered at the Conservatoire des Arts et 

 Meders on March 19. This apparatus, which wUl be tried very- 

 shortly in Park, has been introduced into France by Dr. ComeUus 

 Herz. Six Werderman lights were arranged round the chair of- 

 the professor and burned with the utmost regularity every time- 

 they were lighted. The opinion of M, Becquerel was very 

 favourable indeed ; he insisted upon the presence of a micro- 



