June 6, 1878] 



NATURE 



151 



Lyons globe: — i. The Geography of Ptolemy; 2. The 

 " Portuguese Asia " of De Barros (1552); 3- The "De- 

 scription of the Congo," by Pigafetta, according to 

 Lopez (1592); 4. The " Historical Description of Ethio- 

 pia" of Dom Francesco Alvarez" (1558); 5. The 

 "Africa" of Leo Africanus (1556); 6. And the old maps 

 and portulans. 



Among these old maps and portulans, those which 

 appear at this period to have had a certain influence 

 are : — i. The Medicean Portulan (1351); 2. The Catalan 

 Atlas (1375); 3. The Map of Mecia de Viledestes (1413); 

 4. The Map of Johannes Leardus (1448) ; 5. The Mappe- 

 monde of Fra Mauro ; 6. The Ambrosean Map (1480) ; 

 7. The Mappemonde of Juan de la Cosa (1500); 8. The 

 Map of Diego Ribera ; 9. The Spanish Mappemonde of 

 the National Library, Paris (Fig. 3) (1540); 10. The 



Maps of Ramusio, of Pigafetta, and of Hugues Lin- 

 schoten. 



In the detailed report which the Lyons Commission 

 will communicate to the Society will be shown to what 

 extent each of the above documents contributed to the 

 establishment of the Flemish maps, on which probably 

 the Lyons globe was more immediately based. The 

 same Report will contain an investigation into the travels 

 known or unpublished which, from the tenth century, 

 have contributed to the progress of the African geography 

 of the Middle Ages and of the Renaissance. This inves- 

 tigation will include the following : — i. The Arab voy- 

 ages and Compendia ; 2. The voyages of the mendicant 

 Spanish friar of the fourteenth century ; 3. The expe- 

 dition of eight dominicans of Montpellier to the sources 

 of the Nile (1317-1350), unpublished; 4. The travels of 



Fig. 2. Fig. 3. 



Fig. 2. — Map o£ Stanley's Recent Journey Across Africa. Fig. 3.— Portion of a Globe of 1701, belonging to the Lyons Library, from a copy by M. Deloncle. 



the brothers Vivaldi, thirteenth century ; 5. The expe- 

 dition of the Catalan Ferrer in 1346, unpublished ; 6. 

 The voyages of Diego Cam; 7. The itineraries of the 

 ^2ix\y pombeiros J 8. The " Eastern Ethiopia " of Joandos 

 Santos ; 9. The travels of Barbosa ; 10. The exploration 

 of the Dutch Jan ran Herder, in the country of the 

 Akkas, unpublished; 11. The Derrotero desde Lisboa 

 Al Cabo de Bueno Esperanza y India Oriental, anony- 

 mous and unpublished; 12. The description of the 

 Congo, by Martinus Abarca de Bolda et Castro (1601), 

 unpublished ; 13. The " Universal Book of the Navi- 

 gations of the World" (1590?), Spanish, unpublished ; 

 14 ; The Travels of the Belgian Pierre Fard^ from 

 Algiers to the Congo (1686), unpublished ; 15. The 

 "Travels of Manoel Godinho" (1663); 16. The Letters 

 of Father Mariano, the Jesuit, on Kaftraria, &c., &c. 

 The work undertaken by the Lyons Geographical 



Society is creditable to them in the highest degree atid 

 will result in a valuable addition being made to historical 

 geography. Their work, as the Commission rightly 

 maintain, is to some extent international, and deserves 

 the countenance and assistance of geographers all the 

 world over. 



COSMIC METEOROLOGY^ 

 IL 



/'NFL UENCE of the Moon on the Earth' s Magnetistn. — 

 There is a fact in connection with the moon's influence 

 on our earth for which an explanation is necessary, and M. 

 Faye has proposed for this end a hypothesis in advance. 

 He had already pointed out Dr. Lloyd's investigation 

 which showed that the diurnal magnetic variations could 



' Continued from p. > 28. 



