Oct. 17, 1878] 



NATURE 



647 



suggestion for facilitating African travel by the purchase 

 of one or more Indian elephants. 



The Monitciir Beige, of October 12, publishes late 

 intelligence respecting the International Association's 

 East African Expedition, gathered from communications 

 dated Zanzibar, September 17. The serenty-one porters 

 engaged by M. Grefifulhe were at Bigviro on August 22, 

 and 200 others had been collected through the exertions 

 of Pere Etienne, Superior of the Mission at Bagamoyo. 

 It was expected that they would have joined M. Wautier 

 at Mwomero on September 18. The personnel of the 

 expedition is, therefore, now complete, and the travellers 

 will have started by this time to rejoin M. Cambier with 

 the baggage abandoned by the deserters. We further 

 learn that Dr. Dutrieux wrote from Mpwapwa on August 

 26 to M. Greffulhe, stating that M. Cambier was pur- 

 suing] his journey and was then at Kididimo, about 400 

 kilometres from the coast. His letter reached Zanzibar 

 on September 4, and since then no fresh news has been 

 received of the movements of the members of the expe- 

 dition. There seems to be no truth in the rumour that 

 the members of the Belgian expedition have been assas- 

 sinated. 



The Dutch vessel William Barends has returned to 

 Amsterdam from her voyage to the Arctic regions. It 

 is stated that the voyage has been very successful 

 from a scientific point of view, and it is expected that 

 a full account of the discoveries made will shortly be 

 published. 



Petermann's Mittheilimgen contains an article on 

 Turkey as it stands according to the Berlin Treaty, with 

 a map. Dr. Emin Effendi's narrative of his journey in 

 the African Lake Region is concluded, and an accom- 

 panying map shows the present position of the question 

 as to the Muta Nzige, according to the data furnished 

 by recent explorers. The south end of the Albert Nyanza 

 lies to the north of 1° N. lat., and to the south is another 

 Muta Nzige, of which Stanley's Beatrice Gulf is a southern 

 extension. The Victoria Nile, between i°and 2° N., and 

 on the 33rd degree of E. long., broadens out into two lake- 

 lets, Gitansege and Codscha. Herr Kanitz contributes an 

 interesting geological and physical paper on the Balkans. 

 Perhaps the most interesting paper is one by Prof. H. 

 Fritz on the periodical changes in the length of glaciers. 

 The author has collected a large number of historical data 

 to prove that there has been something like regularity 

 in the changes of the Alpine glaciers. Important factors 

 in seeking for the causes of change in the length of 

 glaciers are temperature, snowfall, atmospheric moisture, 

 clouds, direction of the wind, and atmospheric pressure. 

 Prof. Fritz seems also of opinion that a connection may 

 be traced between sun-spots and changes in the length of 

 glaciers. The subject is of importance in various direc- 

 tions, and we trust that Prof. Fritz will continue the 

 observations which he has so well begun. 



Recent advices, up to the beginning of September, 

 have been received from Prof. Hayden, in the geyser 

 regions of the Yellowstone, whei'e the work of the survey 

 was being prosecuted with great energy. Shoshone has 

 been thoroughly mapped and explored, and the mammoth 

 hot spring was next to be visited. Mr. Jackson has made 

 large numbers of superb photographs of the geysers and 

 other points of interest. Investigations into the tem- 

 perature, composition, and other features of the hot 

 springs are being carefully made, and a map is in pro- 

 gress on the scale of one inch to the mile. The surrey 

 of Point of Rocks, on the Union Pacific Railroad, along 

 the west side of the Wind River Mountain, will next be 

 attempted ; thence he will proceed by Snake River on 

 the east side of the Teton range to the sources of the 

 Snake River. Dr. Hayden expected, after spending the 

 month of September in the Park, to return along the east 

 side of the Wind River MouTtains via Cimp Brown 



to Rawlins, on the Union Pacific Railroad, thence to 

 Cheynene, whicli point it was hoped to reach on 

 October 20. 



We have already noticed from time to time the move- 

 ments of Mr. F. A. Ober, who has been engaged for two 

 years under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 in exploring the natural history of the West Indian 

 Islands. His researches relate more particularly to the 

 birds, his object being to secure the typical forms of all 

 the islands, so that the West Indian fauna can be studied 

 as a whole, his attention not being confined to one or two 

 only of the islands. He has been extremely successful in 

 his work, and has sent in numerous collections of much 

 interest, embracing many new species, together with 

 quite a series known previously by single specimens only. 

 Last advices were dated Martinique, August 18. He 

 expected to start for Guadeloupe on August 20, and to 

 proceed thence to Marie Galant. 



Dr. E. Tietze has just published in th^Jahrbuch of the 

 Vienna Geological Society an important paper on Mount 

 Demavend, with a map of the mountains of the surround- 

 ing region. Demavend, according to the author, is a 

 volcano in the solfatara condition, whose activity has 

 waned within the memory of man. Its highest point, 

 which even now gives out hot gases, contains a small 

 crater, and stands inside the ruins of an older crater wall 

 of larger diameter. 



We have received the first volume of Dr. Lenz's 

 account of his explorations in West Africa. The second 

 volume will appear in the beginning of next year, and 

 Dr. Lenz hopes to publish during the present winter the 

 geological results of his African travels, with a geological 

 map of Guinea, and several plates of fossils. 



We have received from Mr. Stanford two new maps 

 bearing on the present political difficulties in Asia : one 

 is a map of "The Indian and Afghan Frontiers," the 

 other, "A map of Western Asia." In the former the 

 physical features are boldly drawn ; here we may see how 

 the present poUtical boundary of India, having already 

 passed beyond the broad and unbridged Indus, has yet 

 stopped short of the next natural frontier, ending 

 apparently at the foot of the mountains, but nowhere in 

 particular. And what mountains ! Commencing at the 

 southern extremity of the map with the modest elevation 

 of 5,390 feet, they stretch northwards at an ever-increasing 

 altitude, until at the northern extremity we read 18,900 

 feet. The marking of many altitudes is a commendable 

 feature in this map. The political colouring is somewhat 

 startling ; we did not expect to find that there is so broad 

 an interval generally between the Indian and Afghan 

 frontiers ; they appear to be coterminous only at Thul in 

 the Kuram Valley. The other map embraces, as its 

 name implies, a much wider area, and shows by colour 

 the latest extension of the Russian frontier in the direc- 

 tion of the mountains of Central Asia. As the British 

 frontier has advanced to the foot-hills on the southern 

 side of this great mountain mass, so the Russian frontier 

 has advanced, or is rapidly advancing, to the northern 

 foot-hills. This mass, with a breadth of about 2CO miles, 

 and an average elevation of more than 10,000 feet, with 

 sundry passes of 12,000 and 13,000 feet, is all (!) that 

 intervenes between the British and Russian frontiers. 

 The new Indian frontier railways are correctly shown on 

 these maps ; with the exception of a break at Sakkur, on 

 the Indus, and about 100 miles yet to make from Rawul 

 Pindi to Peshawur, we have railway communication all 

 along the landward frontiers of India, from Kurrachee to 

 Calcutta. 



News from Munich states that Dr. Eugene Forel is 

 about to start on a scientific exploring tour to New 

 Granada. 



