Oct. 24, 1878] 



NATURE 



68 r 



river of the same name, having arrived at the town of 

 Yakutsk on September 22. 



Dr. Gerhard Rohlfs had finally fixed his de- 

 parture from Malta for the 20th instant. He will be 

 accompanied by two Austrian travellers, Dr. Hecker, and 

 Herr von Csillagh. The party will first go to Tripolis, 

 and direct their principal efforts to the investigation of 

 the Shari River, and of the sources of the Binue and 

 Congo Rivers. 



Capt. Tyson, haring arrived at St. John's, Newfound- 

 land, has sent a telegram to Washington stating that his 

 voyage has been quite successful, and every part of the 

 task imposed upon him has been accomplished. Capt. 

 Tyson learns with deep regret that all has been rendered 

 useless by the postponement of the definitive expedition. 



On reference to a map of China lately published by 

 Mr. Stanford for the China Inland Mission, it will be 

 seen that the missionaries of that body have for some 

 years past been emulating their Roman Catholic brethren 

 in the energy with which they have pushed their way into 

 various parts of the empire. One of the most remarkable 

 journeys, an account of which has but lately become 

 available, was performed principally on foot, by Mr. 

 John McCarthy, who left Shanghai in December, 1876, 

 and reached Bhamo on August 26, 1877, having travelled 

 a distance, including detours, of about 3,000 miles. Mr. 

 McCarthy, though taking a somewhat different course, 

 made the same journey as the Grosvenor Mission, and he 

 claims to be the first non-official traveller who has thus 

 traversed the entire width of the empire, and crossed the 

 Kah-chen hills to Bhamo. Wearing the Chinese dress, 

 and having nothing strange or novel with him, he was 

 able to move along without any difificulty through the 

 various towns and cities, and it is certainly worthy of note 

 that throughout the whole of his long and hazardous 

 journey he was not once obliged to appeal to an officer 

 for help of any kind, and in no case did any officer put an 

 obstacle in his way. The country, as far as the great 

 commercial mart of Chungking, in Szechuen, is now com- 

 paratively so well known, that that part of Mr. McCarthy's 

 journey was tolerably easy, but after leaving Chungking 

 the case is different. Circumstances induced him to make 

 for Kweiyung-fu, the capital of Kweichow ; he found that 

 the country due south of Chungking was not at all 

 to be compared with the eastern portion of Szechuen, 

 large tracts of land being uncultivated, towns fewer, 

 the people more scattered, and worse housed and 

 clothed. It would be difficult, he says, to picture the 

 desolation of a great part of the Kweichow province ; 

 in consequence of the many years' internal strife, whole 

 districts having been entirely depopulated. After a 

 fortnight's stay in Kweiyang-fu Mr. McCarthy decided to 

 walk westward, as far, at least, as Yiinnan-fu, being 

 anxious to test the feelings of the people towards 

 foreigners. The people everywhere continued civil, and 

 no more difficulties were met with in Yiinnan than in 

 previous portions of the journey. On the road between 

 Yiinnan-fu and Tali-fu Mr. McCarthy remarks that "the 

 people generally are in a deplorable condition : the 

 women compelled to do manual labour, which in other 

 places is confined entirely to men. Men and women — 

 but especially the latter — suffer from the formation of 

 goitre, some of immense size." From Tali-fu to Teng- 

 yiieh, or Momien, Mr. McCarthy says, is really the most 

 fertile part of the country. Yungchang-fu, between these 

 places, has been a fine city, and even now the southern 

 part is well built over, and a good deal of business is 

 done there. Mr. McCarthy found that the fame of the 

 medical work at Bhamo had spread even to Momien, 

 and during the four days' walk to Manwyne he met 

 many Shans and Chinese who spoke approvingly of the 

 wonderful cures effected by the foreign teachers. Having I 

 secured the services of a chieftain he crossed the hills | 



in two days, and arrived at Bhamo in safety. This 

 Kah-chem chief and his followers professed the greatest 

 friendship for the English, and treated Mr. McCarthy 

 so well that he agreed to return with him in a fortnight, 

 in order to continue his journeys in Yiinnan. This plan, 

 however, he was obliged to give up, as he was informed 

 by our political agent at Bhamo that he could not be 

 allowed to re-enter China from Burmah, that being for- 

 bidden by the Indian government ! 



The Wesleyan Missionary Society have recently re- 

 ceived some very satisfactory intelligence in regard to the 

 attitude of the natives towards foreigners in a part of 

 Central China where they had probably never been seen 

 before. Writing from Kwang Chi, Hankow, under date 

 of June 7, the Rev. Thos. Bramfit says, in describing a 

 missionary tour, that, " as Lo Tien, Ma Tsien, and the 

 other towns have not been visited before, the people 

 came out in crowds to see the foreigner, and to hear his 

 doctrine ; and it is to be recorded to their credit that 

 without exception they treated us kindly, and seem in- 

 clined to give the truth a fair hearing. It may be that 

 the Chefoo Convention has something to do with the 

 change in the temper of the people, as compared with 

 that in other places when first visited ; but it struck us 

 that the change is to be accounted for chiefly by the 

 increased intercourse between the people and foreigners." 



The French Government have sent M. Ldon Cahun, 

 well known from his researches in Eastern Europe 

 and in Central Asia, to Cyprus, on a special mission, in 

 order to investigate the island in an anthropological and 

 archaeological direction. 



NOTES 

 The death is announced, on the 13th inst., of M. Delafosse, 

 Professor of Mineralogy in the Paris Museum of Natural His- 

 tory and the Faculty of Science. 



We have received a " first proof " of the list of awards made 

 to British exhibitors, from which we cull the following items :— 

 A Grand Prix and Diplome d'honneur have been awarded, 

 in' Class 8, Organisation, Methods and Appliances for Supe- 

 rior Instruction, to South Kensington ; in Class 15, Mathe- 

 matics and Philosophical Instruments, gold medals have been 

 awarded to Mr. J. H. G. Dallmeyer, Mr. Howard Grubb, 

 Messrs. A. Leqe and Co., Messrs. Negretti and Zambra, Messrs. 

 Ross and Co., and Sir William Thomson ; in Class 16, Maps and 

 Geographical and Cosmographical Apparatus, a gold medal has 

 been awarded to Mr. Edward Stanford ; in Class 65, Telegraphic 

 Apparatus and Processes, a Grand Prix is awarded to Prof, A. 

 Graham Bell, for his magneto-electric [telephone, without 

 electric current; in Class 67, Navigation and Life Saving, a 

 gold medal to Sir William Thomson, for his compass. 



The Council of the Meteorological Society have arranged for 

 a course of six lectures on meteorology to be given at the Institu- 

 tion of Civil Engineers, 25, Great George Street, Westminster, 

 on successive Thursday evenings, commencing on the 31st 

 instant at eight o'clock. The first lecture will be by Dr. R. J. 

 Mann, on the "Physical Properties of the Atmosphere." The 

 other lectures will be by J. K. Laughton, F.R.A.S., R. Strachan, 

 F.M.S., Rev. W, Clement Ley, M.A., F.M.S., G. J. Symons, 

 F.R.S., and R. H. Scott, F.R.S, Admission to the lectures 

 will be by ticket only, which may be ^obtained free on applica- 

 tion to the Assistant Secretary at;2the officejof the Society, 30, 

 Great George Street. 



In a lately-issued number of the Proceedings of the American 

 Philosophical Society, Prof. Cope has given an account of the 

 collection of fishes made by Prof. Orton at various points on the 

 head-waters of the Amazon. Species of the genera Belone and 



