68 



NATURE 



\_Nov. 



i6, 1876 



avifauna of New Guinea, commenced during the last session of 

 the Society. 



The Forty-seventh Session of the' Royal Geographical Society 

 was opened on Monday evening by the delivery of the presiden- 

 tial address by Sir Rutherford Alcock. He referred to the satis- 

 factory state of the Society, which now numbers 3,199 members, 

 and to the valuable work it had done since its foundation for 

 the cause of geographical research. He also referred with 

 complete satisfaction to the work accomplished by the Arctic 

 expedition, the leaders of which had done the only thing that could 

 have been done under the circumstances. Sir Rutherford then 

 spoke of the work of Cameron in Africa, the Challenger Expe- 

 dition, Russian Exploration, the Oriental Congress, and on variovs 

 other topics. He referred to the fact that geography and explo- 

 ration have no V assumed a much more scientific aspect than ever 

 they had before ; no traveller can gain distinction by mere topo- 

 graphical detail and descriptive power ; his exploration must be 

 conducted on a thoroughly scientific basis. To spread a know- 

 ledge of this aspect of geography, lectures are to be given during 

 the winter by General Strachey on the general subject of " Geo- 

 graphy in its Scientific Aspect," Dr. Carpenter on " The Physical 

 Geography of the Ocaan," and Mr. "Wallace on "The Influence 

 of Geographical Conditions on the Comparative Antiquity of 

 Continents, as indicated by the Distribution of Living and 

 Extinct Animals." After the President's a Idress, Sir R. Douglas 

 Forsyth read a paper on "The Buried Cities of the Gobi 

 Desert." 



The Lords of the Admiralty have addressed a letter to the 

 Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, in which they request 

 Admiral Elliott to express to Capt. Nares their lordships' warm 

 approval of the conduct of all engaged in the Arctic Expedition. 

 While they deeply commiserate the sufferings of the officers and 

 men, and deplore the loss of life, they cannot but feel that their 

 bearing and conduct have been in all respects worthy of British 

 seamen. Their lordships approve the sound judgment displayed 

 by Capt. Nares in at once, on the return of his sledge parties, 

 determining to endeavour to extricate the ships and return to 

 England, and they observe that his skill and energy in carr3'ing 

 out this determination, ably seconded as he was by Capt. 

 Stephenson, were of the highest order. Capt. Nares proudly 

 records that to uphold British honour and Christian duty to the 

 death was the pre eminent determination of all under his 

 command. 



A SPECIAL Arctic meeting will be held under the auspices of 

 the Royal Geographical Society at St. James's Hall on December 

 12, when papers on the various results of the English Arctic 

 Expedition will be read by Captains Nares, Markham, and 

 Feilden. 



American observatories have been very diligent in the 

 search for the supposed " Intra-Mercurial Planet," no less 

 than nine having given their whole time to the search 

 on October 2, 3, 10, and 11, viz., those of Dartmouth Col- 

 lege, Harvard College, Cincinnati, Glasgow (Mo.), Washington, 

 Albany, the Coast Survey in San Francisco, Ann Arbor, and 

 the Observatory of Dr. Peters, besides others that have made 

 no report. It is exceedingly creditable to the United States that 

 they contain so many observatories, many of them national ones, 

 in which astronomical observations are so diligently pursued. 



The Free Spanish University we referred to in vol. xiv. p. 

 132, has been opened in Madrid, under the name of Free Insti- 

 tution of Education, for Government will not allow the assump- 

 tion of the title University. Only 1,000 guineas have been sub- 

 scribed, many of the shareholders being well-known Englishmen, 

 among them Prof. Tyndall. The Institution is held at present 

 in one storey of a large house, and has already seventy- three 

 students, besides eight or nine ladies ; the fees are very low. 



We hope this attempt to establish a university where unrestricted 

 instruction can be given, will prosper, and that the professors, ai: 

 men of high standing, will soon be able to have a building ol 

 their own. 



The library of the late Adolphe Brongniart is to be sold bj 

 auction in Paris on December 4, and following days. The clas 

 sified catalogue, arranged by M. DeyroUe, occupies 240 pp. 8vo. 

 Copies may be obtained through M. DeyroUe, 23, Rue de la 

 Monnaie. 



The Kolnische Zeitung of November 9 reports on a meetinj 

 of the Rhenish section of the German and Austrian Alpenverein, 

 held at Cologne on November 4. It appears that the Verein, 

 the head-quarters of which are at Frankfurt-on-the- Maine, coU' 

 sists of sixty sections and numbers over 6,000 members. Daiinj 

 1875 over 2,000/. were expended for the construction of huts anc 

 roads in the Alps, and the Verein now owns about twenty-foui 

 houses in different parts of the mountains ; it has also appointee 

 a special commission for the supervision of guides and huts. 

 Altogether the Verein is thriving, and we may look for important 

 scientific results from its labours. 



It is stated that M. Gessi has discovered a large branch of th( 

 Nile, 200 yards wide, with a good current, diverging from the 

 White Nile, 100 miles south of Duffle. It is stated by th< 

 natives that it runs in an unobstructed stream into the Nih 

 again, and, if so, water communication may possibly be estab 

 lished between Lake Albert Nyarza and Khartoum. Col, 

 Gordon has discovered a large lake fifty miles in length betweer 

 Urondogam and Mrooli, a little north of Victoria Nyanza (it 

 1° N. lat), from which issues the main branch of the Nile, 

 called Victoria Nile, running from the Victoria to the Albcri 

 Lake, together with a branch river which must either join the 

 Sobat river or the Asua river. 



The Italian geographical journal. Cosmos, for October con- 

 tains a continuation of the papers on New Guinea, which it ha; 

 made a specialty. The present contribution consists of furthei 

 letters from Dr. Beccarl and extracts from the Challenges 

 reports. 



To the November number of Pctermann's Mittheilungen^ 

 Lieut. Weyprecht contributes No. 7 of his " Bilder aus den 

 hohen Norden," under the title of "The Walrus-Hunter." 

 He describes in a graphic and interesting manner the yearlj 

 quest of the walrus- fishers in the Spitzbergen Seas, which is 

 becoming more and more difficult and dangerous on account 0: 

 the increasing scarcity of the animal. 



The Geographical Society of Paris has received news from the 

 Brazza-Marche expedition, now exploring the Ogove, the large 

 stream which falls into the South Atlantic in the French Africar 

 settlement of Gaboon. It was discovered by the explorers that, 

 after running north to the first degree of S. lat., the O^^oive turn; 

 abruptly southwards into quite unexplored regions. MM. Brazza 

 and Marche had lost almost all their goods destined to conciliate 

 the African tribes and to pay for their labour. But the Socletji 

 sent to them a large number of small objects which will enable 

 them to proceed towards the sources of the river. It is sup- 

 posed that, owing to the immense volume of its water, it is an 

 outlet for some of the large lakes of the yet untrodden region. 



A TET.EGRAM fiom Calcutta states that the district of Backer, 

 gunge was ravaged by a cyclone on the 1st inst. Thousands ol 

 native houses were destroyed. The town of Dowlutkhan was 

 submerged by a storm-wave, which swept away all the buildings 

 of the place. Five thousand persons are believed to have 

 perished. Backergunge is a British district in the Bengal pre- 

 sidency, near the mouth of the Ganges, lying between lat. 22° 2' 

 — 23° 13'., long. 89° 49' — 91°, and has an area of about 3,794 



