3^4 



NATURE 



\_March 7, 1878 



employed in the determination of stars to the ninth mag- 

 nitude inclusive in the zone included between + 50° and 

 -|- 55° of declination, undertaken at the instance of the 

 Astronomische Gesellschaft, and this work approaches a 

 conclusion. Upwards of 40,000 observations have been 

 made with the meridian-circle since it was mounted at 

 the end of 1870. The personal establishment at Harvard 

 College now consists of Prof. Edward C. Pickering, as 

 director, assisted by Prof. Rogers, and Messrs. Searle, 

 Waldo, and Upton. Vol. x. of the Annals oi \}ae, Obser- 

 vatory has been published during the past year. Vol. ix., 

 with photometric observations 1872-75, is to follow, and 

 is nearly ready for issue. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



The Albert Nyanza. — In his recent examination of 

 Albert Nyanza, to which we have already referred. Col. 

 A. M. Mason examined every inlet or indentation of the 

 coast-line. Starting from Magungo in the s.s. Nyanza, 

 Col. Mason followed the western shore, and found it over- 

 hung by lofty mountains, notwithstanding which there 

 seemed to be a large population. On the first day the 

 party reached Nurswar, and on the next continued their 

 route to the south-west ; after a six hours' run, they found 

 that the coast-line trended more to the south, forming a 

 wide plain, which in some places was covered with very 

 heavy, thick forests. On the third day they crossed a 

 wide bay to Kavalee. Soon after leaving Kavalee, Col. 

 Mason found that the coast-line turned to the eastward, 

 and in two hours' time they reached a mass of ambatch 

 (like Signor Gessi), and found the south end of the lake 

 very shallow. In the south-west corner Col. Mason 

 noticed a second large bay, and from a depression in the 

 mountains and a thick line of forest, he fancied that there 

 might be a river emptying into the lake at that point, but 

 he could find no entrance, and this accorded with what he 

 had been told at Kavalee, that no river joined the lake 

 near there. On the morning of the fourth day, after 

 entering a number of small, shallow bights, he finally 

 reached a broad river, the waters of which were reddish 

 in colour, with a slight northerly current. The width of 

 the stream is about 400 yards, the banks high and well- 

 defined, and clothed with forests. Col. Mason was only 

 able to proceed up this river for one hour, owing to the 

 shallowness of the water, and there seemed to be a mass 

 of vegetation blocking the way to the south ; to the south- 

 east he observed an immense forest of date-palms, and to 

 the south and south-west an undulating country, covered 

 with large trees. After leaving this river he found that he 

 had crossed the lake, and that their course turned to the 

 northward. On both sides of the lake the mountains 

 were found to diminish in altitude, and to the southward, 

 at the foot of the lake and between the two ranges, was a 

 large isolated mountain, which was found to be in N. lat. 

 1° 11'. It is clear, therefore, that Lake Albert does not 

 extend, as has been asserted, to the first parallel of north 

 latitude. In his northward course Col. Mason found that 

 the mountains were not so high as on the western shore, 

 and that in only one place were the cliffs as lofty as the 

 highest on the opposite coast. There was a marked dif- 

 ference, too, in the vegetation ; on the western shore the 

 mountains are well covered with timber and verdure, and 

 in many parts the natives have cleared places for cultiva- 

 tion, while on the east the mountains are barren, with 

 neither timber nor vegetation. On the fifth day the party 

 passed several large villages, one of which was said to be 

 the residence of Kava Gonza, brother to Kaba Rega, and, 

 soon after, the village of Tiaboa was reached, above 

 which the country is flat, and the coast-line trends to the 

 north. From his observations Col. Mason found that 

 Kavalee, near the south-west angle of Lake Albert, was 

 in N. lat. 1° 22' 20", and the south-east angle in N. lat. 

 i°ii'3". 



Mr. Stanley's Work.— Mr. Stanley is engaged in 

 writing a full account of his most important journey across 

 Africa ; and at present he is doing so with characteristic 

 energy. Already a large portion of his manuscript is in 

 the printer's hands, and his work will doubtless be ready 

 for publication in May next. Mr. Stanley carried with 

 him through the whole of his arduous journey a heavy 

 photographic apparatus, and succeeded in obtaining many 

 very good negatives of views and groups on the great 

 lakes and on the Congo. The interest of these pictures 

 can scarcely be over-estimated. They will be reproduced 

 as full-page woodcuts in the volumes, which will also 

 contain an unusually large number of vivid scenes and 

 incidents from excellent sketches made by Mr. Stanley 

 himself. Perhaps the most important feature of the 

 work will be the chart of the Congo, which has 

 been so minutely and elaborately mapped, that it will 

 require a scale of an inch and a half to a degree to embody 

 in the smallest writing the information conveyed. Besides 

 this large route map, which will be in two parts, the work 

 will also contain several maps of a valuable and interest- 

 ing character. The work will be published simultaneously, 

 the Publishers^ Circular informs us, or as nearly so as 

 can be arranged, by Messrs. Sampson Low and Co. in 

 England ; by Messrs. Harper and Brothers, New York ; 

 in French by Messrs. Hachette and Co., Paris ; in 

 German by M. Brockhaus, Leipsic ; in Danish by M. 

 Mailings, of Ghristiania. Negotiations are also pending 

 for translations into the Swedish, Spanish, Italian, and 

 Russian languages. The title is, "Through the Dark 

 Continent ; the Sources of the Nile ; around the Great 

 Lakes, and down the Congo." We are pleased to see 

 that the Geographical Magazine of this month hand- 

 somely acknowledges that its previous hard judgment on 

 Mr. Stanley's conduct was unjustifiable. 



South-West Africa. — In his monthly summary, 

 Dr. Behm refers briefly to an important journey made 

 by two Rhenish missionaries last summer between the 

 Cunane river and 21° south lat. They found that the 

 coast mountains, opposite Wallfisch Bay, extend far to the 

 north-west, with a height of from 4,000 to 4,500 feet. The 

 travellers have noted many important details in their map 

 which will form an important supplement to existing 

 maps of Africa, as the region traversed is almost 

 unknown. 



African Dwarfs.— Dr. O. Lenz contributes to the 

 Mittheilungen of the Vienna Geographical Society for 

 January an important paper on this subject. He describes 

 his own observations on the Abongo of the Ogovd, whose 

 average height is 133-152 centimetres. Dr. Lenz con- 

 cludes that all the dwarfish African peoples — the Abongo 

 of the Ogovd, the Dongo of the Sette River, the Bakke- 

 Bakke of the Loango Coast — are only part of an original 

 great negro people, who are also found in the interior 

 under various names— as Kenkob in the Lufum country, 

 Mala-Gilag^ in the south of Bagirmi ; and further east, 

 as Akka, Doko, Berikomo, &c. ; and that this great 

 people, who were perhaps the aboriginal inhabitants, the 

 true autochthones of equatorial Africa, have been sup- 

 planted and destroyed by other migratory peoples. Dr. 

 Lenz places the Bushmen in a similar category. 



The North-East Passage.— Prof. Nordenskjold and 

 Mr. Dickson of Goteborg, recently paid a visit to Hull 

 in order to make various preparations for their intended 

 Arctic expedition. It is also announced that Lieut. 

 Sandeberg intends to organise a scientific expedition to 

 Kolgajeff, the Petchora, Hvideo, and the Siberian coast 

 dunng the approaching summer ; he has already hired a 

 vessel for this purpose, and intends to be absent for about 

 six months. 



Dr. Lenz. — The well-known African traveller, Dr 

 Oskar Lenz, has been presented with the cross of the 

 Albrecht Order by the King of Saxony. 



