March 28, 1878] 



NATURE 



435 



details concerning the various peoples he met with. The 

 zoologist and botanist will also find much to interest 

 them. Not only does he bring certain information on 

 the Lob-Nor, which is little better than a marsh, appa- 

 rently drying up, but also makes an important contri- 

 bution to our knowledge of the great mountain plateau 

 which separates India from Central Asia. The Lob-Nor 

 basin forms the foot of the Kuen-luen and of the great 

 plateau which stretches from the plains of India over the 

 Himalayas, the Karakorum, the highlands of Khor, in 

 an unbroken sweep to the basin mentioned. Close by 

 the Lob-Nor this mountain rises like a wall out of the 

 low plain, some of the lowest valleys having a height of 

 10,000 feet above the sea. From this northern slope on 

 the Lob-Nor, at about 60° W. long., the plateau stretches 

 away south, for 13* (850 miles) to its southern slope on 

 the Indian plain. At the meeting, on February 20, o» the 

 Russian Geographical Society the Secretary read a letter 

 from Col. Prjwalsky, dated Fort Zaisan, January 11. 

 The traveller said that, after having seen the impossi- 

 bility of penetrating into Tibet via Lob-Nor, he was com- 

 pelled to try the indirect route via Guchen and Hami, 

 whence he proposed to go south to Tsandam and to 

 Hlassa, crossing the sources of the Blue River. Thus, 

 he left Kuldja on September 9, and reached Guchen. As 

 along the whole of the route to Guchen, which passes 

 through the towns Shikho and Manas, there were Chinese 

 troops, as also many champans (convicts condemned to 

 hard labour). Col. Prjwalsky followed another route, viz., 

 to Lake Ebi-nor, thence north to the Saur Mountains, and 

 thence to Guchen, along the route followed in 1875 by 

 Col. Sosnovsky. Thus, he reached Guchen about the 

 beginning of November, but here a serious illness com- 

 pelled him to return to Zaisan, which he reached on 

 January 13. A later telegram announced that the inde- 

 fatigable traveller had recovered and that he was again 

 on his way to Tibet. 



Mongolia and Siberia. — At the same meeting a 

 letter from the traveller Potanin dated Bjisk, January 14, 

 stating that he had arrived at the end of his Mongolian 

 journey, after obtaining many hypsometrical and topo- 

 graphical data, as well as making rich botanical, zoolo- 

 gical, and mineralogical collections. The Secretary of the 

 Society gave a review of the activity of the Siberian 

 department. Two expeditions were sent out by this 

 department during the past year, one, which will be 

 absent for several years, under the leadership of M. 

 Czerski to investigate the shores of Lake Baikal geo- 

 logically, the other conducted by M. Agapidin, to ex- 

 amine the flora of the district of Balagansk in the 

 government of Irkutsk. 



New Guinea. — The Rev. S. Macfarlane has just sent 

 home a report of a voyage which he made towards the 

 close of last year from Murray Island to the east end of 

 New Guinea, and in the course of which he visited several 

 places previously unknown. He mentions having gone 

 on shore near Killerton Point, not far from East Cape, 

 where he found himself unable to communicate with the 

 people except by signs, for they could not understand any 

 of the dialects spoken at Teste Island, Port Moresby, 

 and Murray Island, nor the Eastern and Western Poly- 

 nesian languages, though upon inquiring the names of 

 things, Mr. Macfarlane's companion thought he detected 

 a resemblance to the Raratongan. The locality visited 

 not suiting their purposes, the party went six or seven miles 

 further to the eastward, and landed at the mouth of a 

 river or mountain stream, where the hills slope down to 

 within a short distance of the beach, and behind the vil- 

 lage there is a well-wooded, fertile, and lovely valley. Mr. 

 Macfarlane describes the neighbourhood as thickly popu- 

 lated, though the people are scattered in small villages 

 within hailing distance of each other. Speaking gene- 

 rjdly, he says that the country about the east-end of New 

 Guinea has a totally different appearance from that in 



the vicinity of Port Moresby, and the contrast was very 

 striking. The former looked lovely and luxuriant, like 

 the South Sea Islands, whilst the latter had a barren, 

 brown, parched appearance, as if two days' sail had 

 brought the party into a new country in quite a different 

 latitude. We hear that Mr. Andrew Goldie, to whose 

 gold discoveries in New Guinea we have before alluded, 

 has sent home to the Earl of Glasgow an account of his 

 recent explorations, accompanied by a sketch map and 

 several drawings. At Mr. Goldie's request, his Lordship 

 has handed the papers to the Geographical Society, and 

 they will probably be read at one of the meetings during 

 the present session. 



Lake Nyassa Region. — A paper was read at Monday' 

 meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, by Mr. H. B. 

 Cotterill, " On the Nyassa, and a Journey from the 

 North-East to Zanzibar." In Auyust last he met Capt. 

 Elton and some friends at the south end of the lake, and 

 ran up the west coast. Tht-y were detained some days 

 under Mount Chombi, which he ascended, aid found to 

 be about 4,000 feel above the lake. The high land on the 

 west of the lake was found to trend ofif in a north-westerly 

 direction. They at last made a start with about fifty 

 men. Their route crossed the Chombaka River. The 

 whole of the country was covered with groves of banana 

 They procured other carriers and crossed the Chombaka 

 Valley, crossing the river several times and passing two 

 very beautiful little lakes. In crossing the Chombaka for 

 the third time at a point where it flowed through a very 

 deep ravine, they struck more towards the north. They 

 found stretching away to the east and south-east a great 

 plain bounded in the far distance by a towering range of 

 mountains that evidently ran up from the eastern side of 

 the Nyassa towards the north-west. The native name 

 for these mountains and the surrounding country is Kondi. 

 They had been gradually ascending since they left Nyassa, 

 and when they reached Mazote's, they were at an elevation 

 of about 6,000 feet above the sea. It was decided that 

 some of them should push on to Mereri's Town. So Capt 

 Elton and he and another started off, and having crossed 

 the Kondi Range, they found themselves on a great 

 plateau, 7,000 feet high, called Uwanji, a splendid cattle 

 country, watered by many streams. Crossing the 

 Makesumbi River, they found themselves in an undu- 

 lating coun ry, covered with thick bush. There Capt. 

 Elton began to break down, and at South Ushekhe 

 breathed his last. They then had to traverse some 350 

 miles of the Ujiji caravan route, and on the last day of 

 February reached Zanzibar 



Indo-China. — Dr. G. Barrion, a French naval surgeon 

 is about to undertake an exploring journey to the Indo- 

 Chinese peninsula. 



Mr. Stanley has announced to the Paris Geographical 

 Society that he will visit Paris in June, before his 

 departure for America, to receive the medal the Society 

 has awarded him. 



NOTES 



Robert Julius v. Mayer, whose name is so intimately 

 associated with the mechanical theory of heat, died at his native 

 town, Heilbronn, on the 21st inst, in his sixty-fourth year. 

 We can only intimate the event this week, but hope next week 

 to be able to speak in detail of Mayer's life and work. 



In connection with our article on Harvey in this number, we 

 may remind our readers that for some time a movement has been 

 on foot for the erection of a statue to Harvey in his native town, 

 Folkestone. Only 800/., half the sum requisite, has been obtained, 

 and we are sure many of our readers, on being made aware of 

 the deficiency, will be glad to help to fill it up. Donations may 

 be sent to the hon. treasurers of the fund. Sir George Burrows 

 and Mr. Trescott Hewett, or to the hon. secretary, Mr. George 

 Eastes, M.B., 69, Connaught Street, Hyde Park Square, W. 



