74' 



NATURE 



{May 27, 1875 



exceeds the diameter of the float; the cylinders were 

 made up in sections of fifty inches in length, the lowest 

 of which is closed below with an iron plate, and the whole, 

 when bolted together, forms a water-tight well, into which 

 water can only enter through the piping for effecting the 

 connection with the sea. The piping is of an internal 

 diameter of two inches, which has been computed to be 

 sufficient to permit of the transmission of the tidal wave 

 to the well without sensible retardation. Iron piping is 

 laid from the well to the line of low water ; it is brought 

 vertically up from the bottom of the well nearly to the 

 surface of the ground, and is then carried down to the 

 sea, where flexible gutta-percha piping is attached, and 

 carried into the deep water. The outer piping terminates 

 in a " rose," which is suspended a few feet above the bed 

 of the sea by a buoy, in order to prevent the entrance of 

 silt as much as possible, and it can be readily detached 

 from the iron piping whenever it has to be cleaned. 



After many difficulties, and even dangers to life, Capt. 

 Baird's party managed to get the gauges erected and set to 

 work, and what with the tidal observations, observations of 

 the barometric pressure, the velocity and direction of the 

 wind, and the amount of rainfall — for each station has 

 been provided with means for making such observations- 

 very valuable results may be expected. 



Lieut. Gibbs's notes on the portion of the Dang Forests, 

 in the Guzerat district, visited by him in 1874, are of great 

 interest, and we regret that space forbids us referring to 

 them in detail. His observations on the inhabitants of this 

 region are of special value ; he also seems to have paid 

 considerable attention to the fauna, flora, and geology of 

 the district. 



Capt. Heaviside's lively narrative of the pendulum work 

 in India, of his journey home, and of the operations at 

 Kew, will also be read with interest. 



Two narratives of somewhat unusual interest are given 

 in the Appendix. One of these, by Lieut.-Col. Mont- 

 gomerie, gives an account of a journey to the Namcho or 

 Tengri Niir Lake, in Great Thibet, about ninety miles 

 north of the Brahmaputra, by a native explorer, during 

 1871-72. The explorer was a semi-Thibetan, a young man 

 who had been thoroughly trained for the work, and who 

 was accompanied by four assistants. The party set out 

 from Kumaon in November, and crossed the Brahma- 

 putra at Shigatze, and amid considerable hardships made 

 their way northwards, reaching the lake about the end of 

 January, when they found it completely frozen over, 

 although the water is so salt as to be unfit for drinking. 

 The party intended to travel all round the lake, which is 

 15,200 feet above the sea, fifty miles long and from six- 

 teen to twenty-five miles broad, and intended to proceed 

 further to the northward and take complete surveys, but 

 were robbed of nearly all they had, and were thus com- 

 pelled to beat a rapid retreat, which they did by way of 

 Lhdsd. 



During the great part of his journey to the Namcho 

 Lake the explorer found the streams all hard frozen, and 

 he was consequently much struck by the number of hot 

 springs that he met with, and more especially by the great 

 heat of the water coming from them, his thermometer 

 showing it to vary from 130° to 183° Fahrenheit, being 

 generally over 150°, and often within a few degrees of the 

 boiling point, being in one case 183° when the boiling 

 point was 183!°. The water generally had a sulphurous 

 smell, and in many cases was ejected with great noise and 

 violence ; in one place the force was sufficient to throw 

 the water up from forty to sixty feet. These springs in 

 some respects seem to resemble the geysers of Iceland. 



To the south the lake is bounded by a splendid range 

 of snowy peaks, flanked with large glaciers, culminating 

 in the magnificent peak " Jang Ninjinthangld," which is 

 probably more than 25,000 feet above the sea. The range 

 was traced for nearly 150 miles, running in a north- 

 easterly direction. To the north of the lake the moun- 



tains were not, comparatively speaking, high, nor were 

 there any high peaks visible further north as far as the 

 explorer could see from a commanding point which he 

 climbed up to. He only saw a succession of rounded hills 

 with moderately flat ground in between them. Imme- 

 diately north he saw a lake of about six miles in length, 

 which he was told was called Bui Cho, from the borax 

 (bul) which is produced there in large quantities, sup- 

 plying both LhdsA and Shigatze with most of the borax 

 that they require. 



The Tengri Nur or " Namcho " Lake is considered to 

 be a sacred place, and although at such a very great dis- 

 tance from habitations and so high above the sea, it boasts 

 of several permanent monasteries and is visited by large 

 numbers of pilgrims. There are several islands in the 

 lake, two of them large enough for monasteries : at the 

 time the explorer was there the Ldmas on the islands 

 kept up their communication with the shore by means of 

 the ice, but he did not hear as to what was done in summer. 

 Fish are said to be abundant, and modern lake shells were 

 found on the shore as well as fossil shells, which were 

 very numerous and of all sizes. 



The narrative contains many other valuable observa- 

 tions made on the people and the country through which 

 he travelled ; there is a good map of the route. 



The other narrative is quite equal in interest to that 

 just referred to. It consists of extracts from a native 

 explorer's narrative of his journey from Pitor^garh in 

 Kumaon via Jumla to Tadum, and then down through 

 Nepaul, along the Gandak River, to British territory. 

 The explorer, who had to exercise much determination 

 and ingenuity, took minute notes by the way of all he 

 saw, and has added much to our knowledge of the geo- 

 graphy, the people, and the products of a region com- 

 paratively unknown. He had to cross many rivers by the 

 way, which was generally done by means of ropes sus- 

 pended between the banks. The explorer wished to pro- 

 ceed much further than Tadum, which is a little beyond 

 the Brahmaputra, in Great Thibet, but was prevented by 

 the head man of the village. He started on July i, 1873, 

 and reached British territory again about the end of 

 November, after having travelled nearly 500 miles. We 

 have space to notice only one interesting phenomenon 

 which he observed. At Muktindth, near Kdgbeni, about 

 1 1,280 feet above the sea, in N. lat. 29° and E. long. 

 83° 45', about 600 feet south of the temple, is a small 

 mound with a little still water at its base, having a sul- 

 phurous smell. From a crevice in this mound, at the 

 water's edge, rises a flame about a span above the surface. 

 The people of the place told the explorer that the water 

 sometimes increases in quantity sufficiently to flow into the 

 crevice ; the flames then disappear for a while, and there 

 is a gurgling noise, a report, and the flames burst up and 

 show again. This spot is called Chume Giarsa by the 

 Bhots. 



Our readers will see, from the cursory glance we have 

 been able to take at this Report, that it contains much 

 valuable matter apart from the immediate work of the 

 Survey, the members of which are doing good service to 

 India and to science. 



THE BIOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE 

 BRITISH MUSEUM 



n^HE newly-issued Report of the condition and develop-^ 

 •*■ ment of the British Museum has, so far as biologists 

 are concerned, a special interest. Its results m.ay be 

 considered as an index of the public feeling on the im- 

 portance of the study of Natural History. Looked at in 

 this light, we think that specialists in all the departments 

 may feel hopeful. The acquisitions to the Zoological 

 Department have been numerous (30,699 in all), over 

 6,000 being Vertebrata, " the majority being either entire 



