May 2 2, 1879J 



NATURE 



87 



about S. lat. 20° 46' 6", E. long. 1 17' 7' SS"- The courses 

 of the following rivers were correctly traversed and 

 mapped :— De Grey River, 100 miles ; Turner, 25 miles ; 

 Yule, 50 miles ; Sherlock, 50 miles ; Fortescue and tribu- 

 taries, 300 miles ; Robe, 50 miles ; Cane, 70 miles ; Ash- 

 burton and tributaries, 150 miles ; making a total of 795 

 miles. The heights of mountains have not yet been cal- 

 culated, but a triangulation was made of the country 

 between the De Grey and Ashburton Rivers, covering an 

 area of 30,000 square miles. Maps of the districts above- 

 mentioned are in preparation, but are not yet completed. 

 The report of the work performed during the current 

 half year will, no doubt, contain some interesting infor- 

 mation, as a party, under the command of Mr. Alex. 

 Forrest, started in January last to undertake the explora- 

 tion of the previously unexamined tract of country in the 

 north-west lying between the De Grey and Victoria 

 Rivers. 



Baron von Muller, in a letter to Petermann's Mit- 

 theilungen, states that Mr. Tietkens, who accompanied 

 Giles on his two last journeys, has left Adelaide for Bel- 

 tana at the head of a camel expedition fitted out by Mr. 

 Elder for exploration along the region lying inwards from 

 the great Australian Bight. Mr. Tietkens informed us 

 when he was in this country that he was confident that 

 long stretches of fine pasture-land would be found at 

 various parts of this region, and one of his objects is 

 apparently to find these. Baron von Miiller speaks 

 highly of Mr. Tietkens' s qualifications as an explorer and 

 surveyor, and expects that in the course of the next few 

 years he will do much to add to our knowledge of the 

 geography of the Australian interior. 



M. SOLEILLET, the French explorer of North Africa, 

 has arrived at Marseilles from St. Louis, in Senegal. He 

 has been received by the Geographical Society of that 

 city, and will deliver a lecture on the necessity of opening 

 the way between Senegal and Algeria, viA Timbucktoo. 

 It is said that he will, at the suggestion of Akhbor, be 

 called to Algiers by the Governor-General before going 

 to Lyons and Paris, where he will deliver lectures on the 

 same subject. In this connection we may state that an 

 interesting ceremony will take place in a few days. The 

 inhabitants of a small country place in the Eure depart- 

 ment will remove to another site the grave of Rend 

 Caillet, the celebrated Timbucktoo explorer, who died 

 in 1838, and was the first laureate of the French Geo- 

 graphical Society. The Society will bear the expenses of 

 exhumation, and send delegates to witness it. One of 

 them will be M. Soleillet. 



In No. 20 of Globus of this year is a short article of 

 some interest showing the physical and moral changes in 

 the population of Siberia by the mixture of Russian 

 colonists with the native races. 



We take the following from the Gard'.tier£ Chronicle: — 

 Mr. Goldie, the naturalist, who has passed the last eighteen 

 months in New Guinea in search of plants for Mr. B. S. 

 Williams, of Holloway, has, the Brisbane Courier states, 

 collected an immense number of animals, birds, and 

 insects, besides valuable botanical specimens, and believes 

 that a large number of these are entirely unknown. He 

 claims to have found an entirely new species of kangaroo. 

 He has brought with him a native from the coast tribes, 

 a srood-looking lad of indistinct Malay origin, whose long 

 f -u!y hair, tied round with a string, is worn standing 

 si ;, light up. The natives of the inland tribes Mr. Goldie 

 states to be entirely different from those on the coast in 

 both appearance and customs, but all, he says, are friendly 

 and good-natured, and not given to the deeds of ferocity 

 lately detailed by us on the authority of the residents at a 

 bkhe-de-mer station. Mr. Goldie was of the party that 

 made its way to the coast, crossing about twenty flooded 

 rivers, and losing horses and baggage, and states that 

 although they crossed some high ranges they never 



reached the dividing range, on the other side of which, 

 the general belief amongst the party was, that payable 

 gold would be found. The natives in the interior are, it 

 appears, so awed at the sight of a white man as to 

 obviate any risk of molestation. The custom of a tribe 

 with whom Mr. Goldie's party came in contact, suggested 

 to them the probable origin of the rumours that have been 

 always current of a race of tailed men in some remote 

 corner of the globe. These natives wear artificial tails of 

 such cunning construction as to entirely mislead a casual 

 observer. They are entirely naked, except for the caudal 

 ornament, which is a plait of grass fastened round their 

 loins by a fine string, and depending behind to about 

 half-way down their legs. Possibly the missing link that 

 has so baffled Darwin has only lately become extinct in 

 New Guinea, and these descendants, ashamed of their 

 degeneracy, keep up the tradition of a noble^ancestry by 

 simulating their distinguishing characteristic' 



The Austrian Monatschrift fiir den Orient of May 

 contains an article of much practical and some ethno- 

 logical value on the Nations of the Turkish Empire as 

 factors in the National Economy ; he reviews the con- 

 dition of the various industries, and the character of the 

 various ethnical elements of the Turkish dominions. 

 Herr A. von Wassberg contributes a paper on the Migra- 

 tions of the Inhabitants of the Ionian Islands, while Herr 

 Schick continues his elaborate papers on Agriculture in 

 Palestine. 



The May number of Petermann's Mittheilungen gives 

 the chief place to a long and careful article by M. Linde- 

 man on the North Coast of Siberia between the Mouths 

 of the Lena and Behring Straits. Herr Lindeman traces 

 the history of exploration in the region from 1630 to tKe 

 present time, and follows this with a description of the 

 coasts and islands. The article is accompanied by an 

 excellent map in' two sheets. Dr. Emin Bey, Governor 

 of the Egyptian Equatorial Provinces, contributes an in- 

 teresting Journal of a Journey from MruU to the chief 

 town of Unyoro, abounding with valuable notices on the 

 country and people. J 



The March number of the Bulletin of the Paris Geo- 

 graphical Society contains, as its first article, the first 

 part of a learned paper by M. de Saulcy on the cities of 

 Upper Louten, the Syria of the Ancient Egyptians. 

 Other papers are on the frontiers of Russia in Central 

 Asia, by M. de Ujfalvy ; explorations of the Cunene, by 

 M. Nogueira ; and the dried-up rivers of the Dobruja, by 

 Herr F. Kanitz. 



NOTES 



The University of Cambridge proposes to confer the honorary 

 degree of LL.D. upon the following, among others : — Mr. Justice 

 Grove. Mr. W. Spottiswoode, President of the Royal Society, 

 Mr. Henry J. S. Smith, Savilian Professor of Geometry, Oxford, 

 Prof. Huxley, Mr. H. C. Sorby, F.R.S. The Rede lecture will 

 be delivered in the Cambridge Seuate-house at 2.30 on Wednes- 

 day, June n. The lecturer, the Rev. W. H. Dallinger, has 

 chosen the following subject : — " The Origin of Life as illustrated 

 by the Life Histories of the Least and Lowest Organisms in 

 Nature." 



The Forty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the British Association 

 will commence at Sheffield on Wednesday, August 20, 1879. 

 The President Elect is Prof. G. J. AUman, LL.D., F.R.S., 

 Prof. L.S. Vice-presidents Elect— His Grace the Duke of 

 Devonshire, K.G., F.R.S., the Right Hon. the Earl Fitzwilliam, 

 K.G., the Right Hon. the Earl of Wharnclifre, W. H. Brittam 

 (Master Cutler), Prof. T. H. Huxley, Sec. R.S., Prof. W. 

 Odiing, F.R.S. General Secretaries— Capt. Douglas Galton, 

 C.B., F.R.S , Philip Lutley Sclater, Ph.D., F.R.S. Assistant 



