yune Sy 1879] 



NATURE 



121 



^Akelle. These strive to replace the Mpungwe. To the 

 porth, towards the Mundah River, the Osekiani, the 

 Ibenga and Mbuschu tribes are met with, which occupy 

 be whole area of the Bay of Corisco. All these tribes 

 peak different languages and differ in their manners and 

 astoms. 



The colony of Gaboon consists of three little villages 

 ahabited by Europeans — Plateau, Glass, and Baraka (or 

 Libreville). They are situated about a mile from one 

 another. The French Government house, offices, and 

 barracks, as well as the Catholic Mission house and four 

 or five factories are at Plateau ; eight or ten English and 

 German factories are at Glass, and the Anglican Mission 

 house is at Baraka. Each factory forms a complex of 

 houses by itself, all comprised in an inclosure ; there is 

 generally the dwelling-house of the colonist, the sale 

 rooms or shops, a store-house, a kitchen (always built 

 separately), a house for the workmen, and a shed for 

 canoes and boats. The houses are built of wooden planks 

 imported from Europe, and all have a verandah. The 

 roofs are covered with mats, which are impenetrable even 

 to the most violent rain. The only house built of stone is 

 the Gorernment house. 



Dr. Lenz now gives minute details on the political con- 

 dition of the colony as well as of the work and progress 

 of the religious missions, and concludes his sketch by an 

 elaborate account of the commerce of the place. 



In the above we have given but a scanty outline of Dr. 

 Lenz's sketch of Gaboon. Our readers may judge of the 

 interest of the whole work when we state that there are 

 thirteen other chapters equally elaborate and crowded 

 with details. Our space will not permit us to enter 

 further upon the subject, and we must confine ourselves 

 to the mere statement of the contents of the other 

 chapters. Thus we have one on the Cape Lopez colony, 

 then the Ininga, the Fan and the Abongo tribes are 

 treated in turn, the Fan being remarkable through their 

 being cannibals and the Abongo through their extra- 

 ordinarily small size, which entitles them to the appella- 

 tion of a " tribe of dwarfs." A general description of the 

 commercial conditions of West Africa follows, and we 

 then come to some animated pictures of elephant and 

 other hunting. The next chapters treat of the super- 

 stitious beliefs of the various tribes, of the free state of 

 Liberia and the Croo Coast. A journey from the Okande 

 land to the Osaka tribe and thence to the Aduma and the 

 Banshaka is described in the three following sketches, 

 and the two last ones are dedicated to a description of 

 the Ogowe Lakes and the town of St. Paul de Loanda. 

 We can recommend Dr. Lenz's book most heartily to all 

 lovers of geographical and ethnographical science who 

 arc familiar with the German language. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ Tkc Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake tt return, or 

 to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. No 

 notice is taken of anonymous communications. 



[ The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 

 short as possible. I'he pressure on his space is so great that it 

 is impossible othci-cvise to ensure the appearance even of com- 

 munications containing interesting and novel facts. '\ 



The Average Flush of Excitement 



I WITNESSED a curious instance of this on a large fcale, whicli 

 others may look out for on similar occasions. It was at Epsom, 



on the Derby Day last week. I had taken my position not far 

 from the starling-point, on the further side of the course, and 

 facing the stands, which were about half a mile off, and showed 

 a bread .area of white faces. In the idle moments preceding the 

 start I happened to scrutinise the general effect of this sheet of 

 faces, both with the naked eye and through the opera-glass, 

 thinking what a capital idea it afforded of the average tint of the 

 complexion of the British upper classes. Then the start took 

 place ; the magnificent group of horses thundered past in their 

 fresh vigour and were soon cut of sight, and there was nothing 

 particular for me to see or do until they reappeared in the dis- 

 tance in front of the stands. So I again looked at the distant 

 sheet of faces, and to my surprise found it was changed in 

 appearance, being uniformly suffused with a strong pink tint, 

 just as though a sun-set glow had fallen upon it. The faces 

 being closely packed together and distant, each of them formed 

 a mere point in the general effect. Consequently that effect was 

 an averaged one, and owing to the consistency of all average 

 results, it was distributed with remarkable uniformity. It faded 

 away steadily but slowly after the race was finished. F. G. 



Lunar Crater 



On April i last I saw, between Landsberg and Rheinhold, a 

 small but very remarkable crater, which does not appear in 

 Schmidt's map. It is situated east of a line joining the centres 

 of the above craters, and at rather njore than a third of [the 

 distance from the former to the latter. Either closely adjoining, 

 or in the position of the small crater, there is an isolated hill 

 within the angle of a forked ridge as shown by Schmidt, who 

 must, undoubtedly, have noticed the crater if it existed at the 

 time of his observation. Might it be that the hill seen by him 

 subsequently opened out as a crater ? I remarked neither the 

 hill nor the ridge, but these, like many of Schmidt's objects, 

 might be above my telescopic power, so I cannot say whether the 

 crater is identical with the hill or not. Nearer Rheinhold there 

 is a smaller crater not in Schmidt, who, however, shows a 

 similar one that I failed to see not far off to the south. This 

 may be only a case of misplacement in the map. 



John Birmingham 



A Remarkable Meteor 



A REMARKABLE meteor \\.i3 seen in Western Australia on 

 February I this year. The foUon ing account has been forwarded 

 to me by Mr. S. Worsley Clifton, Collector of Customs at 

 Freemantle : — 



"A small black cloud on a clear day appeared in the east, 

 travelling not very swiftly towards the north-v/est, which burst 

 into a ball of fire with an apparent disk the size of the full moon, 

 blood-red in colour ; it left a train of black or dark-coloured 

 vapour across the heavens which was visible for three-quarters of 

 an hour. No sound was heard, sky perfectly clear, and thermo- 

 meter 100° F. in the shade." Robt. J. Ellery 



Observatory, Melbourne, April 16 



Disease in Salmon 



There has lately been much correspondence upon the subject 

 of a disease affecting the scales of the salmon, and I chanced to 

 come upon the passage which I inclose to you in an old book, 

 the fly-leaf of which bears the autograph of a Duke of Rich- 

 mond, the one, I imagine, who was at Brussels in 1815. I am 

 not a scientific naturalist, and it is quite possible that this passage 

 is familiar to those who are conversant with such subjects ; but 

 thinking it better to err on the side of superfluity than that of 

 careles'-ness, I trouble you with it. W. Walker 



May 26 



Extract from Rev. C. Cordiner's Letters to Thos. Pennant, Esq., 



on Antiquities and Scenery of the A^orth of Scotland. Load. 



^to, 1780. 



I here beg leave to introduce a memoir, relative to an insect 

 attendant on the salmon which come up this river (the Devron), 

 communicated to me by an ingenious friend. 



The foul salmon, of which a drawing has been already sent to 

 Mr. Pennant, was caught February 10, 1776. When brought 

 into the house the colours upon this fish were remarkably lively. 

 The general appearance was that of a reddish brown ; bat the 



