Oct. 9, 1879] 



NATURE 



561 



burial-grounds. The traveller has collected some 3,000 

 zoological and 300 botanical specimens, besides a splendid 

 series of Kanaki skulls; all these collections were packed 

 ready for conveyance to Berlin when he sent the news. 

 On July 27 he left Honolulu for Jaluit (Bonham) in the 

 Marshall group, and has no doubt by this time reached 

 the very district he is specially to investigate. From 

 Jaluit he will proceed to other islands in the neighbour- 

 hood. 



From an early sheet of Petermaniis Mittheilimoeti we 

 learn that the Dutch exploring vessel Willem Barents 

 arrived at Hamraerfest on September 24, having suc- 

 ceeded in reaching Franz Josef Land. The expedition 

 encountered stormy weather in September, and found 

 much ice in the Kara Sea and to the north of Novaya 

 Zemlya. M'Clintock Island, in the south of Franz Josef 

 Land, was surrounr'e:! by ice, and on the return journey ice 

 was found east of the 55th degree. They left the Isbjorn 

 in Matotschkin Scharr. This Isbjorn is the little Nor- 

 wegian cutter in which Capt. Albert Markham and Sir 

 Henry Gore Booth have been cruising in the Novaya 

 Zemlya seas, and which reached Tromso on September 22. 

 On June 4 they met with the first ice forty miles from the 

 west coast of Novaya Zemlya, and finding Matotschkin 

 Scharr impassable, they sailed along the west coast of 

 Novaya Zemlya to Cape Nassau, when the Isbjorn was 

 stopped by ice. Returning again, the Matotschkin Scharr 

 was passed, but the Kara Sea was full of masses of ice. 

 On their return they fell in with the Willem Barents, and 

 Markham decided to press northwards again, and this 

 time succeeded in reaching, on September 6, Cape Mau- 

 ritius, the north point of the island. Pressing still further 

 northward between Novaya Zemlya and Spitzbergen, the 

 Isbjorn reached 78° 24' N. lat., only about eighty miles 

 from Franz Josef Land. 



Advices received from St. Lawrence Bay state that 

 the American Polar exploring vessel Jeannette arrived 

 there on August 25, and sailed for Cape Serdze Kamen 

 after taking in coal. It- is believed that there is a pros- 

 pect of an open winter in the Arctic Sea this year. 



Ix his last official report from Copenhagen, Her Ma- 

 jesty's Consul states that the Danish war vessel Fylla, 

 which during the fishing season is stationed off the coast 

 of Iceland, has made some deep-sea soundings and mea- 

 surements, and brought home many interesting particulars 

 respecting the currents and temperature of the Polar Sea. 

 On one of these expeditions she penetrated so far north 

 in the ice as to find cold water (i.e., under freezing point) 

 from two fathoms below the surface to the bottom, by 

 which was proved the presence of an ice-cold polar cur- 

 rent ; the existence of this had not been previously 

 ascertained, owing to the impenetrable ice-masses. The 

 soundings were taken both on the north coast and in 

 Denmark Sound. The extent of the polar ice is varying 

 and changeable, for at the time the Fylla was able to 

 penetrate many miles direct north in open water from 

 North Cape, Iceland, a mail steamer could not enter 

 Ofjord owing to the ice, and a French war steamer was 

 stopped by ice about five miles from the coast between 

 these points. During the whole time the Fylla met with 

 very much drift-wood, which increased in quantity as she 

 advanced northwards. The foregoing notes are of con- 

 siderable interest when considered in connection with 

 portions of Mr. G. F. Rodwell's letter from Iceland, 

 in last number. 



Thf. October number of the Geographical Society's 

 monthly periodical opens with a long paper by Capt. 

 G. Martin, on the information obtained in regard to 

 the Kurram Valley during the survey operations of the 

 Afghan expedition. At the present juncture, this 

 paper will, no doubt, be read with much interest, but. 

 though the author states that "he has endeavoured to be 

 as brief as possible," we incline to the opinion that his 



observations might with advantage have been very 

 considerably curtailed. In the geographical notes we 

 find news respecting the Rev. T. J. Comber's expedition 

 to the Congo, Danish discovery on the coast of Green- 

 land, and the Dutch Arctic expedition. Some further 

 particulars in regard to Mr. Keith Johnston's sad death 

 and the East African expedition are also included under 

 this head. 



The Marine Survey Department, Calcutta, has lately 

 issued a hydrographic notice which contains some in- 

 formation in regard to Pemba Island and the adjacent 

 coast of East Africa. The island is thirty-eight miles 

 long and about thirteen miles wide, including the islands 

 on its western side, which protect the numerous harbours 

 there. The east coast is rocky and straight, with only a 

 few slight indentations. The height of Pemba Island does 

 not exceed 300 feet, and the surface is broken into ridges 

 and valleys, covered with luxuriant vegetation. The soil 

 is rich, the chief produce being cloves, most of the groves 

 of which are situated on the west side of the island. All 

 tropical cereals and edible roots flourish, and on the 

 eastern side the Wapembe, or descendants of the abori- 

 gines, keep large herds of cattle. Cocoa-nuts abounded, 

 but no oil-making is carried on, most of the nuts being 

 consumed locally and the remainder sent to Zanzibar to 

 be converted into oil. The greater part of Pemba Island 

 is under cultivation, or is grazing-land, but a little forest 

 exists here and there. The island is governed by a Wali, 

 appointed by the Sultan of Zanzibar, and residing at 

 Chaki Chaki, the only place of any importance. 



NOTES 

 We learn that Dr. Thwaites, F.R.S., C.M.G., has resigned 

 the directorship of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, 

 Ceylon, to which he was appointed in 1849. This step has been 

 for some time contemplated by Dr. Thwaites, on whose some- 

 wliat feeble health the charge of the botanical interests of the 

 island, especially in relation to the coffee-leaf disease and the 

 introduction of new kinds of cultivation, has of late pressed 

 heavily. 



In a recent paper to La Nature am. the employment of the hydro- 

 electric batteries and Reynier lamps for domestic lighting, M. 

 Reynier comes to the following conclusions : — The most powerful 

 battery is the Bunsen, Ruhmkorff model ; but it is inconvenient 

 and deleterious, and expensive. The most economical and con- 

 stant battery is the Thomson ; but it is costly and cumbrous. 

 The most convenient battery would be a well-arranged rotatory 

 one ; but the price would be high (200 fr. at least) and the daily 

 cost enormous. A battery as powerful as the Bunsen, as econo- 

 mical as the Thomson, and as convenient as a well-arranged 

 rotatory one, would still be far from suitable for electric lighting. 

 Hence it is not at present among hydroelectric batteries that we 

 have to look for the solution of a <lomestic motor applicable to 

 the present electric lamps. 



As will be seen from our advertising columns, the Coun- 

 cil of the Entomological Society of London is authorised 

 by Lord Walsingham and other gentlemen interested in the 

 diseases of our native game birds to offer to public compe- 

 tition the following prizes : — 50/. for the best and most complete 

 life-history of Sclerostoma syngamus. Dies., supposed to produce 

 the so-called "gapes" in poultry, game, and other birds; 50/. 

 for the best and most complete life-history of Strongilus fergru- 

 cilis, Cob., supposed to cause the grouse disease. No life-history 

 will be considered satisfactoiy unless the different stages of 

 development arc observed and recorded. The competition is 

 open to naturalists of all nationalities, and the same observer may 

 compete for both prizes. Essays in English, French, or German, 

 to be sent in on or before October 15, 1882, addressed to the 



