498 



NATURE 



{March 21, 1889 



interest. It will be one-millionth the size of the earth ; 

 a millimetre on the globe will represent a kilometre on the 

 surface of the earth. The globe will be about 30 metres 

 (nearly 100 feet) in diameter. On this scale it will be possible 

 in most cases to give geographical details their true dimen- 

 sions ; Paris will occupy just about i centimetre, and may serve 

 as a unit with which to compare the dimensions of other 

 features. All the great lines of communication by land or by 

 sea can be shown in detail. In the enormous cupola under 

 which the globe will be placed, it will be possible by means of a 

 clock-work arrangement to turn the globe on its axis and convey 

 a precise notion of the diurnal rotation of the earth. A point on 

 the equator will move at the rate of half a millimetre per second. 

 The many educational uses to which such a globe could be put 

 are evident. The globe, we understand, is well advanced 

 towards completion. 



In the most recent number of the Bulletin de la Societe de 

 Geographic, M. Jules Marcou continues and concludes an account 

 of his investigations into the origin of the name America. He 

 rejects, for very many reasons, which will be found in the con- 

 tribution in question, the ordinary derivation — that is, from the 

 Christian name of Vespucci, the Italian navigator. Vespucci, 

 he says, never took the name Amerrigo, or Amerigo, till after 

 America was discovered, and, through vanity, he kept up the proud 

 title. The name is an indigenous one, M. Marcou thinks, and 

 means the country of the wind, or the land rich in gold. Four- 

 fifths of the storms which are met with in the Atlantic come 

 from America, and the gold put in circulation by Columbus's 

 discovery explains the second meaning of the term. Between 

 Lake Nicaragua and the Mosquito Coast is a range of mountains 

 called the American Mountains, inhabited by a tribe of Indians, 

 now very few in numbers, who bear the name, " Los Amerriques," 

 and who have been, according to the President of the Nicara- 

 guan Republic, who supports this view, continually in commu- 

 nication with the whole of the Mosquito Coast. Columbus, 

 and not Vespucci, was the discoverer of America, and the 

 country was named from this place and these people, and not 

 from Vespucci, who was a man of no importance, until he either 

 took the name of Amerrigo, or until it was given him. 



Captain Cecchi, Italian Consul at Aden, sends to the 

 Bollettino of the Italian Geographical Society some further 

 particulars of Count Teleki's expedition to the north of 

 Masai Land, and his discovery of the two lakes Samburu 

 (Upper and Lower Narok) in that region. The explorer, 

 who was accompanied by Lieut. L. von HiJhnel, of the 

 Austrian Navy, after ascending Mount Kenia, reached the 

 Niems territory on November 21, 1887, and was detained 

 there till the following February. On the loth of that month 

 the party continued their journey in a northerly direction, and 

 on March 6 arrived on the southern shore of the large lake 

 Samburu (Upper Narok), to which Count Teleki gave the 

 name of his intimate friend, the late Crown Prince Rudolph. 

 The much smaller basin of the Lower Narok, which was also 

 re-named Stephania, in honour of the Crown Princess, was 

 reached on April 4, after which the Expedition returned to the 

 coast at Mombasa. At the northernmost point to which they 

 penetrated (nearly 6° N. lat.) they were within about seventy 

 miles of the Kaffa country, and they describe the two rivers 

 flowing thence southward to the northern extremity of Lake 

 Rudolph as " very important streams." This agrees with the 

 results of Sig. Borelli's explorations in the region south of 

 Shoa, and makes it highly probable that one of these two rivers 

 is the Omo (Ghibieh), which in that case would be an affluent, 

 not of the Juba or of the White Nile, but of the inland Sam- 

 burn basin, lying between those two water-systems. To the 

 same basin belongs Lake Stephania, which communicates with 

 the northern extremity of Lake Rudolph, about lat. 4° 20' N. 

 The expenses of this important expedition were entirely borne 

 by Count Teleki, who is a wealthy Hungarian nobleman. Cap- 

 tain Cecchi's letter is accompanied by a map of the two new lakes 

 prepared from Lieut, von Hohnel's original sketch. 



SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE FISHERY 



BOARD FOR SCOTLAND. 

 'T'HE Report for 1887 is published in three separate parts — a 

 plan which will be found convenient in many ways. Part I. 

 contains the General Report ; Part II., Report on Salmon Fish- 



eries ; and Part III., the Scientific Investigations. The product 

 of the sea-fisheries of Scotland continues to be very large, but it> 

 1887 the prices of most kinds of fish were much lower than they 

 had been for a great many years previously ; the fishermen only 

 received a very small return for their capital and labour, and 

 many of them were reduced to a state of extreme poverty. Of 

 the different fisheries of Scotland, that of the herring continues 

 to be by far the most productive and valuable. The fishing of 

 1887 was less so than that of 1886, but, owing to the great depres- 

 sion in the herring trade, it was not entered into nor carried on 

 with the spirit and industry of more prosperous times. The 

 summer's catches of herring were, speaking generally, much in- 

 ferior to those of 1886, but the winter herring fishery was the 

 most productive ever known. With yearly fluctuations, the 

 yield of the herring fishery on the Scottish coast has, since the 

 beginning of the century, gone on increasing in an extraordinary 

 degree. The total quantity of white fish landed and sold for con- 

 sumption fresh showed a large increase compared with 1886, 

 being the largest landed in any year during which returns have 

 been collected ; whilst the shell-fish showed a considerable de- 

 crease. The total gross value of the sea-fisheries of Scotland for 

 1887 was ;^i,9i5,6o2 \os. The Board are much impressed 

 with the beneficial results to fishermen and curers arising from 

 increased telegraphic communication, which, when further 

 developed, will be of immense value for the promotion of 

 the fishing industry. It is satisfactory that thirteen new tele- 

 graph stations are to be opened in remote districts ; also that a 

 number of harbours are being improved or constructed. The 

 marine police and fishery superintendence was carried on by 

 H.M. SS. yaci'a/. Vigilant, Firm, and Aetive. 



The inference from Mr. Young's Report on the oyster and 

 mussel fisheries on the south-west coast of Scotland is that there 

 are many places where the cultivation of these mollusks might 

 be renewed or established, but that, to make this of any per- 

 manent use, such nurseries should be the property of someone 

 whose interest it would be to make the concern profitable to the 

 public and himself, of course under proper legislation. In the 

 salmon fisheries, owing to the dryness of the season, the angling 

 was very poor, but the nets, especially those in the tide-ways, 

 were very successful. The total value was ;^282,523 JOs. 



The third part of the Report, consisting of 400 pages and 17 

 plates, con'.ains the results of the scientific work. The text is 

 divided into three sections, and i.; preceded by a general state- 

 ment, which touches upon the scientific work done in 1887, 

 and draws attention to the matters requiring special attention in 

 the immediate future — viz. (i) how adequate supplies of bait 

 for the line fishermen may be best provided. (2) What mea- 

 sures should be taken to improve certain exhausted fisheries of 

 the shores and in-sliore waters, such as mussels, lobsters, oysters, 

 &c., by artificial cultivation, or otherwise. (3) The collection 

 of all possible information bearing upon the influence of different 

 modes of fishing, especially in the territorial waters, and in 

 relation to the destruction of young fish. (4) The study, by 

 means of the Garland and otherwise, of the distribution, 

 migrations, and spawning periods of the edible fishes, and of 

 the distribution and movements of the floating organisms which 

 form a large portion of their food. (5) The extension of our 

 knowledge regarding the physical conditions of the fishing- 

 grounds and of the waters around the coast. (6) The collection 

 of special statistics in relation to the fisheries of particular dis- 

 tricts. The value and utility of such investigations and inquiries 

 is manifest. It is very desirable that some measures should be 

 taken with the object of providing a plentiful supply of bait for 

 the line fishermen. The condition of certain of the shore 

 fisheries is also a subject of considerable gravity. The oyster, 

 as an article of commerce, is becoming slowly but surely extinct 

 in Scotland, the total value of the yield for 1887 being only 

 ;^96s. The diminution in the numbers and in the size of the 

 lobster has been referred to, and it will be an unfortunate 

 I circumstance if, for the want of active steps being taken, this 

 important branch of the Scottish fisheries, now rapidly falling 

 off", is allowed to follow the oyster in the process of practical 

 extinction. 



Section A of the appendixes contains the general scientific 

 reports, the longest of which is that on " The Trawling Experi 

 ments of the Garland, and the Statistics of the East Cca^t 

 Fisheries," Part 2, by Prof. Cossar Ewart and Sir J. R= G. 

 Maitland, illustrated by three admirable charts, a map shewing 

 the chief areas investigated by the Garland, and about 130 pages 

 of elaborate and accurate statistical tables. The influence of 



