May 5, 1887] 



NATURE 



17 



Occultations of Stars by the Moon (visible at Greenwich). 



May. 



Star. 



Mag. Disap 



Reap. 



S ... 7 Libras 4^ 



13 ... IT Capricorni ... 5 



Corresponding 

 angles from ver- 

 tex to right for 

 inverted image, 

 h. m. h. m. o o 



I 4 near approach 168 — 



3 35 ••• 4 57 - 93 274 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



In the new number (iv.) of Peter/nann's Mittcilungen we find 

 ui interesting note by General Tillo on what he calls the chief 

 water-partings of the earth. He points out that it is usual to 

 indicate for each region the great water-partings, and to come 

 down from that to what are considetedas smaller or subordinate 

 water-partings. But it seems to him that, from a general con- 

 sideration of the earth's surface, the idea of a great world-water- 

 parting may be worked out. This he illustrates by a Polar 

 projection map in which the Old and the New World continents 

 are brought face to face. On this he lays down one continuous 

 line, broken only by Bering's Straits, extending from the south 

 point of America, north along the west side of South and North 

 America, in an irregular diagonal across Asia to the Isthmus of 

 Suez, and down Eastern Africa to the Cape. No doubt there 

 is much to be said for this general conception, especially as 

 General Tillo admits that there are special continental water- 

 partings which do not quite conform to the line of the great 

 parting, though, as a matter of fact, nearly all the great rivers of 

 the world are divided by this parting into two directions. It 

 brings out strikingly the fact that the greater portion of the land- 

 mass of the Old World, and by far the larger portion of the 

 New World are drained into the Polar Atlantic basin. 



Among the other papers in the new number of Peterniann is 

 one on the caravan routes between Suakim and Kassala, by 

 Josef Menges, Dr. Ed. Petri contributes a paper of great 

 interest containing some fresh and curious data on the Yakuts, of 

 whose persistence, activity, and culture, he, like others, has 

 formed a high estimate. Dr. Posewitz contributes a first paper 

 on the geological condition of the Island of Billiton, with special 

 reference to mining. 



M. Chaffaujon has completed his exploration of the 

 Orinoco and returned to Ciudad Bolivar. He states, in a letter 

 dated March 15 last, that he has discovered the sources of the 

 Orinoco, and found that the River Cassiquiari is only a branch of 

 that river, uniting its basin with that of the Amazon ; which 

 seems pretty much what we knew before. M. Chaffaujon has 

 sent a complete report of his exploration to the French Minister 

 of Public Instruction, as well as some ethnographical curiosities, 

 and a fairly complete collection of the fishes of the Orinoco. 



At a recent meeting of the Hungarian Geographical Society, 

 Herr Moriz Von Dechy gave an account of his exploration of 

 the Caucasus last year, in company with the geologist Dr. 

 Schafurzik. The exploration has been rich in scientific results. 

 Besides taking numerous observations on glaciers, measurements 

 of heights, and many fine photographs, the explorers have 

 brought back with them large collections, which have been de- 

 posited in the Museum of the Society, the University of Buda- 

 Pesth, and the Hungarian Geological Institute. There are 

 eighteen boxes of rocks and minerals. There is a small collec- 

 tion of beetles, and several highly interesting and valuable 

 macrocephalic skulls. These, with the large collection of plants 

 obtained in the Expedition of 1885, will be of the highest value 

 to writers on the geology and natural history of this interesting 

 r^ion. 



It is stated in Copenhagen that an Expedition will be de- 

 spatched late this summer by Herr A. Gamil, the equipper of 

 the Dijmphna Expedition of 1882, to the northeast coast of 

 Greenland. It is hoped that the explorers may reach a higher 

 latitude than that attained by Lieut. Holm in 1884, and discern 

 the "Sound" described by the East Greenlanders as running 

 from the east to the west coast, somewhere in latitude 78° N. 

 The Expedition will, if it starts, be commanded by Lieut. 

 Hovgaaid, who in 1882 commanded the Dijmphna. 



France has succeeded in moving the eastern baundary of her 

 Congo territory from the somewhat uncertain River Licona to 

 the magnificent Mobangi. According to the Times Paris Corre- 

 spondent, the 'Thahvcg of the Mobangi is to be the boundary 



between the French territories and the Congo Free State ; but 

 how far up the Mobangi the boundary goes we are not informed. 

 As, by the Berlin Treaty, we understand France cannot go farther 

 north than 4° N. lat., we do not see that she gains much by this 

 new boundary, should the Mobangi turn out, as is probable, to 

 be identical with the Welle. Had the Paris Correspondent taken 

 the trouble to look at a map, he would not have told us that by 

 this new advance France becomes mistress of the greater part of 

 the Congo basin ; the statement is absurd. 



We are glad to learn of the safety of Mr. Carey, to whose 

 extensive journeys in Central Asia we referred in a previous 

 number. He has wintered at Hami, and is by this time 

 probably well on his way to India. 



Those interested in Dr. Junker will find a very full statement 

 of his work, with a map, in the new number of the Proc. R.G.S., 

 by Mr. J. T. Wills. Dr. Junker's travels in the Soudan and 

 Central Africa have lasted from the spring of 1876 to the end 

 of 1886, with the exception of about a year and a half in 1878- 

 80. In his first journey he found the sources of the Well^- 

 Makua near Lake Albert Nyanza. In 1880-83 he explored the 

 basin of the Makua and Kuta (probably the Upper Mobangi). 



The Government of Victoria are preparing to send out a well- 

 equipped expedition to explore the Owen Stanley Range of New 

 Guinea, from Port Moresby, and have, we learn from the Proc. 

 R.G. S., offered the leadership to the man of all others best 

 able to carry out so difficult an undertaking to a successful 

 issue — the Rev. J. Chalmers. 



A FURTHER step has been taken in promotion of an expedi- 

 tion towards the South Pole, by the colony of Victoria. 

 Acting on an offer made by Sir Allen Young to lead such an 

 expedition, it is stated that Sir Graham Berry has brought the 

 question of a Government grant towards the cost of the enter- 

 prise before the Victorian Cabinet, and that the matter is being 

 urged forward with a view to the expedition starting from 

 Hobson's Bay in October or November next. 



THE WORK OF THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE.^ 



II. 



A^H ILE extolling the comprehensive and well-organised sytems 

 of technical education existing in all parts of the Continent 

 and the United States, let us not undervalue the great progress 

 which has been made in recent years in Great Britain in the 

 advancement and extension of technical instruction. The Royal 

 Commission on the Depression of Trade and Industry state, as 

 the result of evidence collected by them, that " It would be 

 difficult to estimate the extent to which our industries have been 

 aided in various ways by the advance of elementary, scientific, 

 and technical education during the last twenty years." 



The important influence exercised by the admirable work 

 which the organisation of the Science and Art Department has 

 accomplished, upon the intellectual and material progress of the 

 nation, is now thoroughly recognised. Prof. Huxley, the 

 Dean of the Normal School of Science, in his recent important 

 letter "On the Organisation of Industrial Education," has 

 reminded us that "the classes now established all over the 

 country in connexion with that Department, not only provide 

 elementary instruction accessible to all, but offer the means 

 whereby the pick of the capable students may obtain in the 

 schools at South Kensington as good a higher education in 

 science and art as is to be had in the country," and " that it is 

 from this source that the supply of science and art teachers is 

 derived, who in turn raise the standard of elementary education" 

 provided by the School Boards. The extension of facilities for 

 the education of those engaged in art-industries is constantly 

 aimed at, as was recently demonstrated by the creation of free 

 studentships for artisans in the Art Schools at South Kensirigton. 



The necessity which has gradually made itself felt in the 

 manufacturing towns of the United Kingdom for encouraging 

 the study of science in its application to industries, by those 

 who intend to devote themselves to some branch of manufacture 

 or trade, has led to the establishment in about twenty-five towns 

 in England and Scotland, and in two or three in Ireland, of 

 colleges of science corresponding more or less to the Continental 



' Lecture (abridged) delivered at the Royal Institution, on Friday, 

 April 22, by Sir Frederick Abel, C.B., F.R.S.; H.R.H. the Prince of 

 Wales, K.G., F.R.S., Vice-Patron, in the Chair- Continued from vol. xxxv. 

 p. 621. 



