238 



NATURE 



[JANUARY 3, 1901 



a considerable part of this region. The expedition was well 

 supplied with scientific instruments, with which numerous 

 observations that have been serviceable to the cartographer and 

 the meteorologist were taken. The Royal Geographical Society 

 awarded him their Founder's Medal for this journey. His 

 travels from Mozambique in 1884, and into the Shire country 

 in 1889, were of political importance, but have no scientific 

 value. 



Sir Harry Johnston has sent to the Royal Geographical 

 Society an account of his recent journeys in the Uganda Pro- 

 tectorate, and it is here abridged from the Times. He succeeded 

 in making very interesting natural history collections in that 

 part of the Congo Forest which stretches from the basin of the 

 Ituri River to the vicinity of the Semliki. Many photographs 

 were taken of the dwarfs, male and female, of their dances, 

 implements and dwellings. Anthropological measurements 

 were also made by Mr. Doggett, the collector accompanying 

 the Special Commissioner's expedition. Other dwarfs were sub- 

 sequently examined from the Mboga district, which is that out- 

 lying portion of the Uganda Protectorate which lies to the 

 north-west of the Semliki River. It was found that (as other 

 travellers relate) the dwarfs were of two types — black-skinned, 

 with a good deal of stiff, curling black hair about the body, and 

 red or yellow-skinned, with a tendency to redness in the hair 

 of the head and yellowish-grey in the hair growing on the body. 

 Some of the dwarfs, especially when young, have quite hairy 

 bodies, and their women not infrequently have incipient whiskers. 

 These Congo dwarfs no longer speak an original language of 

 their own, but talk, in a slightly corrupted form, the language 

 of the taller negroes in whose vicinity they dwell. Amongst 

 physical features which specially distinguish them from their 

 neighbours is the large size and flatness of the nose. This 

 organ has scarcely any bridge, and the wings of the nose are 

 very large. The dwarfs also have a very long upper lip, which 

 is scarcely, if at all, erected. In many other points they exhibit 

 ape-like features, but their intelligence is, as a rule, well de- 

 veloped, and though hideously ugly and often very ape-like in 

 appearance, they are usually of a winning and cheerful dis- 

 position, while their dances are so frolicsome and gay and full 

 of pretty movements as to distinguish them markedly in that 

 respect from the average negro. 



Sir H. Johnston has ascertained that there exists in these 

 Congo forests a remarkable species of horse or zebra not 

 hitherto known or described. According to his observations, 

 the gorilla as well as the chimpanzee exists in these Congo 

 forests between the ItUri and the Aruwimi. He hopes to 

 send home a specimen of the chimpanzee which is found 

 in the western part of the Uganda Protectorate. Sir H. 

 Johnston devoted three weeks to examining the upper part of 

 Mount Ruwenzori. He and two of his companions ascended 

 to a higher point, seemingly, than has yet been reached by 

 any explorer. Beyond an altitude of 14,800 feet a succession 

 of sheer walls of rock was found, the ascent of which was 

 extremely difficult. Snow was found lying as low as 13,000 

 feet, and permanent snow was reached at 13,500 feet. A large 

 botanical collection was made, and photographs were taken 

 of the more remarkable forms of vegetation, which include 

 two species of giant lobelia, a tree-heath grown to 50 feet, and 

 the tree groundsel which was discovered by Sir H. Johnston in 

 1884 on the upper parts of Kilima-Njaro. Collections in zoology 

 made on the mountain in this vicinity will probably result in at 

 least one new species of monkey, a new hyrax, a new antelope, 

 and a number of birds, reptiles and insects new to science. 



During the past week this country has been visited by a 

 series of severe storms, which have caused much damage to 

 both life and property. On the morning of Thursday, 



NO. 1627, VOL. 63] 



December 27, the Daily Weather Report issued by the 

 Meteorological Office showed that a "V" shaped depression 

 lay over St. George's Channel, the distribution of barometric 

 pressure being of a complex character, with high readings over 

 both the north and south of Europe. During the day the 

 depression moved eastwards across England, but was followed 

 very closely by a new and much deeper disturbance. The 

 centre of this storm passed across the northern parts "of Ireland 

 and England on December 27 and 28, and on the morning of 

 the 29th the centre lay over Denmark, having travelled during 

 some part of its course at about 23 miles an hour, while the 

 velocity of the wind in the vortex reached over 80 miles an 

 hour ; at Greenwich the pressure anemometer registered 27 lbs. 

 on the square foot in the afternoon of December 28. A further 

 disturbance moved along our south coasts on the 30th and 31st, 

 and occasioned northerly gales over a large part of England, 

 during which some heavy falls of rain, amounting to i — 3 

 inches, were recorded in several parts of the country, resulting 

 in disastrous floods. 



The report of the Meteorological Council for the year ending 

 March 31, 1 900, has recently been presented to Parliament. 

 The principal changes during the year have been the appoint- 

 ment of Mr. W. N. Shaw as secretary, in succession to Mr. 

 Scott, retired, and the appointment of Captain Campbell Hep- 

 worth, R. N.R., as marine superintendent, in place of Lieut. 

 Baillie, deceased. The appendices contain (i) regulations for 

 superannuation allowances to the established clerks, (2) corre- 

 spondence referring to the continuation with the National 

 Physical Laboratory of the relations hitherto subsisting between 

 the Meteorological Office and Kew Observatory, and (3) further 

 correspondence with H. M. Treasury and the Scottish Meteoro- 

 logical Society relating to the maintenance of the Ben Nevis 

 observatories. A comparison of the evening weather forecasts 

 (which appear in the morning newspapers) shows that the per- 

 centage of complete and partial success during the year 

 amounted to 82. The success of the storm-warning telegrams 

 issued to the sea coasts was even more gratifying, amounting to 

 91 per cent., while the warnings not justified by subsequent 

 weather were only 4*8 per cent. The report contains an ac- 

 count of anemometer experiments made at Holyhead, and a 

 note upon investigations in atmospheric electricity. 



Many years ago, a paper was published by H. Arons, dealing 

 with the symmetry of crystals as deduced from their elastic 

 potentials, in which it was shown that if a crystal possessed two 

 planes of symmetry, then either the angle between the planes is 

 45°, 60°, or 90°, or every plane through their intersection is a 

 plane of symmetry. In the Atti dei Lincei, ix., 10, Signor C. 

 Viola now discusses the various forms of crystalline symmetry 

 with reference to the so-called " law of rationality of the in- 

 dices," and raises objections to this law. From considerations 

 partly based on observation, partly on the theory of elasticity, 

 Signor Viola gives a proof of the theorem that there are thirty- 

 two different possible kinds of crystalline symmetry. 



A METHOD of crystallising substances from albuminous 

 solutions without the formation of a crust on the surface is 

 described by Herr A. Wroblewski in the Bulletin of the Cracow 

 Academy, viii., 1900. The method consists in confining the 

 solution to be crystallised in a tube with ^ parchment bottom, 

 and depends on the fact that evaporation takes place through 

 the parchment although the surface exposed to the air shows 

 no signs of moisture from the transpiration of the liquid. The 

 apparatus which the author describes has enabled him to obtain 

 crystals of albuminous substances of greater purity than those 

 resulting from the use of Hoff'meister's method, and, more- 



j over, it suggests several interesting experiments connected with 



I osmotic phenomena. 



