;76 



NA TURE 



[February i8, 1892 



ture by reunion with the desiccating agent, and the 

 communication of the heat evolved to pure water boihng 

 at nearly the same temperature, but at a much higher 

 pressure. But it is possible that, even without a duplica- 

 tion of this kind, advantage might arise from the use of 

 a restraining agent. The steam, superheated in a regular 

 manner, would be less liable to premature condensation 

 in the cylinder, and the possibility of obtaining a good 

 vacuum at a higher temperature than usual might be of 

 service where the supply of water is short, or where it is 

 desired to effect the condensation by air. 



Rayleigh. 



TWO AFRICAN EXPLORERS. 



"\X 7"E regret to have to record the death of two of the 

 * * best -known African explorers — Colonel J. A. 

 Grant and Dr. Wilhelm Junker ; the latter comparatively 

 a young man, and the former by no means old. They 

 belonged to two distinct types of African explorers : 

 Grant was the true pioneer, who went out to force his way 

 through an unknown region ; Junker was the scientific 

 student, content to spend years in one limited region in 

 order to work out its geography, natural history, and 

 ethnology. 



The announcement of the death of Colonel James 

 Grant, Speke's companion in the expedition for the 

 discovery of the source of the Nile, has been received 

 with widespread regret. The stalwart figure and 

 genial, good-natured, boyish face of Colonel Grant has 

 been familiar in London society and in geographical 

 and scientific circles for more than twenty years. In 

 African exploration and in the younger generation of 

 African explorers he took a keen interest to the last. He 

 was a man of chivalrous loyalty to his friends. Speke's 

 memory he almost worshipped, and it need scarcely be 

 said that his feelings to Burton were of a very different 

 stamp. Mr. Stanley had no more staunch supporter than 

 Colonel Grant. Born in the parish manse of Nairn, in 

 Scotland, in 1827, he was educated, like so many other 

 Scots that have distinguished themselves in the service 

 of the country, at the Grammar School of Aberdeen, and 

 at Marischal College. Attheageof nineteen he obtained 

 a commission in the East India Company's service, and 

 between that and the end of the Mutiny saw much active 

 service, and won honours for bravery and devotion to 

 duty. It is, however, as an African explorer that he 

 claims notice in these pages. It will be remembered that 

 in 1857 the only great lakes, of which we knew any- 

 thing, in the map of Africa were Chad and Nyassa, 

 the latter then quite recently plotted for certain by 

 Livingstone. But rumours of other lakes had been 

 filtering down to the coast for years. In 1857, Burton 

 and Speke started from Zanzibar in search of " the 

 Great Lake," as it was vaguely called ; and, after a 

 painful march of eight months, found Tanganyika, the 

 first discovered of those great sheets of water which 

 form so marked a feature of the centre of the continent. 

 On the return journey, Speke took a run north, to find 

 another great lake said to exist in that direction. He 

 reached the southern shore of Lake Ukerewe, which has 

 since become so well known as Victoria Nyanza. Though 

 Speke only caught a glimpse of the southern waters of 

 the lake, and had no adequate idea of its amplitude, he 

 conjectured rightly that it must be the source of the 

 Nile. Into the unhappy quarrel of Speke and Burton 

 it is unnecessary to enter. But Speke, and not 

 Burton, was selected by the Royal Geographical So- 

 ciety, in i860, to lead an Expedition to the lake 

 for the purpose of confirming his conjecture. This 

 Expedition Government subsidized to the amount of 

 ;^25oo. Captain Grant, as he was then, was chosen to 

 accompany Speke. The latter was, no doubt, the leader 



NO. I 164, VOL. 45] 



of the Expedition ; but Grant, though he suffered much^ 

 and had to be carried a great part of the way, did much 

 to render the expedition of scientific value. The un- 

 known countries to the west and north-west of Victoria 

 Nyanza were explored, though the contour of the lake 

 was very inadequately laid down. Uganda was reached in 

 1 862, and in July of that year the Nile was seen issuing full- 

 born from the lake, and dancing its way north-west over 

 Ripon falls. The two travellers followed the river for 120 

 miles, but were compelled to quit it, and so missed the 

 discovery of its connection with the Albert Nyanza. They 

 came upon it again 70 miles further down, and reached 

 Gondokoro in February ; 863, where they were met and 

 succoured by Samuel Baker. 



As might have been expected, the discoverers of the 

 Nile sources received a great ovation on their arrival in 

 England. Grant, like Speke, received the gold medal of 

 the Royal Geographical Society, and was made a C.B. 

 In 1864, under the title of " A Walk across Alrica," he 

 published a narrative of the expedition. In 1872 he 

 published "A Summary of the Speke and Grant Expedi- 

 tion" in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. 

 Colonel Grant was a careful observer, and his " Walk 

 across Africa" abounds in interesting facts and sug- 

 gestions on country and people, especially on the 

 latter. 



It was he who did the greater part of the scientific 

 work on the Nile Expedition, and among other things he 

 made a considerable collection of dried plants now in 

 the Kew Herbarium. A rough list of these formed an 

 appendix to Speke's " Journal of the Discovery of the 

 Soiirce of the Nile " ; and most of the illustrations of this 

 work were from drawings made by Grant. The publica- 

 tionof the first volume of Prof. D. Oliver's "Flora of 

 Tropical Africa" fired Grant with the desire to have a 

 special'volume prepared on the flora and fauna of the 

 Expedition. The result was that the whole of the 

 twenty-ninth volume of the Transactions of the Linnean 

 Society was devoted to the flora, and it is one of the most 

 interesting of the series. The purely botanical part was 

 contributed by Prof. Oliver and Mr. J. G. Baker ; and the 

 136 plates (prepared at Colonel Grant's expense) illustrat- ' 

 ing the new or otherwise specially interesting plants, are 

 some of the best work of the late W. H. Fitch. 



In 1 87 1 Grant was elected a Fellow of the Linnean 

 Society, and in 1873 of the Royal Society ; and many 

 other distinctions were conferred upon him, including 

 a Companionship of the Star of India for his military 

 services in India and Abyssinia. 



Dr. Johann Wilhelm Junker was a different type of ex- 

 plorer. He was born in Moscow, of German parents, on 

 April 6, 1840. He spent his boyhood in Gottingen, attended 

 the German Gymnasium at St. Petersburg, and studied 

 medicine at Gottingen, Berlin, and Prague. After a visit 

 to Iceland, Junker went to Tunis in 1874, and to Egypt 

 in 1875. In that year he began those explorations which, 

 with one or two interruptions, he carried on continuously 

 for twelve years. He visited Lake Mareotis, the Natron 

 Lakes, and the Fayum. In i876hewentfromSuakin, through 

 the Khor Baraka, to Kassala and Khartum ; he explored 

 the lower Sobat, and made successive journeys among the 

 western tributaries of the Nile. In 1876 he proceeded as 

 far westwards as Makaraka, and in 1877 crossed the 

 Tangi River and visited the Wau, thus overlapping the 

 route of Schweinfurth (1869-70). Indeed, Junker, during 

 his many years' journeying, did a great deal to supple- 

 ment the work of his distinguished predecessor. After a 

 brief visit to Europe (1878), Junker was back in Africa 

 in 1879, this time accompanied by a photographer (Bohn- 

 dorfif), who also lent a helping hand in preparing the 

 numerous natural history collections. He accompanied 

 several of the expeditions sent out by the Egyptian 

 authorities from Khartum. But Junker often wandered 

 almost alone, with very few native companions, and as a 



