444 



NA TURE 



[September 7, 1893 



In Mr. Conway's words : — 



The Arctic and Antarctic regions remain for the future, and 

 so do almost all the great mountain ranges in the world. The 

 Alps alone are explored. The exploration of the Caucasus has 

 been well begun, perhaps half done. Mr. Whymper has ac- 

 complished as much as one man can do in a season in ihe great 

 Andes of Ecuador, but the Andes as a whole are little known. 

 A good deal has been done in parts of the Rocky Mountains. Our 

 New Zealand fellow-countrymen have boldly attacked the beauti- 

 ful mountain fastnesses which belong to them. All these are hope- 

 ful beginnings, but the mountains of Central Africa and all the 

 ranges of Asiaarepracticallyunknown. Thus the futureof explora- 

 tion is in the hands of climbers. The exploration of the Alps is a 

 mere specimen on a small scale of the greater work which remains 

 to be accomplished over areas incomparably vaster, and amongst 



ranges loftier and far more difficult than the Alps 



Whilst the Himalayas have been in large part surveyed by the 

 Indian Government, they are not, from a mountaineer's point 

 of view* surveyed at all. No attempt has been made to give a true 

 physical representationof the highest levels. The glaciation has 

 been treated in the vaguest fashion and upon the ditch theory. 

 From such woik a mountain student cannot learn much. It 

 was for this reason that I was tempted to make, in the year 

 1892, an expedition into the Karakoram Mountains, wheie are 

 gathered together the mightiest group of glaciers in the world 

 outside the Polar regions. The Hispar, the liiafo, and the 

 Baltoio glaciers had (or me the attraction of size as well as 

 remoteness. The Hispar glacier was unsurv. yed. The lower 

 portions of the other two had been mapped by Colonel Godwin- 

 Austen years ago, but their upper regions were unknown. The 

 journey that I planned was duly cvrried out and resulted in the 

 physical survey of some three ihousand square miles of high moun- 

 tain country. A map of the Central Asiatic mountain region lies 

 before me as I wiite. It measures twelve by fifteen inches, 

 On the same scale, ihe portion surveyed by me measures less 

 than a square inch. This will give some idea of the amount of 

 work that remains to be done in A.-ia by mountaineers. 



The great difficulty in climbing at considerable altitudes 

 lies in the diminished atmospheric pressure. Says Mr. 

 Conway : — 



It is more felt in hollow places than on ridges, more on snow 

 than rocks, more in still air than a breeze, more in sunshine 

 than under clouds or by ni^ht. It seems probable that the 

 healthy human body can be accustomed to altitudes up to 18,000 

 or 19,000 feet. Above 19,000 feet a cumulative effect of 

 discomfort is.produced. 



Mr. Conway and his party reached an altitude of 

 22,500 feet in the journey to the Karakorams referred to 

 above, and he thinks an altitude of 24,000 feet may 

 eventually be attained, but it will probably not be inuch 

 exceeded. 



Miss A. R. Taylor describes her sojourn in Thibet in 

 the Natiojial Review. 



Scribner's Magazine contains an interesting article on 

 " The Tides of the Bay of Fundy," by Mr. Gustav Kobbe. 

 Who has not heard of these tides, and wondered at their 

 reputed magnitude ? .'-tatistics regarding the range are 

 often so loosely stated that the following quotation is 

 justifiable : — 



At Grand Manan the fall is from twelve to fifteen feet, at 

 Lubec and Ea^iport twenty feet, at St. John from twenty-four 

 to thirty feel, at Munck on, on the bend of the Pelitcodiac, 

 seventy feet, while the distance between high and low water 

 mark on the Cubequid River is twelve miles — the river actually 

 being twelve miles longer at high than at low water. 



Under the title, "The First Artists of Europe," the 

 Rev. S. Baring Gould gives, in Good Words, a well- 

 illustrated description of the flint implements and tools, 

 carvings on bone, horn, and ivory, sculptures, engravings, 

 and sketches left by prehistoric reindeer hunters in caves, 

 and beneath overhanging rocks in the valley of the 

 Vdzfere, France. " The Story of the South African 

 Diamond Fields" is told by the Rev. John Reid in the 

 same magazine, and Mr. £. W. Abram contributes a 

 biography of the Rev. F. O. Morris, whose volumes on 



NJ. 1245, vol.. 48] 



' Birds " and " Butterflies and Moths " are known to all 

 naturalists, and earned for him the name of " Gilbert 

 White of the North." 



" Bacterial Life and Light " is the title of an article by 

 Mrs. Percy Frankland, \n Longman's Magazine, in which 

 the recent work that has been done on 'the bactericidal 

 action of sunlight is brightly described. 



NO TES. 

 Mr. Scott Elliot has obtained a grant from the Govern- 

 ment Grant Committee of the Royal Society for the purpose of 

 exploring Uganda. We understand that his intention is to 

 start from Mombassa and proceed direct to Lake Victoria 

 Nyanza. After a short stay near the lake Mr. Scott Elliot 

 hopes to leave for Ruwenzari, and to spend as long a time as his 

 funds permit in exploring the botany, geology, and natural his- 

 tory of this mountain chain. Both Dr. Stuhlman and Dr. 

 Baumann have been very lately in this neighbourhood, but still 

 something of interest may be expected from Mr. Elliot's ex- 

 ploration. 



The works of the Cataract Construction Company at Niajara 

 Falls are rapidly approaching completion. The tunnel is really 

 finished, and so is the canal. The wheel-pits have had to be 

 cut out of the solid rock. A power house is now being constructed 

 to carry a travelling crane worked by an electric motor, the 

 current for which will be supplied by a Westinghouse Engine 

 and dynamo. The first of the three turbines of 5,000 horse-power 

 has been made by the Morris Company, of Philadelphia, from 

 de-igns by Faesch and Picard, of Geneva, and will be set up as 

 soon as the electric crane is in its place. Prof. George Foibes, 

 F.R.S., the electrical consulting engineer to the Cataract Com- 

 pany, has completed the plans for the electrical transmission, 

 which will be by an alternating current. Vertical-shaft dynamos, 

 each of 5,oco horse power, and capable of giving current in one 

 or two phases, will be employed. It is hoped that the fint of 

 these dynamos will be built in about four months. The power 

 will first be used at the new works of the Pittsburg Reduclion 

 Company, on the road towards Buffalo, for the production of 

 aluminium. To hold the conductors, a roomy subway of concrete 

 is being constructed. Cast-iron frames are built into the con- 

 crete, and brackets are fixed to them carrying insulators upon 

 which the conductors will be supported. It will be seen from 

 this that all the work is now well advanced, and a difRcult 

 enterprise is being brought to a successful termination. 



The exceptionally heavy cyclone which swept along the 

 American coast on August 28 and 29, and was noted in oar las' 

 issue, occasioned great loss of life and properly both at sea and 

 on land. The principal violence of the storm appears to have 

 occurred in Georgia and South Carolina, and the fury of the 

 wind completely swept down houses which were in the track of 

 the hurricane. The storm was also accompanied by a tidal 

 wave, which added immensely to the destruction on the sea- 

 coast and on the islands in the main track of the disturbance. 

 The wind is reported to have attained a velocity of 120 miles 

 an hour, but much yet has to be learned from the numerous 

 meteorological stations situated in or near to the storm's path. 

 The cyclone was evidently an ordinary West Indian hurricane, 

 which storms are not of uncommon occurrence at this season o( 

 the year ; but it is unusual for these disturbances to maintain 

 their full energy when they continue their course to the north- 

 ward, and extend to regions well outside the tropics. This 

 hurricane is said to have been experienced in the Bahamas 

 three or four days before it broke with such fury on the shore of 

 the mainland, and it is reported to have finally retreated out to 

 sea as an ordinary gale. Just ten years ago a very severe storm 

 traversed the south of England, and by means of ship's obser- 



