440 



NATURE 



[September 5, 1S95 



turbed so much, and shall be accused of " vandalism '' 

 under the mask of advancing scientific research. 



There is no doubt that the exca\ations have been car- 

 ried on too fast. The great museum in Egypt has no 

 proper catalogue, and is arranged and filled up with 

 things in a most unsatisfactory- way : many objects have 

 not even got the date when found. In this way. what 

 would be treasures have become absolutely valueless on 

 account of the carelessness of former officials, who con- 

 stantly depended on each other, and, in many cases, on 

 their memory, for the facts connected with objects found. 

 This will always be the state of things unless the excava- 

 tions are super\ised by museums ; for the haste with 

 which they are carried on, does not allow time to 

 work out the history- properly. The things are merely 

 brought under cover ; they accumulate, and only short 

 notices are written about them. It is for this reason that 

 many noted things found have not been heard of till years 

 afterwards : likewise, before the old treasures were 

 properly examined, others have been dug out, particular 

 attention being given to pretty things with which to 

 ornament museums. Consequently, while search was 

 being made for inscriptions, smaller objects were 

 neglected, and many details overlooked. 



UTiereas formerly complaints were ever being made 

 about the difficulty of obtaining permission to excavate, 

 now the state of things is just the opposite. There 

 is too much liberality ; men are allowed to excavate, who 

 have no knowledge whatever as to how to set about it, 

 and have no serious object in view. \'aluable things 

 have been removed from the Fayum, Hcliopolis, and 

 other places by quite uneducated people, and sold as 

 market goods in Cairo. All this sort of thing makes the 

 advancement of science a farce. 



.A. natural consequence of this hasty digging, but a 

 state of things greatly to be lamented, is the de- 

 struction of the ancient topography. The confusion 

 caused is beyond description. It is very desirable 

 that there should be an intemaitional inspection 

 committee, which would insist on things being cleared 

 up, and not allow the graves and tombs to remain open, 

 with bones and limbs of the dead in them, which is so 

 often the case. 



Another deplorable fact is the absolute ignoring of 

 objects connected with natural histor)'. These objects 

 require special care when being dug out, and also are 

 more difficult to find. Their destruction greatly en- 

 dangers the science of antiquity, and many an object, 

 the value of which is now unknown, may in some future 

 period be the key to some great problem. Likewise the 

 bones of domestic animals are overlooked, although the 

 many pictures of these animals help to make a study of 

 them very interesting, and the remains of plants and 

 flowers are similarly neglected, though these objects are 

 the stepping-stones to the restoration of the ancient 

 history'. 



JOSEPH THOMSON. 



ID V the death of Mr. Joseph Thomson, we have to mourn 

 ■'-' one of the foremost of contemporary .African ex- 

 plorers. His loss is all the more sad, as it comes in what 

 ought to have been the prime of his manhood. When we 

 remember what Thomson has done, what a part he played 

 in the exploration of Uritish P2ast .\frica and in securing 

 for England her supremacy on the Niger, it is difficult to 

 realise thai he has done it all before the age of thirty- 

 eight. Joseph Thomson was bom in Dumfriesshire, on 

 February 14. 1858, and was the son of a quarry-owner. 

 He was cdui-atfd at Edinburgh, and early took a keen 

 interest 1: 'xploration, in which he first personally 



joined a m Keith Johnston's expedition to the 



.African i..ik. -. I his left Dar-cs-Salaam early in 1879, 



NO. 1349, VOL. 52] 



but before it reached its first objective point — Nyasa — its- 

 leader died. Thomson was then little over twenty-one 

 years of age ; but he rose to the occasion, took command, 

 and single-handed carried the expedition to a triumphant 

 conclusion. He explored the plateau between Nyasa and 

 Tanganyika, and the western shore of the latter from its 

 southern end to the Lukuga ; there he added another to 

 the pile of contr.idictory statements as to the relations of 

 this river and the lake. He tried to work westward to the 

 Upper Congo, but, owing to the hostility of the natives, 

 he was compelled to return to Ujiji and back to the coast. 

 This was Thomson's first expedition, and in some ways it 

 was his best, for his scientific obscivations were then 

 made with greater care and detail than in any of his later 

 journeys. The following year he returned to East .Africa 

 to search for the coal reported on the Rovunia. Next 

 year he was sent to .Africa on the famous expedition, the 

 storj- of which he so brilliantly told in "Through Masai- 

 land." He left Mombasa in 1882 with a powerful 

 caravan, fitted out by the Geographical Society, in order 

 to determine whether there be a practical route across the 

 Masai country to the Nyanza, to explore Mount Kenya, 

 and to study the meteorology, ethnology, and natural 

 historj' of the region traversed. .After great difficulties 

 with his men, he marched inland to Tavcta, at the foot of 

 Kilima Njaro. There he joined a powerful caravan under 

 the famous slave-trader. Jumbo Kinamcta, and together 

 they traversed Masai-land to Lake .Naivasha, going first 

 along the route of Last, and then along that of Fischer. 

 Thomson then turned to the east, and was the first 

 European to set foot on the plateau of Laikipia and to see 

 Kenya from the west. But the Masai were present in 

 force, and Thomson had either to fight or retreat. He 

 chose the latter alternative, and, contenting himself with 

 a dist.ant view of Kenya, under cover of night tied north- 

 ward to Baringo. He explored this district, which he was 

 the first European to reach, and then went on to the 

 Nyanza, and back to the coast. His next expedition 

 was up the Niger. His tact and patience in dealing with 

 natives, here stood him in good stead, and rendered this 

 expedition his most successful, for he returned with the 

 treaties which gained for England practical supremacy in 

 the Niger Basin. In 18SS, with Mr. Crichton- Browne, he 

 undertook a journey to south-western Morocco, materially 

 correcting some previous descriptions of the structure of 

 that country. He took a series of altitudes, and with 

 characteristic acumen discovered for himself the 

 divergences between the results given by aneroids and 

 boiling-point thermometers ; but it was cc)ually charac- 

 teristic that he did not follow up the subject, and con- 

 tented himself with attributing it to the imperfection of 

 his instruments. In 1891 he was sent by the British 

 South .Africa Company to annex the metalliferous region 

 of Katanga. He was greatly hindered by the Portuguese, 

 who fired upon his flotilla, and when he reached the 

 frontier of Katanga he found that Captain .Stairs's expe- 

 dition had arrived before him, and secured the country for 

 the Belgians. Thomson returned to England with his 

 health ruined by his six .African expeditions. Kcsidence- 

 at Kimberlcy saved him for a while, but phthisis h.nd 

 t.aken too firm a hold to be dislodged, and after a 

 lingering illness he passed away on .August 2. 



It is too early to attempt to estimate fairly Thomson's 

 work as an explorer ; but no one could follow in his foot- 

 steps without recognising how singularly keen was his 

 topographic insight, how rapid his powers of observation, 

 and how mar\eIlously true were his instincts. His 

 powers, in fact, amounled almost to genius. In his quick- 

 ness of perception and his literary skill he reminds us of 

 Burton, though without Burton's scholarship and colossal 

 capacity for steady work. But Thomson's brilliant gifts 

 had their dangers, and it is impossible to compare his 

 work with that of some of his contemporaries, or even of 

 some of his predecessors, without recognising th.it he was 



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