28o 



NATURE 



[July 17, 1890 



A Californian salmon {Oncorhynchits quinnat, Giinther) 

 has recently been caught in the Mediterranean, near Banyuls. 

 Probably it found its way thither from the River Aude, into which 

 many young fish of this species have been introduced, in the 

 hope that they may be acclimatized in France. 



A PORTRAIT of the African explorer Captain Gaetano Casati 

 forms the frontispiece of the May number of the Bulletin of the 

 Italian Geographical Society. Casati reached Cairo early in 

 May, and letters in the Bulletin deal with his journey to the 

 coast. with Emin and Stanley. An itinerary of his nine years 

 of travel shows that he left Suakin for Berber and Khartoum in 

 January 1880. In July of the same year he started in a sailing- 

 boat down the White Nile to Mishra-el-Rek, and thence on foot 

 to Wau, where he met with Gessi at the end of September. 

 He then threaded his way southwards among the feeders of the 

 Bahr-el-Ghazal to the Congo basin, and for some time made 

 Tangasi, on the Welle or Makua branch, a centre for exploration. 

 Close by, at Mboro, in June 1881, he met with Dr, Junker. 

 Finally, he made his way to Lado, on the main stream of the 

 White Nile ; and there, at the end of March 1883, he met Emin 

 Pasha for the first time. Thence he walked up the left bank to 

 Wadelai, and continued the voyage up the Albert Nyanza by 

 steam-boat. It was not until April 28, 1888, that the 

 meeting between Emin Bey,': Casati, and Stanley took place on 

 the plateau above Kavalli to the south-west of the lake. 

 The journey down the Semliki valley, the exploration of Lake 

 Albert-Edward, and the return to Zanzibar, are recent history. 

 The remaining papers of the number deal mainly with South 

 America. The most interesting of these is that of Count Orsi 

 di Brogliadi Mombello on the sculpture of the primitive inhabit- 

 ants of the Upper Orinoco. Many carvings on the stones of 

 tombs have been discovered among the villages of this district ; 

 the sculpture is rough and fantastic, but evidently aims at repro- 

 ducing certain natural objects. Thus, at the Grotto of Caicara, 

 near the right bank of the OrinocD, many rocks carved in the 

 primitive manner of the slate sketches of school-days, evidently 

 exhibit an attempt to figure a tiger that is very common in this 

 district. In neighbouring caves were found mummies closely 

 resembling Egyptian ones ; this the author regards as further 

 evidence of the common origin of the two races, previously 

 suggested by the striking similarity in shape 'of the skulls of 

 the South American Indians and those found in the tombs of 



Egypt- 



A Swedish Expedition to Cameroon is being arranged by the 

 Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. The object of those who 

 are to take part in it will be to study the fauna of the Western 

 Cameroon Mountains, and to make scientific collections for the 

 Academy. Herr Yngve Sjostedt is to be in command of the 

 Expedition, which is expected to be absent for about fifteen 

 months. 



We have received the following details of the researches in 

 which Prof. Bastian is engaged on behalf of the Anthropological 

 Museum of Berlin. In December last he forwarded to Berlin 

 the results of excavations made at Tashkent ; the terra- cotta 

 vases and utensils all bearing strong evidence of Greek influence 

 in their workmanship. During January he spent some time in 

 Zanzibar and Mauritius, and at the latter place he was enabled 

 to make a collection of Mascarene curiosities. From Tinivelly, 

 in Southern India, he forwarded some bronze idols in February. 

 March was spent at Malabar, April at Mysore, the beginning 

 of May in Beloochistan, and the latter end of the month in 

 Peshawar. Prof. Bastian has sent interesting ethnographical 

 collections from all these districts. 



Sir Arthur Gordon lately received from the Pandits and 

 Buddhists of Ceylon addresses in which, among other things, 

 NO. 108 1, VOL. 42] 



he was praised for the encouragement he had given, during his 

 term of office, to science and learning. "Your Excellency,"' 

 said the Buddhists, "with the laudable wish of preserving the 

 philosophy and sciences contained in that most noble language 

 the Pali, which is regarded by Eastern nations as the original 

 language and the depository of the teachings of the blessed 

 Buddha, as well as those found in the Sanskrit — the language 

 of the gods— has caused many works, such as the ' Mahawansa ' 

 and others, to be translated into English, and given an incentive 

 to the publication of Pali and Sanskrit works by allowing them 

 to be printed at the Government Press." The Pandits took 

 occasion to express a hope that Sir Arthur might still continue 

 to exercise his influence on their behalf:— "It is with great 

 pleasure that, whilst we gratefully express our thanks for the 

 benefits already received at your Excellency's hands, we at the 

 same time seize this opportunity of begging your Excellency not 

 to relax your efforts on behalf of our literature and archseology, 

 but to impress upon your Excellency's successor, as well as on 

 Her Majesty's Government, the need not only to continue, but 

 to increase, tthe exertions that are now being made to preserve 

 the recollection of our glorious past, as an incentive to our 

 countrymen of the present day to noble aims and heroic efforts 

 in the future." 



Some discussion has been going on in Ceylon of late over the 

 question of the language spoken by the Veddahs, the aborigines 

 of that country. The subject (says the Colonies and India) 

 would seem to be one well worthy the attention of philologists, 

 and the brothers Sarasin, who have been pursuing their anthropo- 

 logical researches in Ceylon lately, express the opinion that if a 

 philologist were to take the matter up great service would 

 be rendered to all those engaged in the work of scientific 

 research in the island. Tennant says of the Veddahs, "Their 

 language, which is limited to a very few words, is a dialect of 

 Singhalese without any admixture from the Sanskrit or Pali — a 

 circumstance indicative of their repugnance to intercourse with 

 strangers." Prof. Schmidt, of the Leipzig University, who 

 visited the Veddahs last year, says, " Their language is similar 

 in construction to the Dravidian languages— that is, similar in 

 grammatical construction; but they have adopted a great number 

 of Singhalese words," which enabled him to hold converse with 

 them by means of a Singhalese interpreter. The Drs. Sarasin 

 also managed to make themselves understood by means of 

 Singhalese. 



In the last issue of the Records of the Geological Survey of 

 India, Mr. Griesbach's mission to Afghanistan is thus referred 

 to: — "Mr. Griesbach returned to India last July. His work 

 with the Ameer was, as is now so very largely the case in the 

 Survey, geologicoindustrial, though this was greatly retarded by 

 unforeseen political complications in the State. During his 

 journey in 1888, up the Logar Valley to the Khurd Kabul 

 Valley, Upper Wardak, Cherkh, Kharwar, Zanakhan, Ghazni, 

 &c., the most interesting geological work was the recognition of 

 at least three horizons : the Rhastic with Lithodendrun (in 

 Kharwar), the Upper Jurassic (or possibly Neocomian) plan-beds 

 near the Shutargardan ; and, finally, well-developed nummulitics 

 (in Kharwar and Shilghar). He examined the copper lodes of 

 the Logar and Khurd Kabul area?, the magnesite of the Logar 

 and the entrance to the Taugi Wardak, the graphite of Cherkh, 

 the iron and lead ores of Kharwar, and the argentiferous lead 

 ore of Zanakhan near Ghazni. It turns out, also, that the 

 entire Upper Surkh-ab Valley from near Doab-i-Mekzari to 

 near Dahana Iskar is practically one big coal-field with 

 numerous thick seams of good coal of Triassic and Rhaetic age." 



The official Report of the survey work done towards the close 

 of the Chin-Lushai Expedition shows, according to the Allah- 

 abad Pioneer, that the Boinu River, which flows only six miles 



