June 1, 1898.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



137 



Raoul Pictet, of Geneva, and Louis Paul Cailletet, of 

 Paris, received the Davy medal of the IJoyal Society, in 

 1878, for their researches on the liquefaction of gases — 

 including hydrogen, which, however, was scarcely more 

 than a mere fog in the glass tube. I'rof. Dewar has 

 during the past month performed the unprecedented feat 

 of liquefying hydrogen to the amount of half a wineglass- 

 ful in five minutes. The boiling point of hydrogen is 

 — 240° C, and the density of the liquid, there is reason to 

 believe, is about 0-6, water being talien as the unit. 



Prof. Boyd Dawkins, in a letter to the " Times " dated 

 7th May, protests against the removal of the Jermyn 

 Street Museum andLibiary to South Kensington, recom- 

 mended in an interim report of the Select Committee. He 

 says : " It would be worse than a mistake to uproot it and 

 make it a mere unit in the fortuitous concourse of atoms 

 known as the Science and Art Museum at South Kensing- 

 ton. ... If technical education is to be encouraged 

 our museums must be multiplied and made more accessible 

 to the many, instead of being diminished or concentrated 

 in a suburb where they can only be a luxury of the few." 



On Monday, the 7th May, the Council of the Royal 

 Geographical Society awarded one of the two medals 

 to Dr. Sven Hedin for his work in Central Asia, and 

 especially for his survey of the glaciers of Mustagata. The 

 Doctor was the first explorer to cross the Tal<la-Makan 

 desert, and has done much good work in further advancing 

 our knowledge of the physical geography of the Lob region. 

 The other medal was awarded to Lieut. E. A. Peary, for 

 his explorations in Northern Greenland, begun twelve years 

 ago, and especially for his sledge journey across the Green- 

 land ice, and the discovery of its northern termination. 



We understand that the valuable collection of meteorites 

 formed by Mr. James R. Gregory is to be disposed of as a 

 whole. As the collection includes about five hundred 

 specimens, rich in fine examples of the earlier " falls,' and 

 has occupied nearly forty years in the compilation, it might 

 be a useful acquisition for some museum. 



The Royal Photographic Society's Exhibition at the 

 Crystal Palace was a great success, and almost all branches 

 of photography were well represented. The most striking 

 feature of the exhibition was the degree of perfection 

 which photography has attained as an art, many beautiful 

 enlargements being " as good as pictures. " Photography, 

 as applied to science, was in quality excellent, but one 

 would like rather more of it. A few choice astronomical 

 subjects (the eclipse being well shown), also a fair pro- 

 portion of photomicrographs and radiographs, deserved 

 careful study. There svere, too, some very successful flash- 

 light photographs in coal mines, and a marvellous panoramic 

 view from a balloon taken by means of the telephoto lens. 



Ornithological Notes. — Owing to the absence from 

 England of Mr. Harry Witherby, these have to stand over 

 until next month. 



AFRICA AND ITS ANIMALS. 



By E. Lydekker, b.a., f.r.s. 



IF we take'a map of the world, and, after tracing upon a 

 sheet of thin paper the outline of the British Islands, 

 cut out the tracing and lay it upon India, we shall 

 find that it covers a mere patch of that great area. 

 Repeating the same process with India, and placing 

 the tracing thus obtained on Africa in such a manner that 

 the sharp angle on the tracing formed by Assam overlies 



the projecting point of Somaliland, which it almost exactly 

 covers, it will be found that the area embraced in the 

 tracing occupies only a small patch in the middle of the 

 eastern side of the Dark Continent. As a matter of fact, 

 the patch thus marked out ends in a blunt point north- 

 wardly some distance above Khartum, thence it runs south 

 to the neighbourhood of the Victoria Nyanza, from which 

 district it rapidly narrows to teiminate in a sharp point 

 some distance to the southward of Zanzibar. Allowing 

 for some slight overlaps, no less than six Indias can be 

 traced on the map of Africa ; and as these leave between 

 them and on their margins considerable spaces of the 

 country still uncovered, it would be but a moderate esti- 

 mate that Africa includes at least seven times the area of 

 British India. Some idea, especially to those familiar 

 with our vast Indian dominions, may in this manner be 

 most readily gained of the huge extent of the African 

 continent. 



Having made these comparisons of the actual size 

 of the three areas under consideration, I must ask my 

 readers to regard them for a moment from another point 

 of view. Everyone famihar with the birds and mammals 

 of the British Isles is aware that, even excluding Ireland, 

 'the same species are not found over the whole area. The 

 Scottish hare, for instance, is specifically distinct from the 

 ordinary English kind, while the red grouse is unknown 

 in the southern and eastern counties of England, and the 

 ptarmigan is confined to the colder districts of Scotland. 

 There are accordingly indications that even such a small 

 area as the British Isles contains local assemblages of 

 animals, or faunas, difiering more or less markedly from 

 those of other districts. 



Turning to India, we find such local faunas — as might 

 be expected from its larger area — more distinctly defined, 

 and more markedly different from one another. One great 

 fauna occupies the southern slopes of the Himalaya from 

 the base to about the upper limit of trees ; this fauna, 

 which includes many peculiar types unknown elsewhere, 

 being designated the Himalayan. The second, or typical 

 Indian fauna, occupies the whole of India from the foot 

 of the Himalaya to Cape Comorin, exclusive of the Malabar 

 coast, but inclusive of the north of Ceylon. The third, or 

 Malabar fauna, occupies the JIalabar coast and some of 

 the neighbouring hills, together with the south of Ceylon ; 

 the animals of these districts being very different fi-om 

 those of the rest of India. The fourth, or Burmese fauna, 

 embraces only the province of Assam, in what we commonly 

 term India ; and many of its animals, again, although of 

 the general Oriental type, are very different from those of 

 the other districts. But even such divisions by no means 

 give the full extent of the local differences between the 

 animals of the whole area. In the second or typical area, 

 for example, the creatures inhabiting the open districts of 

 the Punjab and the North-West Provinces display remark- 

 able differences from those dwelling in the forests of 

 Southern India (the home of the strange loris) ; while the 

 dwellers in the jungly tract of the south-western districts 

 of Bengal are equally distinct from those of either of the 

 other areas. 



Seeing, then, that while slight differences are observable 

 in the local faunas of such a small area as the British 

 Islands, and that much more important ones characterize 

 the different zoological provinces of the vastly larger 

 extent of country forming British India, it is but natural 

 to suppose that distinctions of stiU higher value would be 

 characteristic of different parts of Africa, accordingly as 

 they difl'er from one another in climate, and consequently 

 in vegetable productions. 



As a matter of fact such differences do occur to a most 



