May 3, 1883] 



NA TURE 



15 



at the instigation of the learned Cardinal, Gulielmus 

 Filiastrus. Claudius' map, which is brightly coloured, and 

 well supplied with the names and geographical determi- 

 nations of places, ends at 74° N. lat.,and begins at 55 N. 

 lat., in which meridian a line is drawn through England, 

 Holsatia (Holstein), and Pomerania, thus taking in the 

 whole of the Baltic, whose islands and shores from the 

 then Danish provinceof Halland, in Scandinavia, to the Gulf 

 of Finland, are laid down with a fair amount of accuracy. 

 In the far west we see Gronlandia, while on the shores of 

 the Arctic Sea, named here " tenebrosum mare," we have 

 at the very north of Scandinavia " Engrbnuelandi," which 

 would appear to have been an old designation of part of 

 Finmark, and possibly the region from which Gronland 

 derived its name. 



In all respects the chart drawn by C. Clavus in 1427 is 

 so far superior to the Donis map, printed at Ulm in 1482, 

 which had formed the basis of Bordone's, and many 

 other later maps, that, as Nordenskjdld points out, it must 

 have been based on independent sources derived from 

 the actual experience of seafaring observers. As, more- 

 over, the Zeno map corresponds far more closely with the 

 Clavus than with the Donis chart, with whose errors of 

 position and distortions of outline it has little or nothing 

 in common, there is not the slightest ground for asserting 

 that the Benedictine monk, Nicolaus Donis, whose atlas 

 is a mere copy of drawings to be found in the mediaeval 

 manuscripts of Ptolemy, was the authority from whom 

 the younger Zeno derived his acquaintance with the far 

 north, in which he included East Greenland and North- 

 west America. We have no space to enter more fully 

 into the interesting details with which Baron von Norden- 

 skjold supports his argument in favour of the authenticity 

 of the Zeni narrative. But in conclusion we must draw 

 attention to the success and ingenuity with which he has 

 shown, that the often-sought-for and much-talked-of 

 manuscript map of the north, which Admiral Zahrtmann 

 saw in the University Library at Copenhagen, and de- 

 clared to be the undoubted original from which Zeno's 

 map had been derived, was simply a copy of Donis' s 

 chart. This fact he has so conclusively established, that 

 henceforth Zahrtmann's charge against Zeno the younger 

 must be considered to have lost one of its strongest sup- 

 ports ; while future commentators on the Zeni voyages 

 need no longer scour the libraries of Northern Europe in 

 quest of a phantom map, whose disappearance soon after 

 it had been seen by Zahrtmann has largely contributed to 

 the tardy solution of the Zeno mystery. 



NOTES 



The following awards will be made at the anniversary meeting 

 of the Royal Geographical Society on the 28th inst. : — Founder's 

 Medal to Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, F. R.S., for his eminent 

 services to scientific geography, extending through a long series 

 of years and over a large portion of the globe, while engaged in 

 voyages in the Antarctic and Australian Sea*, and journeys in 

 India and the Himalaya, in Morocco, and in the United States 

 of America ; and more especially for his long-continued re- 

 searches in botanical geography, which have thrown light on the 

 form of the land in prehistoric times, and on the causes of the 

 present distribution of the various forms of vegetable life on the 

 earth. Patron's Medal to E. Colborne Baber, Chinese Secretary of 

 Legation, Peking, in recognition of the great value of his scien- 

 tific work, chiefly geographical, during many exploratory journeys 

 in the interior of China ; and for his reports of these journeys, 

 drawn up with admirable skill, accuracy, and completeness, 

 which he presetted to the Society, and which have been pub- 

 lished, together with route maps engraved from his own finished 

 drawings, in the first part of the "Supplementary Papers." The 

 Murchison Grant for 1S83 to Wm. Deans Cowan for his extensive 

 surveys in the Tanala, Betsileo, and Bara provinces of Central 



Madagascar, an account'of which was read by him to the Society 

 in June, 1882, and published in the September number of the Pro- 

 ceedings of the same year ; also as an encouragement to him in 

 the new journey of exploration he is about to undertake in 

 Western Madagascar. The Back Grant for 1883 to the Abbe 

 Petitot for his geographical and ethnographical researches in 

 the region of the great lakes of the Arctic basin, between Great 

 Slave Lake and the Polar Sea, and his map of the basin of the 

 Mackenzie. The Cuthbert Peek Grant for 1883 to F. C. Selous 

 in acknowledgment of the value of his ge lgraphical researches 

 in South Central Africa, including a journey in 1877 through 

 the Manica country, north of the Zambesi, an examination ot 

 the hydrographical system of the Chobe, and two journeys by 

 previously untrodden routes through Mashonaland, carefully 

 prepared maps of which he communicated to the Society ; also 

 as a n encouragement to him in the further researches in geography 

 and natural history he has undertaken in the same region. The 

 following will be elected as honorary corresponding members : 

 Duca di Serinoneta (Prince Teano), president of the Italiau 

 Geographical Society, and of the International Geographical 

 Congress at Venice, 1881 ; Dr. Schweinfurth, the eminent 

 African traveller, now resident at Cairo ; Edwin R. Heath, 

 M.D., the explorer of the Beni River, South America, now 

 residing at Wyandotte, Kansas, United States. 



The annual soiree of the Royal Society was held on the 25th 

 ult. in the aosence of the President, on account of indisposition. 

 Among the recent scientific work illustrated was a photograph ot 

 the nebula in Orion, exhibited by Mr. A. A. Common, which is 

 certainly one of the most interesting astronomical photographs 

 which has ever been taken. We may also mention an interesting 

 exhibit by Mr. W. Galbway, exemplifying the effects of coal- 

 dust in colliery explosions, and "The Firedamp Cap," a phe- 

 nomenon seen in mines. The only other exhibit of real general 

 interest were some garlands from the tombs of Rame.-es II. and 

 other kings, whose mummies were recently found at Thebes. 

 Many of our readers have doubtless seen tbem in Egypt at the 

 famous Boolak Museum, but those who have not done so must 

 thank Dr. Schweinfurth for sending them over to Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, and Sir Joseph Hooker for exhibiting them. These 

 garlands are chiefly formed of leaves of Mimusops Schimperi, 

 and petals of Nymphcca ccerulea and Lotus sewn together with 

 fibres of date-leaf ; others of the leaves of Salix safraf, with 

 pods and flowers of Acacia Nilotica, Sesbania Egyptiaca, and 

 Carthamus tinctorius, and petals of Alcea ficifolia. 



Dr. Hans Gadow has been appointed to the Strickland 

 Curatorship in the University of Cambridge, vacated by the 

 resignation of Mr. Salvin, F.R.S. Dr. Gadow began his bio- 

 logical studies under the late Prof. Peters in the University of 

 Berlin, but graduated at Jena, whence he proceeded to Heidel- 

 berg, and worked there under Prof. Gegenbaur. Coming to 

 England about two years ago, he was engaged, at the suggestion 

 of Dr. Giinther, by the Trustees of the British Museum to deter 

 mine the specimens to be included in volumes viii. and ix. of 

 their collection. The product of his labours in this direction is 

 still in the press, but his contributions to the Journal fiir Orni- 

 tholog'u, the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, and other scien- 

 tific journals, show him to be one of the most promising of the 

 ri-ing generation of ornithologists. In October last Dr. Gadow 

 was appointed to deliver a course of lectures on the Morphology 

 of the Vertebrata in the University of Cambridge, which has 

 given much satisfaction to all concerned. 



We regret to announce the death of Dr. Wilhelm Peters, 

 Professor of Zoology at Berlin University, and Director of the 

 Zoological Museum of that city. He died on April 20, aged 

 sixty-seven. The death is also announced of Dr. Gustav 

 Radicke, Professor of Mathematics at Bonn University. He 

 died at Bonn on April 18, in his seventy-third year. 



