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NA TURE 



{Jan. 15, 1885 



leading to the interior of Central Asia. This road is much 

 shorter than the usual route, but was considered until very lately 

 as the worst and most difficult. But upon examining the ob- 

 stacles presented by the road, and principally the alleged im- 

 possibility of effecting a passage through Mertvy, Koultouk, 

 Oust-Oust, &c, M. Beliaffsky found the assertion to be erroneous, 

 and therefore pronounces himself ill favour of the road he has 

 explored. In order to render it still more easy, he proposes 

 that regular communication should be established on the Caspian 

 Sea between Astrakhan and Cesarewitch Bay, that two light- 

 houses, at least, should be constructed ; that a steam navigation 

 service should be established on the Amu-Doria, and a road 

 practicable for vehicles made through the sands between the 

 Amu-Doria and Khiva. 



The last (xi.) of Mr. Lansdell's series of interesting letters 

 from Central Asia in the Times, describes his journey by boat 

 down the Oxus, from Charjui to Khiva. In referring to the fish 

 of the Oxus, he mentions the Scaphyr incus, a kind of sturgeon, 

 the discovery of which in Central Asia, a few years ago, made 

 quite a flutter among the students of ichthyology by reason of 

 its resemblance to one of the North American sturgeons, which 

 was found for a long time in the Mississippi only, until Fedchenko 

 discovered one in the Syr Daria, and subsequently M. Bogdano- 

 vitch found another species in the Lower Oxus. The Oxus fish 

 is known as Scaphyrincus kaujin inni. M. Bogdanovitch points 

 out its interest from a geological point of view. " In the Palaeozoic 

 period," he says, " the ganoid fishes used to inhabit all the waters 

 of the world in a great number of forms, comprising almost 

 entirely the ichthyological fauna of that period. At the period 

 of the Devonian formation this group of fishes seems to have 

 reached its highest development, and in the strata of this forma- 

 tion are preserved the most numerous remains of its representa- 

 tives. In the succeeding geological period this group appears to 

 fall and die out, giving place to a group of Teleostri or bony 

 fishes, which inhabited at that time all the waters of the world 

 in a number of forms." 



On December 3, 1884, was celebrated, in the Scandinavian 

 kingdoms, the bi-centenary of the birth of Ludwig Holberg, 

 " the northern Moliere " Prof. Erslev took advantage of the 

 occasion to bring to the notice of the Danish Geographical 

 Society the services to geography of the great dramatic poet in 

 Ins generation. When Holberg was appointed Professor of 

 History and Geography in 1730, the latter science was in a bad 

 plight everywhere, and especially in Denmark. According to 

 the curriculum, the Professor had to hold a reading once a fort- 

 night on geography, but it is not known whether these readings 

 actually took place. Hulberg's great interest in geography is 

 evident, not only from his own geographical writings, but also 

 from many of his observations elsewhere. He betook himself 

 with much eagerness to the study of the subject ; in a preface 

 to Van Howen's "Journey to Russia " (1743) he recommended 

 others to write similar descriptions of their journeys. His own 

 first geographical work was a description of Denmark and 

 Norway (1729), the second "An Account of the Celebrated 

 Norwegian Commercial City, Bergen" (1737), which is said to 

 be useful even still. His third work was a geographical text- 

 book in Latin, entitled " Ludovici Holbergii Compendium 

 Geographicum in usum Sudiosi Juventulis," of which there were 

 several editions both in Copenhagen and Leipzig. The work 

 was translated into English in 1758, with a small universal his- 

 tory by Holberg. Some editions of it belong now to the class 

 of bibliographical rarities. His work was edited after his death 

 by Pastor [onge. but Holberg's fifty-eight small obtavo pages 

 grew into seven large quarto volumes. 



Capt. Willard Glazier, of the United States Navy, has 

 communicated to the English Royal Geographical Society his 

 discovery of the true source of the Mississippi. This has long 

 been a vexed question, and in June, iSSt. Capt. Glazier 

 organised and led an expedition with the object of finally 

 settling the matter. The expedition proceeded in canoes via. Leech 

 Lake 10 Lake Itasca, and, accompanied by an old Indian guide, 

 pushed forward to the south ; and the captain was rewarded 

 by the discovery of another lake of considerable size, which 

 proved to be, without the shadow of a doubt, the true source 

 of the Mississippi. It is in lat. 47° 13' 25", and the lake is 

 3 feet above Lake Itasca, the hitherto supposed source of the 

 river. The Mississippi may, therefore, be said to originate in 

 an altitude 1578 feet above the Atlantic Ocean, and its length, 

 aking former data as the basis, may be placed at 3184 miles. 



The tract of country in which {the river originates is a remote 

 and unfrequented region. 



An embassy of two hundred and fifty representatives of the 

 aboriginal tribes of Western China, which recently arrived at 

 Pekin, has led a writer in the North China Herald to give some 

 information with regard to these little-known peoples. These 

 tribute-bearers are under the charge of native chiefs, who are re- 

 sponsible to the Chinese authorities of theprovince for the mainten- 

 ance of order, and the fulfilment of all recognised obligations, 

 one of which is that of visiting Pekin once in twelve years with 

 tribute. The localities from which they come are scattered over 

 the country from Yennan to Kan u, all along the Thibetan 

 border of Sze-Chuan. At one time their name, Tu Sze, or 

 "aboriginal officers," embraced all the aboriginal tribes in 

 Western and South- Western China. The Chinese never had the 

 aid of ethnology to guide them in discriminating between subject 

 peoples by their languages, customs, physical characteristics, 

 and religious beliefs, but they have collected the materials for 

 judging, and we now know, generally speaking, in what category 

 to place the different races met by travellers in Western China. 

 The Lolos of Sze-Chuan are allied to the Burmese, the tribes re- 

 presented at Pekin, who are also called Hsi Fans, are Thibetan-. 

 Both may be called the Mon-Bod family, or Western Himalaic, 

 according as the ethnological inquirer prefers to determine his 

 nomenclature by mountain chains, or by the most prominent race- 

 names prevailing among the people themselves. The Thibetans 

 and Hsi Fans prefer Bod for their race-name, as the Bumese do 

 Mon. The rest of the aboriginal tribes in Western China and 

 in the southern provinces, whether Miao, Yao, or Tung, seem 

 all to belong to the Eastern Himalaic branch, or that of the 

 Siamese, the Laos tribes, the Shin tribes of the Indo-Chinese 

 peninsula, the Li tribes of Hainan, and the Cambodians and 

 Cochin Chinese. The Lolos, as described by M. Baher, live in 

 their own mountains apart, and seem to be a nation, while the H-i 

 Fans live in scattered tribes whose natural home is Thibet. They 

 are short of stature, fond of red clothing, and, as to shape, 

 adopt Chinese fashions in no small degree. Their faces are 

 rounder than the Chinese, their heads smaller, their noses less 

 stunted, and, while small, stand out to a point. Their eyes are 

 small, placed in a line, and have a bright black lustre. They 

 are a quiet race now ; but history shows that they struggled 

 bravely against the all-conquering Chinese. Details icspecting 

 the twelve Hsi Fan tribes of Sze-Chuan are to be found in 

 numerous Chinese books, and there are also many official and 

 private accounts of the wars which ended in their subjection. 



Dr. Domenico Lovisato's paper on Tierra del Fuego, re- 

 printed from a recent number of Guido Cora's Cosmos, adds 

 considerably to our knowledge of that inhospitable region and 

 its inhabitants. The division of the latter into three distinct 

 groups, Ona in the east, Alaculuf in the west, and Yahgan in 

 the south, is fully confirmed. But the two latter appear to be 

 fundamentally one, constituting a single type of "Asiatic" 

 descent, while the first mentioned is certainly of Tehuelch (Pata- 

 gonian) stock. The Onas, all hunters, number about 20 o : the 

 Yahgans, mainly fisher-, perhaps 3000; the Aliculufs, hunters 

 and fishers, 3000 ; giving a total population of not more than 

 8000 to the whole archipelago. All seen to present more or 

 less indications of degeneracy from a higher state of culture, 

 due probably to long isolation in 1 his unfavourable environment 

 since its separation in early quaternary times from the mainland. 

 That it was inhabited by the ancestors of the Yahgans and Ala- 

 culufs even before the opening of Magellan Strait, appears 

 evident, especially from the numerous kitchen-middens, some of 

 vast size and great antiquity, scattered over the archipelago. 

 Those of Elizabeth Island, by far the largest, the oldest, and in 

 every respect the most interesting, run in one direction a dis- 

 tance of nearly a mile to a deep barranca, or ravine, beyond 

 which they again stretch away for an interminable length along 

 the coast. They stand at an elevation of from twenty to twenty- 

 five feet above the present sea-level, and consist of a lower 

 stratum of shells, bones, and other refuse, succeeded by a layer 

 of fine sea-sand forty-five to fifty inches thick, above which comes 

 an accumulation of rich vegetable humus overgrown with an 

 abundant herbaceous vegetation. Whether the layer of sea-sand 

 has been washed up or was deposited during a temporary sub- 

 sidence of the land cannot be determined without further re- 

 search. But in either case its presence bespeaks a vast antiquity 

 for the lower stratum of refuse, which has an average depth of 

 over three feet, and which contains the shells of Mytilus rata 



