Jan. 22, [885] 



NA TURE 



281 



River, and not far Irom the Annamite bonier. The tribes" 

 called Phon-tays, live in a sort of semi-independence, like the 

 Laos tribes, in the mountains on the Siamese frontiers. A third 

 tribe inhabiting the region is called by Pere Pinabel the Meos 

 (Mois?), and are said by him to be in all probability the abori- 

 ginal Miao-tsze of South-Western China, although whether he 

 has any ground for this belief beyond the resemblance of the 

 1 iei not appear. At any rate, it is evident from their 



customs and language that they are Chinese. A fourth tribe is 

 i whom nothing appears to be known except 

 that it lied to the borders of Annam during one of the numerous 

 wars of that region. A long and tolerably detailed account of 

 the manners and customs of the Phon-tays is given, and shorter 

 ones of those of the Mois and Sas. They are all the more 

 interesting that the writer appears to have no idea of ethnology, 

 and therefore is not on the look-out for parallels elsewhere, but 

 records everything with simplicity and directness. Pere Blanck's 

 experiences lay also in the Laos States, on the frontiers of Siam 

 and Tonquin, but to the south of those of his colleague. His 

 paper is simply a record of his journeys among the "savages" 

 in the mountains between the province of Nghe-Ane, the most 

 southern province of Tonquin bordering on Annam, and the 

 Mei Kong River. Both these papers are taken from the reports 

 of the missions etrangins. M. du Cailland describes the Quang- 

 si, or Kwang-si, the province of China adjoining Tonquin, and 

 that from which the greater part of the Chinese invading force 

 is drawn. The writer discusses the routes from Langson into 

 China, the river-system of Kwang-si, its administrative divisions, 

 its ethnography, recent history, and the Catholic propaganda 

 there. According to M. du Cailland, the Chinese population 

 there is nothing more than a colony of Cantonese amongst the 

 vast numbers of Miao-tsze and Laos in the western portion. 

 Unfortunately, the writer has omitted his authorities for this 

 statement, although his references in other portions of the paper 

 are somewhat copious. It would be of great interest to learn 

 on what grounds the wealthiest and most populous province but 

 one of Southern China is believed to be only a Cantonese 

 colony, while the Miao-tsze, who are generally believed to exist 

 only in small and weak communities scattered over the central 

 part of South-Western China, are masters of this vast district. 

 The geography and ethnography of China must be rewritten, if 

 M. du Cailland is accurate in this portion of his paper. — M. Huber 

 continues his account of his journey in Central Arabia, which 

 has been already noticed. — Prince Roland Bonaparte describes 

 fourteen voyages to the coasts of New Guinea, made by Dutch 

 Government vessels, between 1876 and 1S83. They went chiefly 

 from Ternate. Each voyage is described in detail, apparently 

 from official sources. The conclusion of the piper is that it 

 is easy to see from this account that the Dutch have an- 

 nexed in a definite manner the eastern part of New Guinea to 

 their empire in the Malay Archipelago. — M. Simonin discusses 

 the progress of the Australian colonies commercially and 

 politically. 



At the last meeting of the Gesellschaft fur Erdkuude in Berlin 

 (January 3) Dr. Steinmann read a paper on his journeys in 

 Southern Patagonia. In 1882 he went as geological assistant to 

 the fourth German expedition to Punta Arenas, mainly with the 

 object of studying the Southern Cordilleras. What struck him 

 particularly here was the extraordinary difference in the plant 

 forms to those on the Southern Cordilleras, while on the western 

 slopes vegetation is rich in forms, the climate of the steppes 

 reigns on the eastern side. From a geological point of view, 

 the southern point of America is extremely simple in its build, 

 but it is of a different character on the east and west. On the 

 east chalk formations occur almost entirely, while on the west, 

 where there are innumerable islands, there is nothing but granite 

 and crystalline rocks. Although ihe configuration of the coast 

 has been studied thoroughly by the English, Dr. Steinmann 

 thinks that many important questions have still to be settled ; 

 for instance, whether Laguna Blanca, lying to the north-east of 

 the settlement Kyrsing Water, has an outlet to the west. Ulti- 

 mately the lecturer reached the Laguna of the third settlement 

 of Santa Cruz, of which it may with certainty be said that was 

 connected until recently with the Pacific Ocean. It may also be 

 concluded that at that time the mainland was much more cut up 

 by channels and waterways than it is now. In May 1883 Dr. 

 Steinmann visited, in the company of Fuegian seal-hunters, the 

 islands south of the Straits of Magellan, including Tierra del 

 Fuego. Uliimately, he made his way from the southern point 

 of America to Bolivia, and here continued his investigations. 



The Society of Naturalists in St. Petersburg has received 

 permission to despatch several of its members to join the Russian 

 representatives on the Afghan Boundary Commission, with the 

 view to the scientific exploration of Central Asia. The English 

 Commission, which is now on the spot, has, it will be remem- 

 bered, a geologist, a naturalist, and topographers amongst its 

 number. 



The Daily Telegraph is publishing a series of articles descrip- 

 tive of the Kilimanjaro expedition, " by its leader," Mr. H. H. 

 Johnston. They are full of interesting detail. 



With the commencement of the new year L' Exploration has 

 taken a new form and a new title. It is now called La Gazette 

 qcographique et V Exploration, and is about double its former 

 size, the pages being larger and arranged in double columns. 

 We trust that with this improvement there maybe a correspond- 

 ing advance in its usefulness as a geographical journal. 



Pehrmann for January contains an article and map on the 



journey of the pundit A R in Eastern Thibet during 



the years 1878-82. Dr. Richard Liiddecke writes on the 

 Italian emigration of 1S83 from official sources. France takes 

 nearly half of the emigration to European countries, while the 

 State of La Plata and North America take the largest share of 

 the extra-European emigration. Dr. Pauli writes on the 

 Cameroons, and Herr Regel describes a journey from Charjui 

 by Merv to Pandy, and back to Samarkand. 



GEOLOGY OF AFGHANISTAN 

 *"rHE Times, in the letter from its correspondent with the 

 ^ Afghan Boundary Commission, publishes the following 

 notes supplied by Mr. Griesbach, of the Indian Geological 

 Survey : — 



" The hill ranges between Kushkak and Pahri in the Herat val- 

 ley are all apparently composed of rocks belonging to the Creta- 

 ceous and younger periods. So far as I could judge, the ranges are 

 formed by a series of parallel anticlinal folds of the Upper Cre- 

 taceous rocks, which in this part of Afghanistan (as in a great 

 part of Persia) are hippuritic beds. They are mostly limestones, 

 dark gray to white, and contain fossils in abundance, among 

 which several species of hippurites are the commonest. The 

 igneous rocks which play such an important part within the hip- 

 purite area in the Candahar district were also met with here under 

 exactly the same conditions. Basic rocks (trap) are intimately 

 connected with the Cretaceous limestones in this area also, and 

 it would be impossible to distinguish them on anything but a 

 very detailed geological map. Here also the limestone near 

 the contact with the trap (and other igneous rocks) has been 

 converted into a white, fine-grained marble, much used by the 

 natives of Southern Afghanistan for monumental purposes. But 

 by far the most interesting of the igneous rocks is a syenitic 

 granite which appears in several patches. The Karez-i-Dasht is 

 composed entirely of this rock, which is seen to be capped by 

 trap in the surrounding hill ranges. Its age is most probably 

 younger than that of the trap through which it has burst. This 

 group of rocks, with the exception of patches of younger Ter- 

 tiary rocks, form all the ranges up to and including part of the 

 Chillingak range and pass (near Pahri). The latter range, in 

 which the conspicuous Doshakh peaks are situated, is of great 

 geological interest. It is an anticlinal fold, the centre ard 

 northern axis of which is formed by Palaeozoic rocks ; so far, I 

 have only been able to detect Carboniferous fossils in a scries of 

 dark blue limestone beds, but it is quite possible that oldei 

 groups are also there. The ravine leading to the high 

 points south of Robat-i-Pai Ziarat has excavated its course 

 through Carboniferous beds only. The beds dip north 

 and below the younger gravels and fan deposits of 

 the Heri Rud. But on the right bank of the valley, 

 rocks appear again of an entirely different look, and 

 it is quite possible that members of the lower Mesozoic 

 system are represented there. The southern flank of the Chil- 

 lingak range is formed only by Cretaceous beds — sandstones and 

 shales of the Kojak type, overlaid with hippuritic limestone 

 near Pahri. The connection of these beds with the Palaeozoic 

 strata of the centre is quite hidden. The older river deposits 

 and Dasht beds are clays, sandstone, and conglomerates much 

 of the same character as already described from the Helmund. 

 They form thick deposits south of Pahri and in the Heri Rud 

 Valley, and I have found remains of mammalian bones in them. 



