Feb. 12, i S S 5 ] 



NA TURE 



34: 



go up to the ame place with a lot of Arecoonas, who are 

 to build us a house, in which we intend to stop for a week 

 or as much longer as we may find desirable. I may 

 mention that we have already seen, close to where our 

 house is to be, a place where the mountain seems 

 accessible ; but it looks so easy that I am convinced that 

 it is impossible at that ] oint.' 



D< 



'JAMiX SILLIMAN 



|URING the American War of Independence many 

 mi n were called on to leave peaceful pursuits and 

 adopt the profession of arms. Among these men was a 

 well-known lawyer of New Haven in Connecticut. Gold 

 Selleck Sillin u bj name. Lawyer Silliman became 

 ■ .11, man. As the British troops ad- 

 vanced in the direction of New Haven the family of the 

 General left their native place and settled in North 

 Stratford, now called Trumbull. In this town Benjamin 

 Silliman, the father of him whose death was recently 

 recorded in these columns, was born in 1779. 



Benjamin Silliman, sen , was a central figure in the 

 group of pioneers of natural science in the United States. 

 In 1 S 1 8 he commenced the American Journal of Science 

 and .-his, which continues to the present day to hold a 

 leading position among the scientific journals of America. 

 us before this date— that is. in lS 16 — Benjamin 

 Silliman, jun., was born, at New Haven, where the Silli- 

 man family had so long had their home. The younger 

 Silliman graduated at Yale College in 1837 ; and in the 

 following year he began to teach chemistry, mineralogy, 

 and geology. In 1846 he was appointed Professor of 

 Applied Chemistry in the Sheffield Scientific School in 

 connection with Vale College. The scientific work of 

 Benjamin Silliman seems to have fairly begun about this 

 time ; according to the Royal Society's Catalogue, his 

 first paper, "On the Use of Carbon in Grove's Battery," 

 was published in 1S42. From that time until his death 

 he was an active worker in the advancement of science. 

 During the years 1S49-54 Silliman was Professor of 

 logy in the University of Louisville, Kentucky; in 

 the latter year he returned to Yale College, to succeed his 

 father as Professor of Chemistry. Here he remained 

 until January 13 last, when he "went over to the 

 majority." 



Prof. Silliman did not publish any original memoirs, 

 involving experimental work, of first-rate importance ; 

 like his father, he was distinguished rather as an organiser 

 and teacher than as an investigator. For many years he 

 acted as Secretary and Editor of the Proceedings to the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

 In 1838 he became associated with his father as joint 

 editor of the American Journal of Science : in this 

 capacity he exercised a great and beneficial influence in 

 all matters connected with natural science in his own 

 country. 



The journal of which Sillimann was an editor contains 

 seventy papers from his pen ; the greater number 

 deal with mineralogical orchemico-mineralogical subjects, 

 but he also wrote on such topics as glacier-motion, 

 Australian wines, petroleum, temperature of flames, &c. 

 He likewise furnished the Journal with many reviews of 

 books and reports on the progress of various branches of 

 natural science. 



He published a book on the "First Principles of Che- 

 mistry," and another on the " Principles of Phj 



In his capacity as a public lecturer on scientific subjects, 

 Silliman helped to guide the general opinion of his 

 fellow-citizens in these matters in the right direction. It 

 may indeed be said that his life-work was to form a con- 

 necting link between those who had devoted themselves 

 to original investigation in natural science and the general 

 le world, which, while interested in science, requires 

 a |u licious and trustworthy middleman to interpret the 



meaiing of the work that is being done for humanity by 

 the students of nature in the inner shrine. 



M. M. P. M. 



MASAI LA. YD' 



MR. THOMSON has not kept us waiting long for the 

 story of his journey through a region of Africa 

 which, so far as is known, had not previously bei n \isited 

 bj an; white man. Kilimanjaro itself was seen for the 

 first time by Rebmann. After him Krapf, New, Von der 

 Decken, Hildebrandt, and Wakefield, penetrated to the 

 borders of the region which has been explored by Mr. 

 Thomson, New alone being able to reach the snow-line 

 on Kilimanjaro. Kenia, though doubtfully sighted by 

 Krapf from afar, had never been approached. Mr. 

 Thomson had thus a virgin field before him when he 

 arrived at Zanzibar in the beginning of 1883, and the 

 enterprise intrusted to him by the Royal Geographical 

 Societv he carried out in a manner and with results that 

 will add much to the reputation which he achieved on 

 his first expedition to Tanganyika. Mr. Thomson's in- 

 structions were to ascertain if a practicable direct route 

 for European travellers exists through the Masai country 

 from any one of the East African ports to Victoria 

 Nyanza, and to examine Mount Kenia: to gather data 

 for 1 instructing as complete a map as possible in a pre- 

 liminary survey ; and to make all practicable observations 

 regarding the meteorology, geology, natural history, and 

 ethnology of the regions 'traversed. These objects Mr. 

 Thomson never lost sight of, and, considering the means 

 at his command, the time at his disposal, and the black- 

 guardly crew he had to be content with as followers. 

 are even more than might have been expected. Mr. 

 Thomson is first of all a geologist, and no region in Africa 

 is of more interest from a geological standpoint. He 

 knows, moreover, enough of natural history to enable him 

 to observe the flora and fauna of a country intelligently, 

 and the value of his botanical colle tion ha already been 

 pointed out in our pages by Sir Joseph Hooker. For 

 geographical observations he was even better fitted than 

 in his previous expedition, and as for ethnology he found 

 himself among a people unlike anything he had ever 

 heard of in Africa, and in whom he took the intensest 

 interest. Thus for the scientific reader the volume 

 abounds with interest, and, as Mr. Thomson has no end 

 of hunting and other stories of adventure to tell, his book 

 is sure to be popular, especially as he is a skilful story- 

 teller, abounding with a strong feeling of humour, or at 

 least for the ludicrous, which does not spare even himself. 



Mr. Thomson's route lay westwards from Mombassa to 

 Kilimanjaro, which he traversed on nearly every side. 

 Here he stayed for some time, ascending a considerable 

 distance towards the Kimawenzi summit. For this mag- 

 nificent mountain is really double-peaked, the highest 

 summit, Kibo, reaching a height of over 18,610 feet, and 

 Kimawenzi only about 2000 feet lower. The scenic 

 features of the mountain were described in some detail in 

 our columns recently in the paper read by Mr. Johnston 

 at the Geographical Society, in which also its botanical 

 and zoological characteristics were well brought out. 

 Kilimanjaro, Mr. Thomson tells us, may be described as 

 a great irregular, pear-shaped mass, with its major axis 

 in a line running north-west and south-east, the tapering 

 point running into the heart of the Masai country. On 

 this line it is nearly sixty miles long. Its minor axis, 

 running at right angles, reaches only to some thirty miles. 

 The mountain is divided into the great central mass of 

 Kibo and the lower conical peak of Kimawenzi. Towards 

 the north-west it shades away into a long ridge, which 

 gradually tapers horizontally and vertically till it becomes 



' "Through Masai Land; a Journey of Exploration amon I 

 Volcanic Mountain* and ' ' ' '■' 



mson, F.R.G.S. (London : Sampson Lou nd I . 



