5'6 



NA TURE 



{April 2, 1885 



On April 9 at 3I1. 48111. there is a near approach of 14 Capri- 

 corni to the Moon at 339° from the vertex to right, for inverted 

 image. 



Phenomena of Jupiter i Satellites 



19 7 III. occ. disap. 

 The Phenomena of Jupiter's Satellites are such as are visible at Greenwich. 



Saturn, April 5. — Outer major axis of outer ring = 39"'8 ; 

 outer minor axis of outer ring = 18" ■ I ; southern surface visible. 



April 8, 2I1. — Mercury at greatest elongation from the Sun, 

 1 9 East. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

 A committee of the Geographical Society of Vienna has 

 been appointed to carry out the business arrangements of Prof. 

 Lenz's proposed expedition to Central Africa. It is reckoned 

 that 25,ooofl. will be wanted for the expedition. At first it was 

 thought that Herr Lenz might go out as the representative of the 

 united Geographical Societies of Vienna, Berlin, and Munich, 

 but the Society of Berlin has decided to send out an explorer of 

 its own, Dr. Fischer, who will start next month. Dr. Fischer 

 will go for the same purpose as Herr Lenz — that is, to explore 

 the watershed of the Upper Congo, and to find traces of the 

 four missing Europeans. But instead of starting from the west 

 coast, as Dr. Lenz proposes to do, he will proceed from the east 

 coast, going from Zanzibar to Uganda. 



The fifth German Geographical Congress {Geograpkentag) wil' 

 be held in Hamburg on April 9 to 12. Among the points which 

 will be brought before the Congress are the following : Ant- 

 arctic investigations by Drs. Neumayer and Ratzel ; the import- 

 ance of the Panama Canal to the trade of the world, and 

 deliberations on a new edition of Dr. Neumayer's " Guide to 

 Scientific Observations on Travel." The afternoons will, as 

 hitherto, be devoted to questions connected with school geo- 

 graphy. The exhibition directed by Prof. Pagenstecher promises 

 to be especially interesting and exhaustive. It is intended to 

 exhibit new maps, especially in the domain of hydrography, and 

 all the maps and descriptions of the free town of Hamburg and 

 the adjoining districts. The instruments and apparatus used by 

 travellers will be collected in a single group. Rich public and 

 private collections of African and Central American ethno- 

 graphical and archaeological objects will be exhibited, and in 

 part explained by their owners. An exhibit of the products and 

 articles of trade of the various colonies has been rendered poss- 

 ible by the co-operation of large mercantile firms in Hamburg ; 

 and zoological, botanical, and geological collections will be so 

 grouped that the character of single countries and continents will 

 readily strike the eye. Some excursions will also be male, 

 especially one to the marshes of the lower Elbe. 



We have received a reprint ol a paper recently read before the 

 Philosophical Society of Glasgow by the Rev. Alexander Wil- 

 liamson, the well-known traveller in North China. In the 

 compass of thirty octavo pages the writer describes rapidly the 

 extent, physical conformation, means of intercommunication 

 (especially the rivers, the enormous importance of which is 

 pointed out with much force), the nature of the soil and its pro- 

 ducts, meteorology, textile fabrics, oil-producing plants, dyes, 

 the geology, trade routes, the race, population, and finally dis- 

 cusses the future. The portions of the subject to which Dr. 

 Williamson devotes especial attention are precisely those which 

 are wholly passed over, or only ha-tily glanced at in popular 

 works in China. The section dealing with the geology of China 

 gives some remarkable results, based on the investigations of 

 Pumpelly and Richthofen. These show that under every one of 

 the eighteen provinces of China, each of which is about as large 

 as Great Britain, there are large deposits of coal. In some 

 provinces it underlies the whole country in all descriptions — 

 bituminous, anthracite, cannel, and lignite. The extent of 

 these coal-measures may be gathered from the following state- 

 ment : — Their total area is about 400,000 square miles in China 

 proper. The coal-field in Hunan alone is greater than the 



aggregate of the coal-fields of the greatest coal-producing 

 countries in Europe ; the Shansi coal-field is one and a half 

 times larger than this aggregate, while in other parts of North 

 China we have coal-fields seven times greater than all the coal 

 districts in Great Britain. And, side by side with all the coal- 

 fields investigated, Mr. Pumpelly found iron ores and ironstone 

 of all descriptions. As regards the important geographical and 

 commercial questions involved in trade-routes with South- 

 western China, Dr. Williamson is in favour of the route from 

 Moulmein through the Shan States, crossing the Chinese frontier 

 into Yunnan at Ssu-mao (Esmok) ; but he does not despair of 

 the road by the Irrawaddy to Bahmo, and so by Ja-li to the 

 Yang-be, more especially as the latter would create a trade for 

 it' elf— viz. that with Sse-chian. Then there is the ancient route 

 between Central Asia and China, which passes through Hinan, 

 Shensi, and Kansu, the southern branch of which leads through 

 Yarkand, Kashgar, and Khoten to India and Persia, and which 

 was used by caravans prior to the Christian era, while the other 

 branch goes in a north-westerly direction to Bar-Kul, Kuldja, 

 and thence to Russian territory. 



Mr. Stanford, of Charing Cross, has published a Catalogue 

 of Maps, and other geographical publications, calculated to be 

 of great service to all who may have occasion to inquire after 

 such things. The catalogue covers seventy-two pages, is care- 

 fully classified, beginning with maps of the world ; after the title 

 of each map is an account of its special features, its size, nu nber 

 of sheets, scale in miles to an inch, and price, according to 

 method of doing up. The Catalogue, we may say, contains the 

 maps of all the leading publishers in Europe. As Mr. Stanford 

 is now sole agent for the Ordnance Survey Maps, a special 

 section of the Catalogue is devoted to this department, and 

 contains a very useful index map. 



Messrs. W. and A. K. Johnston have also sent us a c 'py 

 of their new catalogue of the many geographical and other works 

 published by that well known firm. We have also from the 

 same firm a very excellent wall-map of Egypt, embracing the 

 country down to the south of Lake Victoria Nyanza ; it is 

 brought so well up to date as to contain the leading features of 

 Masai Land discovered by Mr. Joseph Thomson's second 

 expedition. Accompanying the map is a useful Handbook of 

 the Geography of Egypt. 



The Arctic ship Alert, when returned by the Government of 

 the United States to the Admiralty at Halifax, will be placed at 

 the disposal of the Canadian Government, for the purpose of 

 continuing the exploration in which they are now engaged of the 

 Hudson Bay and Straits. 



A committee, consisting of members of the Italian Senate 

 and Chamber of Deputies and other influential persons, has been 

 fi irmed at Turin for the purpose of furnishing Sig. Auguste Franzoi 

 with the mean-; of enabling him to carry out his proposal to 

 explore the country between the Abyssinian province of Kaffa 

 and the Lakes of Equatorial Africa. 



The most important paper read before the Paris Society of 

 Commercial Geography at its meeting on the 17th ult. was one 

 by M. Delouell, the explorer of the northern part of the Malay 

 peninsula. He described his discovery of a large lake, during 

 his survey of the isthmus of Krao, called Tabe-Sab, which is 

 bordered by fertile plains, where elephants and buffaloes abound. 

 The people inhabiting this region have hitherto been unknown ; 

 they appear to be mestizos, half Siamese, who call themselves 

 Samsams. 



At the last meeting of the Geographical Society of Marseilles 

 M. Bremond read a detailed account, with itineraries, of his 

 travels in the kingdom of Choa. 



The first number for the current year (Ban! viii. Heft 1) of 

 the Geographische Blatter of the Bremen Geographical Society 

 contains papers on the forest districts o\ Bavaria, the a 1 ) 1 les and 

 wanderings of the Esquimaux of Baffin Land, by Dr. Boas, 

 Schwatka's exploration on the Yukon, New Zealand past and 

 present, the Germ in journey of exploration through South 

 America, and numerous smaller communications. 



The last number (Band xx. Heft I) of the Zeitschrift of the 

 Geographical Society of Berlin contains the following papers : — j 

 A description by Dr. von Langegg of Old Cain, situated about 

 four kilometres to the south-west of the Arab quarter of modern 

 Cairo ; an account of the mission station of Otyimbingue in 

 Damaraland, by C. G. Biittner ; the first part of a discussion 



