April 30, [885] 



NA TURK 



613 



Maj 



3 



5 



6 



..'<; of Jupiter's Satellites 

 May h. m. 



23 35 II. eel. reap. 7 ... o 4 I. eel. reap. 

 2 3 I. occ. disap. 20 12 I. tr. egr. 



23 24 I. tr. ing. 9 ... 1 38 II. tr. ing. 



1 44 I. tr. egr. 23 56 III. tr. ing. 



20 32 I. occ. disap. 

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

 Saturn, May 3. — Outer major axis of outer ring = 38"'3 ; 

 outer minor axis of outer ring = I7"'4 ; southern surface visible. 

 May 4, 17b.. — Venus in superior conjunction with the Sun.tj ^ 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



The Austrian African explorers, Prof. Frederick Paulitschke 

 and Dr. Dominik Kammcl von Hardegger, have returned from 

 their expedition to Africa. They started from Trieste on 

 December 30, 1S84, and chiefly explored the interior of the 

 Gallas country. The Austrian explorers have established 

 meteorological stations at Harrar and Zeila, which will be 

 looked after by the English Consuls Pitten and King. The 

 collections they have brought with them, filling several cases, 

 will constitute a very valuable addition to the Austrian Imperial 

 Museum. 



At the January meeting of the Royal Swedish Geographical 

 Society, Dr. F. Svenonius gave a very interesting account of his 

 to certain remole parts of Swedish Lapland last summer. 

 The speaker could not accept the theory set forth by some 

 authorities that the word " Lapp " was derived from the Lappish 

 hap or Finnish lappi, i.e. " end " or "finish," signifying the in- 

 habitants of the end of the European continent. He believed 

 that the word was derived from lappa or lappah, i.e. "cave" or 

 " recess," a name given by the Scandinavians to this race from 

 the habits of the Lapps in earlier times living or taking refuge 

 in caves or recesses. It was a common thing, even now, for 

 Lapps to take refuge in such places in bad weather, or 

 for the night when travelling. Having referred to the remark- 

 able structure which forms the dwelling of the Lapp, he pro- 

 ceeded to describe the mountains, glaciers, lakes, and waterfalls 

 of Swedish Lapland. The mountains were more imposing seen 

 from the Swedish than the Norwegian side, as in the latter place 

 they were too close to the spectator. They were of two kinds, the 

 so-called " alpine " and so-called "grass" mountains. The former 

 were lofty and jagged, and the latter — the most common — low and 

 rounded. The alpine mountains were composed of hornblende, 

 gabbro, and eklogite, and the grass mountains of schist impreg- 

 nated with chalk. The highest parts of Swedish Lapland were 

 those around the sources of the river Rapaadnos, the highest 

 top of which, Sarjektjakko, was once believed to be the highest 

 mountain in Sweden, and west of the Lake Pajtasjiirvi, where 

 there are two lofty peaks, Kaskasatjakko and Kebnekaisse. The 

 greatest glaciers in Sweden were found within these parts, the 

 former having been named the "ice-depot of Lapland." He 

 estimated that about 1S0 square kilometres, or one-seventh of the 

 whole area, were covered with " eternal " ice, the depth of which 

 reached several hundred feet. It was impossible to say whether 

 the Lapland glaciers were increasing or decreasing. Judging 

 by other European glaciers, they should be decreasing very fast. 

 The fact that the flora of Lapland was actually receding, which 

 pointed in the opposite direction, and seemed to indicate a de- 

 terioration of the climate, he believed was due to the circumstance 

 that the Lapland glaciers had an "heirloom from the Glacial 

 Age" still to get rid of. The lakes covertd a vast portion of 

 Lapland chieHy between the mountains and the so-called" forest- 

 land." The surface area of the lakes here was one-third of the 

 whole of Swedish Lapland. But there were also many great 

 lakes in the alpine districts. Of the waterfalls the most imposing 

 were the Stora Sjofall, 130 feet high, and Harspranget, 70 feet 

 high, and with a volume of water estimated at 500 cubic metres 

 per second. There were besides several beautiful but smaller 

 fill- in the Gellivara Lappmark. In conclusion, Prof, von 

 Diiben, who has travelled much in Lapland, stated that he 

 believed that the word "Lapp" was derived from the old 

 Finnish word lappaa, i.e. "roam about," as suggested by a 

 great authority, viz. Prof. Friis, Professor of Lappish at the 

 Christiania University. 



Guido Cora's Cosmos for 1884 (vol. viii.) contains an at- 

 tractive paper on Tahiti and the natives of Polynesia, recently 

 visited by Dr. Filippo Rho of the Italian Royal Marine, who 



sailed from Callao for the Pacific waters on board the Caraccioh 

 in June, 1883. The "Kanaka," or Polynesian race proper, is 

 described as presenting many points of resemblance to the 

 Malays, from whom the writer supposes them to have originally 

 sprung. But the type can be best studied in Tahiti and the 

 other eastern islands of the Pacific, where it is found in its 

 purest state and least affected by Papuan elements. It is sub- 

 dolichocephalic, with cephalic index 76^2 ; keel-shaped skull ; 

 mesorrhine nose (index 49 '3) ; not prognathous if unmixed, 

 although in Tahiti the facial index is 75 - o, and in general con- 

 formation not far removed from the white or European type. 

 The nose, sometimes straight, sometimes aquiline, sometimes 

 rather short and flat, is always characterised by wide nostrils. 

 The jaw-bones, though strong, are not prominent ; face oval \ 

 eyes black, well shaped, never oblique ; complexion variable 

 from light brown or copper to olive yellow, but always fairer 

 than that of the Malays ; hair black, often coarse, generally 

 straight, but sometimes wavy ; beard scant ; stature very tall 

 and slim, although a tendency is shown here and there towards 

 obesity. The Tahitians are of a cheerful temperament, passion- 

 ately fond of song and dance, and some favourable specimens 

 are given of their himeni, a term derived from the English word 

 "hymn," a relic of the days of the Protestant missionaries 

 before the French occupation. These himeni are chiefly histori- 

 cal, religious, warlike, or amatory, the latter often extremely 

 pathetic, as, for instance, the elegy of the distressed maid, who 

 flies to the woods, crowns herself like Ophelia with flowers, and 

 dies with the name of her faithless lover on her lips. " I turn 

 weeping from side to side of my grassy couch ; alas ! he is 

 away ! we are severed for ever, and I alone keep my love. I 

 stand in the shade of the Tu tree, and wreathe myself in the 

 flowers he loved, to bear the grief of my beloved who has for- 

 saken me. Thou forsakest me, never to return, and I die 

 alone like the bird that finds no branch of any tree whereon to 

 perch." There is an amusing description of Queen Marau's 

 visit to the Italian man-of-war, whose officers were afterwards 

 invited to a banquet, the menu of which is given in Tahitian 

 and Italian. It began with roast pork, followed by raw fish rz 

 la taitro (a kind of pickle made of grated coco, sliced lemons, 

 and salt water kept in a bamboo cane), prawns, salt fish, 

 bananas, taro, a species of mango [Spondias thtleis), concluding 

 with a dessert of cocoa-nuts and oranges. A native banquet is 

 thus a sort of resume of the fauna and flora of the Society Islands. 



The Bolleltino of the Italian Geographical Society for April 

 publishes two interesting letters from the engineer, Count 

 Augusto Salimbeni, who had accompanied the third Bianchi 

 expedition to Gojam, which had such a disastrous termination. 

 These letters, addressed to Sig. Grimaldi, Minister of Agri- 

 culture, and to Prof. Tacchini, are dated from Dildil-Jimma, 

 Gojam, December 27, 1884, and January 2, 1885, and describe 

 the commencement of a stone bridge over the River Temcha, 

 the first of the kind in the country since that thrown some two 

 centuries ago across the Abai (Upper Blue Nile) by the Portu- 

 guese. This work, so far carried out under great difficulties 

 with the assistance of Giuseppe Andreoni from the Swiss Canton 

 of Ticino, will consist of three arches with a total length of 

 50 m. and 20 m. above the stream. King Tekla-IIaimanor, at 

 whose request it was undertaken, was greatly surprised at the 

 progress already made, and expressed his satisfaction to Count 

 Salimbeni in these terms: — "At first I did not believe you. 

 But it was not altogether my fault. Europeans coming here 

 hav>» talked to me about the splendours of their lands, have 

 brought me handsome presents, but have never shown me any 

 of their works in stone and mortar. Our history relates how 

 the Portuguese, to build the bridge over the Abai, brought 

 down tire from heaven, with which they dammed up the water. 

 It is also said that they required a thousand oxen daily to mix 

 the mortar. But you have asked for nothing but stones, sand, 

 wood, and water. Your work is better than that of the Portu- 

 guese. Now I believe you." It was expected that the bridge 

 would be finished in March. 



The same number of the Bolleltino brings to a conclusion the 

 important and timely paper by L. Paladini on the foundation of 

 European colonies in Africa, and especially in Algeria and 

 Tunis. The object of the writer is to warn Italy against rash 

 enterprises of this sort, nearly all of which have hitherto proved 

 to be financial and even political failures. Speaking more 

 particularly of Algeria, he describes the results, after fifty-four 

 years of occupation, as almost nothing compared with the vas- 



