May 29, 1884] 



NA TURE 



109 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Bonnet Monkey (Macacus sinicus 6 ) from 

 India, presented by Mr. J. L. Ellis ; a Black-backed Jackal 

 (Canis mesome/as) from South Africa, presented by Mr. H. P. 

 Plummer ; a Spotted Eagle Owl (Bubo maculosus) from Africa, 

 presented by Capt. Larner ; a Nicobar Pigeon ( Catenas nico- 

 banca) from the Indian Archipelago, presented by Mr. Thomas 

 II. Haynes; a Herring Gull (Larus argentatus), European, 

 presented by Dr. E. H. Cree ; a Bonnet Monkey (Macacus 

 sinicus S ) from India, deposited ; a Rabbit-eared Perameles 

 (Peramdes lagoiis) from West Australia, two Specious Pigeons 

 (Columba speciosa) from South America, purchased ; a Bennett's 

 Wallaby (Halmalurus bennetti 1 ) from Tasmania, received in 

 exchange ; a Wapiti Deer (Cervus canadensis 6 ) born in the 

 Gardens. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

 IN Petermann 's Geographische Mittheilungen, 1884, Heftiv., is 

 an article on the island of Sao Thome, accompanied by maps 

 both of that island and of the neighbouring island of Rolas, by 

 Prof. R. Greeff in Marburg. The contribution is the result of 

 several months' residence on those islands in the course of a 

 scientific tour through the islands of the Gulf of Guinea in 1879 

 and 1880. The map of the two islands in question is the united 

 product of Prof. Greeff and of the proprietor of Rolas, Francisco 

 Jose de Araujo : a map based partly on immediate exploration 

 and observation, partly on careful information derived from natives. 

 It both corrects and supplements in considerable measure the 

 only two previous maps of St. Thomas known to the authors — that 

 of 1829 by the English commander, T. Boteler, and that of 1844 

 by the Portuguese, Lopez de Lima. In the present map are 

 entered for the first time the districts into which St. Thomas is 

 divided, its "villas," its connecting highways, its more impor- 

 tant plantations, and also the demarcation between the compara- 

 tively small cultivated part and the large wooded wilderness of 

 the south and the interior. The map of Rolas is the first that 

 has yet appeared of this island, which is intersected by the 

 Equator. The history of St. Thomas is sketched from the year 

 1470, when it was discovered, without a single human inhabitant 

 and almost wholly overgrown with forest, by the Portuguese 

 sailors, Joao de Santarem and Pero de Escobar. Prof. Greeff 

 calculates the dimensions of the island, which stretches ovally 

 from 0° 2' to o° 30' N. lat. and from 6° 34' to 6° 54' E. long., 

 at about 52 kilometres by 34 kilometres, or altogether about 920 

 square kilometres. 



Writing from Bakundu-ba-Nambeleh in October 1883, St. 

 von Rogozinski gives an account of his travels between 

 Cameroon and Calabar. On August 13 he left the coast in 

 company with Clemens Tomczek, made his way up the Mungo 

 for Bakundu, his other fellow-travellers being bound for the 

 station of Mondoleh. On September 11 they determined on 

 traversing the region of the Upper Mungo as far as its falls. 

 Making their way through thick forest and over mountain chains, 

 they came on Eliki, where were three rapids, and from which 

 point the Mungo is no longer navigable. The land to the 

 north-east gets even more elevated, and the path of the travel- 

 lers became continually crossed by streams. At length, at 

 4° 46' 15" N. Iat. and 9° 33' 30" E. long., they looked down 

 from a hill on the sources of the Yabiang or Abo, a deep and 

 "indescribably beautiful " valley clothed in the most exuberant 

 tropical vegetation. The principal town here is Balombi-ba-Kange, 

 built like all towns of that quarter in the form of a crescent'Or 

 arch, with fetish houses in the middle. On September 14 they 

 left Kange, and passed the slave town of Baku. Further to the 

 north they entered, the same day, the large town of Mokonje, the 

 centre of the ivory trade for the lands of Biafra Bay. Next 

 passing Bao, they reached Mambanda, close to the falls and the 

 new lake, Balombi-ba-Mbu, they were in quest of, on the 16th. 

 Quite exhausted, and finding their way further to the north ren- 

 dered impossible by troops of elephants and the want of any 

 guide that would venture, they were reluctantly obliged to fall 

 back on the mission station of Bakundu, where Rogozinski was 

 compelled to stay and nurse the wounds on his feet and ankles. 

 On the 23rd Tomczek resumed alone the march northwards by 

 a different route, and happily reached the lake M'Bu at half a 

 day's march from Boa. The beautiful lake is four miles long, of 



round shape, inclosed by thickly-wooded hills, is deep, abounds 

 in fishes, and receives on the west the river Soho, six or seven 

 metres broad. Apparently it is of volcanic origin. 



In a series of papers upon Early Discoveries in Australasia 

 which Mr. E. A. Petherick, F.R.G.S., is contributing to the 

 Melbourne Review, some curious and interesting facts are now 

 made known for the first time, namely, the discovery of the west 

 coast of Australia by the survivors of Magellan's expedition in 

 1522, the passage of Torres Straits by another Spanish vessel in 

 1545, sixty years before Torres, whose discovery and that of a 

 Dutch vessel, the Duyplten, in the same year (1606) are hitherto 

 the earliest authenticated accounts of the sighting of any part of 

 the Australian coast by European vessels. But the most note- 

 worthy statement Mr. Petherick makes is that the name of New 

 Guinea belongs to that part of Australia now known as Queens- 

 land, and that the great island of Papua has borne the name of 

 New Guinea erroneously for more than three centuries. Mr. 

 Petherick is also able, from evidence upon a French mappemonde 

 dated 1566, now in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, to refute 

 all claims to the discovery of Australia made at various times 

 during the present and the last century on behalf of French 

 navigators. Notwithstanding the early Spanish discoveries of 

 Australia now referred to, Mr. Petherick asserts that the 

 Portuguese were in the eastern seas twenty years earlier, and 

 probably discovered Australia in the first decade of the sixteenth 

 century. 



Last autumn the expedition under Lieut. Holm for exploring 

 the east coast of Greenland, and which is again to start north- 

 wards this spring, met a party of about sixty East-Greenlanders 

 — men, women, and children — south of the island of Aluk, on 

 the east coast. They were on the way to the west coast to sell 

 bear-, fox-, and seal-skins. Every attempt was made by the 

 Danish explorer to induce some of them to return and act as 

 guides on his journey northwards, but the prospect of a visit to a 

 Danish settlement proved too great. A considerable number of 

 East-Greenlanders die on their way to the west coast. The East- 

 Greenlanders are reported to differ much from the West-Green- 

 landers in stature and appearance, the men being often tall, with 

 black beards and European cast of face. This seems to be par- 

 ticularly the case with those living far north. Both East- and 

 West-Greenlanders have small hands and feet. During the year 

 1S83 four boats with heathen East-Greenlanders arrived at 

 Julianshaab. Three of these came from the distant Angmasalik, 

 and in them there were also, for the first time, natives from 

 Kelalualik, which is five days' journey further north. The 

 latter stated that in the winter they were in the habit, when 

 journeying on sleighs, of meeting with people living much further 

 north. Kelalualik being situated, it is believed, between lat. 

 67 and 68° N., it may be assumed that the whole line of coast 

 from lat. 65° to 70° is to some degree populated. 



From the annual report of the Russian Geographical Society for 

 1883 we learn that the meteorological observations of the Novaya 

 Zemlya Station are expected to be published in full in the course 

 of this year, while the observers of the Sagastyr Meteorological 

 Station, on the Lena, have remained there for a year longer. 

 The publications of the Society, besides the Izvestia have been 

 the following : — Prjevalsky's third journey to Central Asia, 

 Potanin's sketches of North- Western Mongolia, Karelin's travels 

 on the Caspian, and Maynoft" s anthropology of the Morovinians. 

 The next publications will contain : the report of Unkovsky's 

 embassy to Kontaisha under Peter I., M. Sadovnikoff's folk- 

 lore of Samara, the third volume of M. Potanin's work on Mon- 

 golia, a geological map of the shores of Lake Baikal, by M. 

 Chersky, the remarkable collection of maps of the delta of the 

 Amu-daria, by M. Kaulbars, and the concluding fascicule of the 

 capital work of M. Semenoff, the "Geographical and Statistical 

 Dictionary of Russia." The great gold medal has been awarded 

 to M. Severtsoff for his explorations in Turkestan, and Count 

 Liitke's medal to Prof. Wild for his labours in Russsian meteoro- 

 logy, and for his work, "On the Temperature of the Ah in 

 Russia." The smaller gold medals were awarded to M. Lessar 

 for his journeys, MM. Agapitoff and Khangaloff for their work on 

 Shamanism in Siberia, M. Adrianoff for his journey to the Altay 

 and Kuzuetzky Alatau, and M. Usoff, member of the West 

 Siberian branch of the Society. Silver medals were awarded to 

 Lieut. F. Schwatka and Mr. W. Hoffman, Secretary to the 

 Anthropological Society of Washington ; to MM. Andreeff, 

 Grinevetsky, Konshin, Kosyakoff, Krivosheya, Kudryavtseff, 

 Prince Urusbieff, Fuss, Wereschaghin, and Dobrotvorsky. The 

 library ha- been increased by 4001 volumes. 



