57o 



NA TURE 



[Oct. 9, 1884 



mountains, some of them reaching to a height of 5000 feet, runs 

 down the centre of the peninsula, and through this the large 

 navigable river Kamchatka makes its way to the Pacific Ocean. 

 The valley of this river is the most cultivated portion of the 

 district. The hills are covered with forests of fir, larch, cedar, 

 birch, &c, and in these are found numerous wild animals, such 

 as the fur sable, the otter, foxes of all colours, and the 1" -1, 

 which latter, on account of the great supply of food, attacks 

 neither man nor the domestic animals. It is curious to note that 

 the squirrel, which is universal in Siberia, is not found here at 

 all. Swans, wild ducks, &c. , are found in great quantities in 

 the lakes and marshes in the interior, and their eggs, as well as 

 the birds themselves, are taken in great numbers by the people. 

 The fish which throng the rivers in enormous numbers in the 

 summer form the principal food of the natives. For the most 

 part they are salmon (Silmo salar), a. id are dried and stored up 

 for the winter ; but owing to the scarcity and dearness of salt 

 the fish frequently become rotten, and the people suffer great 

 privation. The rigour of winter is much softened by warm 

 ocean currents, which create those thick continuous fogs thai 

 render the coast so dangerous to navigation. The total popula- 

 tion of both sexes is put d >wn at only 6500 souls, but owing to 

 the total absence of agriculture, and to the primitive methods 

 adopted for preserving food for the winter, these are frequently 

 in a state of semi-starvation. For all except bare food they have 

 to look abroad — clothes, utensils, tea, tobacco, &c, and all 

 these they purchase by means of their fur sable, which is un- 

 equalled in any other part of the world. About 5000 of these 

 skins are sold each year at 15 to 20 roubles each. At the 

 beginning of the present century, cattle were introduced from 

 Yakutsk, and, owing to the excellent grass and water, would 

 have thriven well, but on account of the lack of industry or 

 energy on the part of the natives, it was found impossible to lay 

 in sufficient stores of fodder in winter. The question whether 

 agriculture is possible in the peninsula has never yet been 

 answered. Markets exist in the ports of Eastern Siberia, which 

 are at present supplied with such articles as salt meal, butter, 

 cloth, and hides from San Francisco. The main obstacle to 

 agriculture is the excessively damp and constantly foggy climate. 

 The sun seldom shines, and does not therefore give enough 

 warmth for the growth of rye and wheat. The trade is almost 

 wholly with California ; and as there is little or no money there 

 it is carried on by a system of exchange, the native 

 their sable skins in return for such goods as they require. The 

 articles conclude with an historical sketch of the peninsula down 

 to the annexation of the Amoor region to Russia in consequence 

 of the treaty with China of i860. 



The latest news from Col. Przevalsky communicated to the 

 Russian Geographical Society is dated January 20 an 1 March 22. 

 In the first of his letters the Russian traveller writes from Dyn- 

 youan-in, where he was staying at the residence of the Prince of 

 Alashan. After leaving Urga on November 20, he reached this 

 small town in Alashan on January 15, after a journey of 740 

 miles across the desert of Gobi. The cold in the neighbourhood 

 of Urga was very intense, and the mercury was sometimes 

 frozen ; in Alashan it was, on the contiary, quite warm when 

 there was no wind. M. Przevalsky proposed to leave Dyn- 

 youan-in the next day, and via the Tchebsen temple reach 

 Kuku-nor. He wrote his second letter from this place. He 

 had crossed Southern Alashan and the Han-sou Mountains with- 

 out difficulty. There he spent the month of February, princi- 

 pally in hunting and in zoological explorations, which yielded 

 rich collections. On March 23 he was to leave Tchebs n for 

 Kuku-nor. The Chinese authorities did not hinder his a Ivance, 

 but refused to give him a guide for the sources of the Yellow 

 River (Iloang-ho) ; the indefatigable traveller did not, however, 

 attach any importance to this refusal, being sine of finding tin 

 sources of the Hoang-ho himself. When the Tsaidam was 

 reached, M. Przevalsky proposed to establish his first station 

 there, and to continue his journey with a few men and pro- 

 visions. His second station would be established at Ghast in 

 Western Tsaidam. As to Thibet, he had decided to go to 

 Lassa if the Thibetians did not oppose him. Otherwise he- 

 would explore only Northern Thibet as far as Lob-nor, 

 endeavouring to penetrate as far south as possible. 



_ Another traveller whi has been sent out by the Russian 

 Geographical Society, M. Potanin, wrote on April 17 from 

 Tientsin. The expedition had reached Chefoo on April 13 on 

 board the corvette Skobeleff, and continued the journey on 



board a Chinese merchant ship. They proposed soon to reach 

 Pekin, and there to obtain authorisation for the journey to Ordos 

 and I Ian- ou v a Utay or Kuku-Koto. 



Ix a paper contributed to a recent issue of the Revue de V His- 

 toire des Religions, M. Leon de Rosny, the Japanese scholar, 

 argues that one of the two chief chronological factors in the 

 present Japanese race is the Aino. It has long been recognised 

 that there was a certain intermingling of the original Japanese 

 invaders with those whom they drove before them, and who now 

 remain in parts of Yezo, the Kuriles, and Kamchatka ; but M. 

 de Rosny thinks that the Aino element is an exceedingly large 

 one, and permeates the whole race. His arguments are based 

 on an examination of the co-mogony described in the earliest 

 works. lie finds here two separate and distinctly marked 

 mythologies, one of a transparently aboriginal character. The 

 Japanese of to-day is, he believes, a mixture of the conquering 

 yellow and the conquered white races. 



The Berlin Geographical Society heard a lecture on October 4 

 from Herr Robert Flegel, who has just returned from making 

 an exploration in the region of the Niger, as agent of the Ger- 

 man African Society. Herr Flegel's exploration has occupied 

 the last two years, in the course of which he explored all 

 Adamawa and discovered the sources of the Binue ; but his 

 effort to travel from the Binue to the Congo ended in failure, 

 owing to the feuds and violence of the intervening tribes. Herr 

 Flegel carried away with him the conviction that the Binue is 

 navigable for 1 100 kilometres, and its chief affluents, as for 

 insl mce the Taraba, for a distance of from fifty to sixty nautical 

 miles during five or six months of the year. Herr Flegel is 

 accompanied by two natives, who attended him on his travels, 

 and who listened on bended knee and with crossed arms to the 

 praise bestowed upon them by the President of the Geographical 

 Society for their devotion to their master. 



News has been received from the leader of the German 

 expedition in South America, Dr. von den Steinen. The expe- 

 dition had arrived at Aldea dos Bacairis, on the Rio Parana- 

 tinga, the ultimate point from which regular communication with 

 the civilised world is possible. Their journey had been con- 

 siderably delayed by untoward circumstances and difficulties. 

 They left Cuyaba on May 26, and reached Rosario on June 2. 

 There they stayed a few days to purchase provisions. On June 14 

 they reached the first Aldeamento of the Bacairis on the Rio 

 Novo, a tributary of the Arino. There they remained a week, 

 making anthropological and linguistic investigations. They 

 continued their march on June 21, and arrived at Aldea on the 

 28th. On July 5 they were to cross the Paranatinga. 



A Geographical Society is about to be founded in the 

 Scottish capital ; it is to be opened next month by Mr. H. M. 

 Stanley. 



A GIGANTIC EARTHWORM 

 TT is well known that earthworms exist in many parts of the 

 world of enormous size compared to those with which we 

 are familiar in this country. 



Dr. Templeton mentions (see Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society, 1844, p. 89) large worms which are abundant after 

 heavy showers in many parts of the island ; this species, 

 named by him Megascolex cceruleus, is represented by a 

 number of examples in the British Museum, some of which 

 are certainly more than two feet long. In South America at 

 least two distinct genera are to be found which attain to a very 

 considerable size. Prof. Perrier, who is so well known as an 

 authority upon the anatomy of the group, has given them the 

 appropriate name of Anteus and Titanus. Dr. Horst of Leyden, 

 also well known for his researches into the anatomy of earth- 

 worms, has published in the " Notes from the Leyden Museum " 

 a description of two species belonging to another genus, Acantho- 

 drilus, which measure three feet or so in length ; they are natives 

 of Western Africa. Australia and New Zealand are also in- 

 habited by these gigantic creatures. Prof. Thomas, of Auckland, 

 New Zealand, informs me that he has heard of a large earth- 

 worm two or three feet in length, which is to be found in the 

 interior of the island, and one of similar size has lately been 

 described from South Australia, by Prof. M'Coy, under the 

 name of Megascolides. There is, however, a still larger species 

 which inhabits South Africa. F"orty years ago Rapp described 



