May 12, 1881] 



NATURE 



to express our opinion that the Brush lamp, per se, is the 

 best, their system of illumination and distribution of posts 

 cannot be compare! with the care and skill evinced by 

 the Messrs. Siemens. If either company were to try our 

 suggestion, and illuminate down the centre of the street, 

 maintainin.a: the line of the street in their line of lights, 

 we should have another interesting experiment that would 

 go far to solve this question. 



One last point deserves attention. It is the effect which 

 these strong and powerful electric light currents have on 

 the working of the telegraph. It was feared that their 

 p'esence would deteriorate the working capacity of tele- 

 graph wires, and undoubtedly it would be so were it not 

 that, taking advantage of the warnings given them the 

 electric light people have in all cases adopted a rctiini 

 wire, so as to make their circuit completely metallic 

 throughout. We are glad to learn that this has proved 

 quite effective except in one instance, where along London 

 Bridge the return wire has been taken round the other 

 side of the bridge, and here co.isiderable disturbances 

 have been experienced in certain telephone circuits from 

 the contiguity of the electric light currents. No other 

 disturbance has as yet been experienced. 



We have also as yet to experience the effect of weather. 

 Up to the present moment it has been all in favour of the 

 electric light — bright, clear, cheerful skies have given to 

 the light a clearness and brilliancy that have created for it 

 a strong feeling. When thick weather and rain and fog 

 occur there may be a change in this opinion, not only 

 from a disturbance of the penetrating power of the light, 

 but on the effect of rain and moisture on the wires 

 conveying the currents. 



( To be coiiiinued.) 



DR. HOLUB'S AFRICAN TRAVELS^ 

 I. 



FROM his boyhood days Emil Holub determined he 

 would explore some of the out-of-the-way portions 

 of the African continent, and in 1872 the opportunity 

 was presented to him of travelling in the southern parts 

 of that great and still unexplored country. The result of 

 seven years labour, during which period of time he made 

 three several journeys of investigation, are now in these 

 volumes laid before the public. In Dr. Holub's first 

 journey he started from Port Elizabeth, crossing the Cape 

 Colony district and the extreme south-west corner of the 

 Orange Free State, to Kimberley. As far as Grahams- 

 town he could have had the modern convenience of a 

 train, but preferred a two wheeled cart drawn by four 

 small horses, making about eight miles an hour. The 

 country is very charming for the greater part of this 

 route, the road being beneath the brow of the Zuur 

 Mountains, which with their wooded clefts and valleys, 

 and their little lakes inclosed by sloping pastures, 

 afforded many interesting views. The fauna was as varied 

 as the flora, and numerous captures were made by the 

 way. Even large game like elephants were to be met 

 ■with, and the author records a sad accident which 

 happened in the underwood by the Zondago River, 

 between Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown. A black 

 servant sent to look for some strayed cattle had been 

 met by a herd of passing elephants, some of whom 

 knocked him down and then trampled him to death. In 

 this district these big animals are under the protection of 

 the Governm.nt, and not being often interfered with, they 

 would seem to have no great fear of man. The spring- 

 bok {Antelope cjiiliore) is noticed as still in some districts 

 swarming, tnough its numbers must be rapidly diminish- 



' "Seven Years in South Africa. Travels, Researches, and Hunting 

 Adventures between the Diamond Fields and the Zambesi." By Dr. Einil 

 Holub (translated by Ellen E. Frewer). With about 200 original illustra- 

 tions and a map. In two volutnes. (London: Sampsjn Lotv, Marston, 

 Searle, and Rivmgton, 18S1 ) 



ing, as Dr. Holub saw whole waggon-loads brought to 

 Kimberley, where the carcases were sold at prices varying 

 from three to seven shillings a head. Among other won- 

 derful instances given of the great sl:ill of the Dutch 

 Boers in bringing down these swift creatures, he tells of 

 one expert marksman killing by a single shot from his 

 breech-loading rifle two of these antelopes. 



Towards Colesberg the country forms a high table- 

 land ; it is on an affluent of the Orange River. On this 

 table-land there was a herd of upwards of fifty quaggas, 

 the only herd the author could hear of in South Africa. 

 The farmers have lately spared them, so that during 

 the last ten years they had increased to their present 

 number from a sm.all herd of fifteen. Philippolis, the 

 first town entered of the Orange Free State, is described 

 as dreary-looking, the houses mostly unoccupied, and 

 the general aspect most melancholy. On the way 

 to the Diamond Fields nothing but bad roads and worse 

 weather were encountered ; the wind was piercing, and 

 snow actually fell. Fauresmith, one of the most consider- 

 able towns in the republic, although consisting of not 

 more than eighty houses, covered a considerable area. It 

 was clean and pleasant-looking, and here the author 

 thought of settling for a time, and by the practice of his 

 profession saving enough of money to enable him to start 

 afresh for other fields ; but the fates were against him, 

 and he was, after a few days, obliged to push on to the 

 Diamond Fields, and the following extract will best tell of 

 these : — 



" The first day upon which I set my eyes upon the 

 Diamond Fields will ever be engraved on my memory. 

 As our vehicle made its rapid descent from the heights 

 near Scholze's Farm, and when my companion, pointing 

 out to me the bare plains just ahead, told me that there 

 lay my future home, my heart sank within mc. A dull 

 dense fog was all I could distinguish. A bitter wind 

 rushing from the hills, and howling around us in the 

 exposure of our open waggon, seemed to mock at the 

 protection of our outside coats, and seemed resolve! to 

 make us know how ungenial the temperature of winter in 

 South .Africa could be ; and the grey clouds that obscured 

 the sky shadowed the entire landscape with an aspect of 

 the deepest melancholy. Yes ; here I was approaching 

 the EWorado of the thousands of all nations, attracted 

 hither by the hope of rich reward ; but the nearer I came 

 the more my spirit failed me, and I was conscious of a 

 sickening depression. Immediate contact with the fog 

 that had been observed from the distant heights at once 

 revealed its true origin and character. It proved to be 

 dense clouds of dust first raised by the west wind from 

 the orange-coloured sand on the plains, and then mingled 

 with the loose particles of calciferous earth piled up in 

 heaps amidst the huts on the diggings. So completely 

 did it fill the atmosphere that it would require little stretch 

 of imagination to fancy that it was a sand-storm of the 

 Sahara. As we entered the encampment the blinding 

 dust was so thick that we could only see a few yards 

 before us ; we were obliged to proceed very cautiously, 

 and before we reached the office of the friend I had to 

 call on, another mile or so farther on, our faces and our 

 clothes were literally incrusted. We only shared the fate 

 of all new-comers in feeling not only distressed but really 

 ill; the very horses sneezed and snoited, and showed 

 that the condition of things was no less painful to them 

 than to their masters. Here and there on both sides 

 right and left, wherever the gloom would permit me to 

 see, I noticed round and oblong tents and huts intended 

 for shops, but now closed, built of corrugated iron. 

 Under the fury of the wind the tent-poles bent, and the 

 ropes were subjected to so great a strain that the erec- 

 tions threatened every moment to collapse. Many and 

 many a sheet of the galvanised iron got loose from the 

 roofs or sides of the huts, and creaking in melancholy 

 discord, contributed as it were to the gloominess of 



