44 
largest of the chain of islands which runs from the south coast 
of Japan to the east coast of Formosa, and which include the 
Loochooan archipelago. The island has never before been 
visited by a European, and presents many features of scientific 
and general interest. Dr. Doderlein spent sixteen days there, 
during six of which he was kept indoors and in darkness by a 
violent typhoon, which is described in the twenty-third number 
of the Zyansactions of the same Society by Mr. Knipping of 
Tokio. Two distinct types of people were foufid in the island, 
one pure Japanese, the other—probably the original inhabitants 
before the Japanese conquest—are about the same size as Japa- 
nese, but somewhat better built. The face is notso broad, and 
grows smaller towards the bottom, so that the chin is pointed, a 
feature rarely found in the Japanese, whose chins are broad and 
round. The lips and nose are thin, the bridge of the latter 
being convex. The eyes are large like those of the people of 
Southern Europe. The most striking portion of the appearance 
of this people, however, is the thick hair which they have all 
over their bodies. In this respect they closely resemble the 
Ainos of Yezo and Saghalin. The language, of which some 
examples are given, is evidently a dialect of Japanese, half-way 
between the latter and Loochooan, The customs are in many 
respects different from those of Japan. The women tatoo them- 
selves on the backs of the hands (the Aino women, it will be 
remembered, tatoo the lips) from the wrists to the roots of the 
nails, The marks are always the same, but no explanation of 
the custom could be given by the people. When a girl reachés 
the age of thirteen the operation is performed on her hands 
by people specially trained for the purpose. Married women 
never blacken the teeth, as in Japan. Although the population 
is about 50,000, there is neither priest nor temple in the island, 
and the people know nothing of a deity to whom they should 
pray. They pay a sort of veneration to their ancestors, but only 
to individuals, not to the progenitors of their race or tribe, as in 
Japan. Life would ran very smoothly with the people, were 
it not for a poisonous snake, called 4asu, belonging to the 
Trimeresucus class. It attains a length of six or seven feet, and 
is equal in venom to the most poisonous snakes. The Japanese 
fear to land on the island on account of these reptiles, which are 
found everywhere. They are said to pursue eels in the streams, 
to climb trees easily, and even to do so for the purpose of 
attacking travellers more easily. At night no one will ‘stir 
abroad, for the bite is invariably fatal unless assistance is imme- 
diately procured. In one place a village of thirty-one houses 
was abandoned because the Zaéu were numerous in the neigh- 
bourhood. The only cure employed is excision of the part, or 
even of the limb, which has been bitten. The general conclusion 
at which Dr. Déderlein arrives is that Oshima belongs in its 
-fauna to the Loochoos, and has but little connection in this 
respect with Japan. He thinks, therefore, that the boundary 
between two great zoological regions, the paleoarctic and the 
oriental, lies between the island and Japan. 
In the last number of the Proceedings of the Berlin Geogra- 
phical Society Dr. G. Fritsch has an extremely suggestive paper 
on geography and anthropology as mutual helpmates. The 
writer dwells upon the great aid each of these studies might 
derive from the sister science, if conducted in a broad and 
enlightened spirit. There are problems connected with the 
evolution of man and with his present distribution over the 
earth’s surface, the solution of which depends upon a more exact 
knowledge of the former distribution of land and water, especially 
in the Tertiary period. The gap that separates man from any 
of the living anthropoids is profound; but it may possibly 
be bridged over or contracted to smaller proporticns by the 
future discovery of fossil remains in the tropical regions, where 
the race most probably originated. Should these regions fail 
ultimately to yield the connecting links, then the conclusion 
would be strengthened that the evolution of mankind took place 
in some now submerged land, as, for instance, in the Lemuria 
of the Indian Ocean, or in the vast continent of which the 
Pacific islands may be regarded as the fragmentary remains. 
In the latter case the problem would remain practically in- 
soluble, and the descent of men from some now extinct anthro- 
poid forms would have to be regarded as at most an assumption 
incapable of strict demonstration, The present distribution of 
mankind, the writer goes on to point out, is largely bound up 
with more partial modifications of the earth’s surface. A good 
NATURE 
instance is the Dravidian or aboriginal race of the Deccan, dif- | 
ferentiated from the other types of the Asiatic mainland during 
the period that Southern India was still a triangular insular mass, 
ae ess, 
before the now connecting Northern plains were created by the 
alluvia of the Indus and Ganges. From considerations of this 
sort Dr. Fritsch suggests a scheme of fundamental human types 
differing in some respects from any hitherto proposed by anthro- 
pologists, and insists especially on the necessity of separating 
the Koi-Koin (Hottentots and Bushmen) from the Negro proper. 
He alo argues on similar grounds for the unity of the ‘‘ homo 
Americanus,” whom he refuses to regard as a mere branch of — 
the Mongol or any other type of the Old World. 
IN a letter from Landana Pére Carrie announces the arrival 
of Pere Augouard’s Stanley Pool expedition at Isangila on July 
12. They were to resume their march for Manyanga on July 14, 
and hoped to reach it in eight days. 
hurrying on with his work in view of the expiry of his engage- 
ment with the International Association in March next. 
THE chance of obtaining news of the missing Feannetfe ex- 
ploring expedition before the winter closes in appears to be 
getting very remote. The revenue cutter Zhomas Corwin 
has returned to San Francisco, and the steamer 4/lance to 
Halifax, N.S., without any intelligence whatever of the party, 
and now we hear that the visit of the Rodgers to Wrangel Land 
has also been without result. Small boats belonging to the 
Rodgers circumnavigated Wrangel Land. The party in the boats 
also surveyed different parts of the island. The views from 
the top of the mountain on Wrangel Land disclosed sea all 
around it. The season had been most favourable for the pur- 
poses of exploration, owing to the openness of the navigation. 
The Rodgers would probably take up her winter quarters at St. 
Lawrence Bay, whence she expected to sail in June next, and 
proceed as far north as possible. Lieut. Berry finds that Wrangel 
Land is an island sixty miles m length. 
THE November number of Petermann’s Mitthetlungen is 
mostly occupied with two papers—On the Water-ways of 
France, by H. Keller ; and on the Marsh Region of the Equatorial 
Nile System and its Grass Barriers. The latter is a paper of 
great value and interest, giving the results of the writer's 
observations during his recent terrible Nile journey. It is 
accompanied by a map of part of the Bahr el Abiad and Bahr el 
Seraf. There is also in the numberasummary of the proceedings 
of the recent Venice Congress. 
THE Geographical Society at Bremen has received a telegram 
from the Brothers Krause, dated the 6th inst., announcing their 
safe arrival at San Francisco with good scientific and ethnogra- 
phic collections. These explorers had visited the Chukchi 
Peninsula at various points, and intended spending the winter in 
the north of Alaska. 
SCIENCE IN NEW SOUTH WALES 
rake GOODLY record of scientific work is furnished from time 
to time by our vigorous colonies on the Australian 
continent, where (as in other young countries), if the aids to 
science are not so complete as in some parts of Europe, the in- 
citements to philosophical observation of natural phenomena are, 
for obvious reasons, peculiarly strong. 
The Fournal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New 
South Wales for 1880, recently received by us, includes, with 
other matter, many valuable observations adding to a knowledge 
of the country. We gather that within the last quarter of a 
century, from natural decay, ring-barking, and clearing for eulti- 
vation, at least one half of the timbered land of the colony (it is 
estimated) has been denuded of trees. A very considerable di- 
minution of rainfall might perhaps have been expected in conse- 
quence, but this has certainly not been the case ; indeed statistics 
rather indicate the reverse. The principal rivers, too, have not 
been diminished in volume of water. Instructive in this connec- 
tion is the experience of Mr. Abbott, with ring-barking of trees 
on his run at Glengarry. This operation (fer improvement of 
grazing capacity) he carried out in 1869 and 1870, on most of the 
watershed of three creeks, each about two miles long, draining 
well-defined valleys shut in by high ridges of basalt. For twenty 
yecrs previously these creeks were dry watercourses, only 
holding water for a few days after rain, and in a few places in 
winter. But soon after ring-barking they became, and have 
continued, permanent streams, with increased flow of water and 
number of springs. The explanation Mr. Abbott offers is that 
the large proportion of the rainfall formerly taken up by the 
gum-trees and evaporated, now finds its way to the creeks and 
rivers. 
[Vov. 10, 1881 
Mr. Stanley is said to be 
4 
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