Sept. 27, 1877] 



NA TURE 



465 



account of its great value and many uses, freely gave the benefit 

 of it to the public. In subsequent years Mr. Talbot published 

 various modifications and applications of his process, but latterly 

 he had turned his attention to quite a different field, publishing 

 various works on antiquarian, classical, and linguistic subjects. 



We have received from our correspondent a full report of the 

 meeting of the German Association at Munich, with important 

 addresses by Prof. Haeckel, " On the Evolution Theory at the 

 Present Day," and by Prof. Nageli, on the " Limits of Natural 

 Knowledge." Pressure on our space compels us to defer this 

 report till ne.\t week. 



Prof. J. E. Hilgard, assistant in charge of the United States 

 Coast Survey, has been offered the directorship of the new 

 International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris. Prof. 

 Hilgard is one of the excursion party which includes Sir J. D. 

 Hooker, Prof. Asa Gray, and Dr. Hayden. 



The second biennial meeting of the International Congress of 

 Americanists for the discussion of all matters relating to American 

 archaeology, philology, ethnology, and pre-Columbian antiquities 

 generally, was held at Luxemburg on September 10-13. There 

 was a numerous attendance of delegates from all parts of the 

 world. Many papers were contributed to the Congress. Dr. 

 Leemans, Prof. Leon de Rosny, Abbe Pipart, and M. Madier 

 de Montjan, read papers upon primitive American civilisation, 

 and especially picture-writing and hieroglyphics. Several 

 Americans sent communications relative to the mound-builders 

 of the Mississippi valley and the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico ; 

 amongst these Messrs. GiUman, of Detroit, Michigan (so well 

 known for his discoveries amongst the burial mounds there). 

 Force, of Cincinnati, and Moody, of Illinois, may be specially 

 mentioned. Dr. Rink contributed a valuable paper upon the 

 primitive habitat of the Esquimaux, maintaining, in opposition 

 to the usual belief, that they came from the interior of America, 

 Messrs. Hyde Clarke and F. A. Allen, of London, contributed 

 essays upon the wider aspect of the question, seeking to trace 

 the civilisation of the primitive races of the New World to a 

 fountain-head in Asia. A valuable paper from M. Lucien Adam 

 furnished a detailed analysis of the grammar of sixteen Indian 

 nations ranging from Lake Athabasca to the Llanos of Brazil. 

 It was resolved by the Congress to memorialise the South Ame- 

 rican Governments to take steps to preserve authentic records of 

 the language and customs of all small Indian tribes likely soon 

 to become extmct. Throughout the Congress great interest was 

 manifested by the inhabitants in the important subjects dis- 

 cussed, and the visitors were most hospitably entertained by the 

 burj^omaster and municipality at a final banquet on Thursday, 

 the 13th, upon which occasion congratulatory ^telegrams were 

 received from the King of the Netherlands and from Prince 

 Henry, the Governor of the Grand Duchy. It has been decided 

 to hold the third Congress in 1S70, at Brussels, when it is hoped 

 the attractiveness and convenience of the locality will induce a 

 larger attendance. The proceedings will be published as soon 

 as possible, and are expected to fill three volumes of 600 

 pages each. 



The value of the work accomplished by Mr. Stanley, who 

 reports himself on August 10 from Emboma, near the mouth of 

 the Congo, will be universally acknowledged,' and there can be 

 but one opmion as to the rank he will hold among geographical 

 explorers. He has solved one of the few great geographical 

 problems which remained for solution, and has performed a feat 

 which baffled even Livingstone's patient genius. Both Living- 

 stone and Cameron had to turn away from Nyangwe on the 

 Lualaba, in Manyuema, foiled in their desire to descend the 

 mysterious river ; had Stanley been equally scrupulous no doubt 

 the also would have had to submit to defeat. Determined, how- 

 ever, to trace the course of the river or meet with the fate of 



Park, he tells us that partly by marching along the banks, partly 

 by sailing down the river, he traced the course of the Lualaba, 

 changing its name " scores of times," almost direct north from 

 Nyangwe to 2° N. lat., where it turns north-west, then west, 

 then south-west, until as it approaches the Atlantic coast it 

 becomes known as the Kwango or Zaire. Many cataracts had 

 to be passed, and at one of the last of them the remaining one of 

 the Pocock brothers was drowned. The breadth of the stream, 

 Mr. Stanley states, varies from two to ten miles, and in some 

 parts is choked with islands. If we consider Webb's Lualaba as 

 the main stream, then its origin must be regarded as the Cham- 

 beze rising to the west of Lake Nyassa, and under many names 

 flowing thence through Lake Bangweola, northwards through 

 Lake Moero, Kowamba, and . the reported Kamolondo by 

 Nyangwe to at least 2° N. lat., and thence south-west to the 

 Atlantic Ocean — a course with all its windings, nut far short of 

 3,000 miles. Its basin will thus be included between 32° E. and 

 the west coast of Africa, and 12" S. and 2° N. lat. Its aflSuents 

 are many, some of them very large. There is the Western 

 Lualaba with its many tributaries, probably the Casai, also with 

 numerous aflluents, and very possibly even the Ogovai may be 

 an offshoot from the lower Congo. Between 26° and 17° E. 

 the river has an uninterrupted course, descending thence by 

 about thirty falls and rapids to the great river between the falls 

 of Yellata and the Atlantic. Livingstone heard of a large lake 

 with many islands many miles to the north of Nyangwe, and 

 this may simply be one of the ten-mile wide stretches referred to 

 by Mr. Stanley. Further details will be anxiously looked for, 

 but with our present information we must regard the Congo as 

 one of the largest and most important rivers on the globe. It 

 seems clear that Livingstone was mistaken in connecting the 

 Lualaba with the Nile system. The conduct of Mr. Stanley's 

 expedition it is not our business to criticise ; but it seems clear 

 that unless we were prepared to wait for an indefinite period 

 the solution of this important problem and the opening up of 

 undiscovered Africa to commerce and science and civilisation, 

 some pioneer must sooner or later have forced his way through 

 the tribes along the route taken by Stanley. This addition to 

 knowledge has been achieved with much suffering and loss of 

 life, though it seems probable that the many " battles " reported 

 to have been fought may turn out to have been exaggerated in 

 their details. Mr. Stanley was to proceed from Emboma to 

 Cabinda, and thence to St. Paul de Loanda, so that we may soon 

 expect to be able to welcome him home. 



In , speaking of the famine in Madras the Times Madras 

 correspondent, under date August 29, writes as follows : — " I 

 have not seen Mr. Pogson, the Government astronomer, very 

 lately, but I am informed that he has indicated to the Govern- 

 ment the probability of the coming north-east monsoon being 

 a failure also, as the intensity of the solar heat continues 

 unabated. If this be so it is quite impossible to say what the 

 subsequent months will bring forth. The possibility of a great 

 catastrophe such as the failure of seasonal rains at the end of two 

 seasons of scarcity and famine is too horrible to contemplate ; 

 but it is in accordance with the history of former famines and 

 the conclusions of scientific men, that rainy seasons in the 

 tropics should be abnormal under the influence of the intense 

 solar heat and the absence of 'spots' on the sun." It is a pity 

 that positive statements like this should be published without 

 reference to any data on which they are based. Had obser- 

 vations on the monsoons been carefully made, tabulated, and 

 worked out for many years past, it would be possible to predict 

 with something like certainty the character of the coming 

 monsoon. 



Dr. Matthews Duncan, of Edinburgh, is to succeed Dr. 

 Grcenhalgh at St. Bartholomew's. 



