Oct. 18, 1877] 



NATURE 



529 



masses of cod, the object of the great winter and spring 

 fisheries of Northern Norway. For this expedition the 

 Norwegian Storthing has already voted the necessary 

 sum of money. H. IVIOHN 



NOTES 



The communications from Mr. Stanley in the Telc^-aph of 

 Thursday and Monday last, though containing few positive 

 additions to our knowledge, are full of interest ; the episode on 

 the arrival of the starved and wretched party at Ni Sanda is 

 quite thrilling. Notwithstanding the number of cataracts and 

 rapids on the Lualaba — Congo,|Stanley maintains it is well fitted 

 to become a great commercial highway — 2,000 miles of uninter- 

 rupted water communication, opening up an extent of country 

 embracing 600,000 square miles. North of the equator it 

 receives a tributary 2,000 yards wide at its mouth, coming from 

 a little north of east, and which, according to our present imper- 

 fect knowledge, is likely enough to be the Welle. Mr. Stanley 

 speaks of the "infamous inaccuracy " of our present charts of 

 West Africa, an inaccuracy which cost him the lives of many 

 of his men, but which, no doubt, he will be able to correct. 

 Three of Stanley's letters are dated from Nyangwe, and were 

 written about a year ago. In them he speaks in the strongest 

 language of the manner in which the slave-trade is carried on in 

 that region, describes the wonderful forest scenery of the country 

 between Tanganyika and Nyangwe, and gives some tender 

 reminiscences of Livingstone preserved among the people, among 

 whom the great traveller sojourned for so long. Mr. Stanley 

 also endeavours to clear up the geography of the region between 

 the Victoria, the Albeit, and Tanganyika, showing that the most 

 erroneous and confused ideas on the subject had been accepted 

 mainly on the reports of natives to Sir Samuel Baker. No one 

 now believes that the Tanganyika is connected with the Albert 

 Nyanza, and, indeed, as Stanley suspects himself, he is, in 

 refuting this notion, slaying the slain. From the little foretaste 

 given us in these preliminary letters, there is no doubt that there 

 is a rich feast in store for us of new and valuable information, 

 and of adventure scarcely paralleled in the history of geographical 

 exploration. 



The last number of the Bulletin of the Belgian Academy of 

 Sciences contains details as to the plans of the Belgian expedi- 

 tion for the exploration of Central Africa, which is to leave 

 Europe in the course of this month. Dr. Maes, of Hasselt, 

 will accompany the expedition as surgeon and naturalist. The 

 first Belgian station in Central Africa will be placed under the 

 arrangement of Capt. Crespel, with whom Lieut. Cambier and 

 Dr. Maes will be joined. The travellers will start for Zanzibar, 

 and thence reach Lake Tanganyika, where it will be definitely 

 settled whether a station be founded on the shores of the lake, 

 or, a simple depot being left there, the station be fixed at 

 Nyangwe, or elsewhere in Manyuema. The Tanganyika, or 

 Manyuema, or Unyamwesi will become a basis for further scien- 

 tific exploration ; and agriculture will be carried on on the spot 

 for the purpose of enabhng the expedition to exist on its own 

 resources. 



We would draw the attention of those of our readers who are 

 interested in tlie matter to the announcement in our advertising 

 columns with reference to the next distribution of the Govern- 

 ment grant of 4,000/. Applications should be forwarded to the 

 secretaries of the Royal Society before December 31. 



Vol. VII. of the Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific 

 papers will be out in a few days. 



The Ganh-iur's Chronuie hears that Signor Beccari is likely 

 to succeed Prof. Parlatore as Director of the Herbarium and 

 Botanic Garden at Florence, if, arrangements can be made for 

 some otherProfessor to undertake the duties of lecturmg. 



The death is announced, on September 30, at the age of 

 sixty-five, of Major-General Eardley-Wilmot, F.R.S., formerly 

 chairman of the Council of the Society of Arts. At one time 

 he was Director of Gun Factories at Woolwich, served on many 

 Government committees on military matters, and was frequently 

 consulted on scientific and educational subjects connected with 

 the army. 



The Lords of the Admiralty have ordered that sets of the 

 photographs taken during the Arctic Expedition of 1S75-76 

 shall be presented to the British Museum, the South Kensington 

 Museum, the United Service Institution, the Royal Artillery 

 Institution at Woolwich, the Royal Engineer Institution at 

 Chatham, and other Government or official institutions. Fifty 

 s;ts only are to be prepared, and they will all be identical with 

 the collection now on view at the Photographic Society's 

 Exhibition, Pall Mall. 



About eighty of the leading geologists'of Germany assembled 

 together in the annual meeting of the Deutsche geologische 

 Gesellschaft, at Vienna, on September 27. Baron von Ilauer, 

 of Vienna, Herr Beyrich, of Berlin, and Prof. Giimbl, of Munich, 

 presided over the three sessions which took place. Among the 

 addresses were — " The Geological Constitution of the Harz," 

 by Dr. Lossen, of Berlin ; " The Fauna in the Older Deposits 

 of the Harz and the Geological Position of the Hercynian 

 Formation," by Dr. Kayser, of Berlin ; " Phylogenetic Inves- 

 tigations in Phyto-paleontology," by Baron v. Ettinghausen 

 of Graz, &c. Prof. Neumayr, of Vienna, gave an interesting 

 report of his late trip through [Greece, and exhibited the 

 geological chart of North Greece, Thessaly, and Chalcis, based 

 on his recent investigations. 



The administration of the Paris National Library inaugurated 

 last Saturday a valuable addition to its internal machinery. A 

 small pneumatic tube has been constructed to all parts of the 

 building for conveying notes from readers asking for books. 

 The new buildings erected on the site of the old lecture-room 

 will be ready in a fortnight, and opened for public inspection. 

 The space available for library purposes will be more than 

 doubled by this addition. 



The earthquake of Monday week, to which we referred in 

 our last number, extended from the Lago di Garda to Dijon, 

 and from Strasburg to Grenoble. 



The French Society of Hygiene has just held its first monthly 

 meeting at the Hotel de la Societe d'Encouragement, under the 

 presidency of M. Chevalier, the eminent hygienist. M. Pietra 

 Santa, the secretary, announced that the number of registered 

 members of the new institution, modelled on the English pattern, 

 amounted to more than 300. A letter from the Sanitary Institute 

 announced that the Societe d'Hygiene had taken a diploma of 

 honour at the Leamington Exhibition. 



The Manchester Scientific Students' Association commenced 

 its winter session yesterday, when a paper was read by Mr. 

 Thomas Harrison, F.C.S., on " The Unity of the Senses," with 

 experiments. Other papers to be read are by Mr. J. Plant, 

 F.G.S., on "Silica;" Mr. William Gee, on "Telephones;" 

 Mr. M. Stirrup, F.G.S., Notes on Auvergne — Puy-de-Dume — 

 Extinct Volcanoes ; Mr. E. P. Quin, on " Vertebrate and Inver- 

 tebrate Animals ;" Mr. Robt. E. Holding, on a visit to the 

 Zoological Society's Gardens, London ; giving a description of 

 some remarkable Animals and Birds — illustrated by diagrams 

 from life ; Mr. Geo. C. Yates, F.S. A., on "A Ramble amongst 

 the Dolmens of the Morbihan." 



The annual Convirsa-Jone of the Whitehaven Scientific 

 Association took place at the Town Hall of that town on October 

 9, when the president, Mr. R. Russell, C.E., F.G.S., delivered 



