_ 6°50 grammes of absolute alcohol, and a corresponding 
_ quantity of sugar was destroyed ; the other twenty-four were 
left in contact with the air, and had became soft, watery, 
and sweet. It is the active vitality of a living plant, 
which consists of materials very suitable for their con- 
_ sumption, which prevents its being attacked by these pro- 
- moters of putrefaction and fermentation. Our pears, after 
_ burning their substance for a time without any new supply, 
become weak, and fall an easy prey to their persecutors. 
The moment the soil is free there is no want of seed. I need 
_ not reopen the old question and repeat that every breath 
of air is full of it. It is said that ifyou want a thoroughly 
good pasture, the best way is to fallow your ground and 
leave it for thirty years. During that time you will have 
over it a battle-royal for life. Every possible kind of 
seed will come to it from the four winds of heaven, and 
for a time it will be a wilderness of weeds; but soon the 
good old law begins to work, and the weak go to the wall, 
and the fallow bears a close sward of native British 
grasses. The same takes place in our pear, only what 
takes thirty years in a field is compressed into thirty 
hours, and probably-before a much longer time has 
elapsed, its surface is enveloped in a luxuriant microscopic 
jungle of Mucor stolonifer. WYVILLE THOMSON 
THE FINDING OF LIVINGSTONE 
How I found Livingstone in Central Africa. By H. 
M. Stanley. (London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co.) 
R. STANLEY’S bold march from Zanzibar to the 
Tanganyika, and his perfect success in meeting 
with and relieving the greatest of our modern travellers 
precisely at the right moment, will ever form one of the 
happiest and most romantic pages in the story of African 
exploration. F 
Remembering the watchword of his mission, “‘ Go and 
find Livingstone,” and that this, not the discovery of new 
- countries, was his great object, it seems almost invidious 
to notice that Mr. Stanley’s journey must take a minor 
place among African travels of exploration, adding little 
to our knowledge of the exact geography of the continent, 
The path which he traversed is for the most part a 
frequented caravan route, running parallel to, and occa- 
sionally touching, the lines passed over and described by 
Burton, Speke, and Grant. Without the basis given by 
the labours of these explorers, Mr. Stanley’s work would 
have had but small value, since he himself has not made 
a single observation of position or of elevation, and the 
compass-bearings contained in some parts of his book are 
not in any way checked for magnetic variation. Still, 
very considerable portions of Mr. Stanley’s route pass 
through lands hitherto untrodden by Europeans, some 
parts even unvisited by Arabs, and of these he is undoubt- 
edly the discoverer. 
Three frequented caravan routes lead from the coast 
near Bagamoyo towards Unyamyembe, and of these Mr. 
Stanley chose the most northerly and direct, the others 
having been traversed by Burton, and Spekeand Grant. In 
following this new line, Mr. Stanley has been able to mark 
out more clearly than the former travellers the separate 
basins of the Kingani and the Wami rivers of the coast- 
7 they seemed quite firm and fresh, they gave to analysis 
land ; and he points out the important fact that the latter 
might be navigated with ease by light-draught steamers 
for a distance of 200 miles inland from the port of Whinde 
at its mouth. 
At the base of a spur of the Rubeho mountains, the 
edge of the high plateau of Eastern Africa, the unexpected 
scene of a walled town presented itself. This was Sim- 
bamwenni, the capital of Useguhha, and the recently-built 
stronghold of an usurper, “another Theodore on a small 
scale”; “the houses in the town are eminently African ; 
the fortifications are on an Arabic-Persic model; well- 
built towers of stone guard each corner; four gates are 
facing each cardinal point, and, set half-way between the 
several towers, permit ingress and egress to the inha- 
bitants.” 
Beyond the mountains which face the coastland, Mr. 
Stanley’s route converged in the dry region of Ugogo to 
that of Burton and Speke, and hence to Unyanyembe he 
passed over their track. Arrived at Tabora in Unyan- 
yembe (the name Kazeh, applied to this capital by Burton, 
appears to be now unknown), Mr. Stanley found the whole 
country to westward overrun by the gangs of Mirambo, 
the turbulent chief of Ugoweh, a place some 60 miles 
north-west of Tabora. This chief sternly refused passage 
to the Arab traders unless they would aid him in a warfare 
he was about to wage against the Sultan of the Wanyam- 
ueziin Unyanyembe. After taking part in an ill-directed 
and unsuccessful attempt to dislodge the obstructive 
Mirambo, Stanley determined to strike out for himself a new 
path outside the disturbed region. In carrying out this 
resolve he led the way, in a semicircular track of more 
than 209 miles, through the forest countries of Utakama, 
Ukonongo, and Ukawendi, first south, then west and 
northward to where he again fell in with the ordinary 
trade route. The whole of the geography of this detour 
is new and interesting, and it forms the chief portion of 
the discoveries which are particularly Mr. Stanley’s own. 
The path chosen lay round the southern tributaries of 
the Malagarazi river, the largest known tributary of the 
Tanganyika, and along the water-parting between this 
basin and that of the Rungwa river farther south, which 
Mr. Stanley affirms to be also an influent of the lake, 
flowing through the marshy plain called Rikwa (the Rukwa 
lagoon of Burton and Speke). The direction of flow of 
the Rungwa is a most important point, since it had been 
suggested as probable that the Tanganyika might have 
its outflow through this marshy country to the Lufiji river 
on the east coast. This theory appears now to have no 
foundation. 
Passing over the arrival at Ujiji, and the most fortunate 
conclusion of Mr. Stanley’s direct mission in meeting the 
great traveller there, the next perfectly new portion of this 
journey is that in which Livingstone and Stanley together 
explore the head of the Tanganyika.* “ We found that the 
northern end of the lake was indented with seven broad 
bays.” “The fourth bay (at the head of which was the 
delta of the Rusizi), was about three miles in depth, 
and penetrated half a mile farther inland than any other,” 
“ Soundings indicated 6 ft., and the same depth was kept 
to within a few hundred yards of the principal mouth of 
the Rusizi.” ‘ We ascended about half a mile, the current 
being very strong (from six to eight miles an hour), and 
* Mr, Stanley prefers the spelling Tan-gan-ika, 
