l82 



NATURE 



\Jan. 7, 1875 



coal-yielding rock of the above localities are of Mesozoic 

 age ; stating his reasons from the entire absence of Cala- 

 mites and Lepidodendrons, and from the presence of 

 Tsnioptera, Phyllotheca, and other forms intimately 

 related to those of the Mesozoic coal-beds of the oolitic 

 formations of Yorkshire, Europe, Richmond (America), 

 and India. That rocks of true Coal-measure age do occur 

 in Australia there is no doubt ; we cannot here discuss 

 the fragmentary and conflicting evidence of its presence 

 and distribution until more reliable data has been 

 collected. 



Plate 10 illustrates two species of star-fishes from the 

 Upper Silurian rocks, Pteraster and Urasterella, both of 

 the family UrasteridiB. M'Coy's Urasterella is the 

 Stenastcr of Billings and Palnjaster of Hall ; and to this 

 latter genus have been referred those forms of old star- 

 fishes having adambulacral, ambulacral, and marginal 

 plates on the arms, whereas Urasterella differs in only 

 having one row of plates on each side of the ambulacral 

 groove. The two forms figured in the decade are named 

 after the present mining and late geological directors of 

 the colony. U. selwynii appears to be the first fossil 

 star-fish found in Australia. These star-fishes, like many 

 other Australian fossils, are almost identical with our 

 British types. We know of no more remarkable fact in the 

 history and distribution of life than the affinity that seems 

 to exist between the forms of life over two areas so old 

 and so vastly removed as that of Britain and Australia, 

 antipodal to each other ; universality might almost be 

 applied through Honiotaxis to the geographical distribu- 

 tion of the several formations which comprise the periods 

 even stratigraphically and lithologically ; as well as the 

 existence in common of numerous genera, and with many 

 representative and soine even identical species between 

 the two countries. What difference in time there might 

 have been between the deposition of the sedimentary 

 materials and its accompanying life in our European or 

 the American area, with that of the Australian region, we 

 shall never know ; but the faunal relations were nearly 

 the same, and the then species must have had a far wider 

 distribution ^in space and time than we have hitherto 

 imagined or generally believed. 



This first Decade of Victorian Fossils will be studied 

 with much interest by British palaeontologists, firstly on 

 account of its being from the pen of the accomplished 

 Director of the National Museum of Melbourne, and 

 secondly on account of the valuable researches and 

 matter forwarded to us illustrating the pakeontology or 

 past life history of that remote region of the globe. 



LIVINGSTONE'S ''LAST JOURNALS"* 

 II. 

 The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central 

 Africa, from 1865^/0 Jiis Death. Continued by a 

 Narrative j)f his last moments and sufferings, obtained 

 from his faithful servants, Chuma and Siisi. By 

 Horace Waller, F.R.G.S., Rector of Twywell, North- 

 ampton. In two vols. With portrait, maps, and illus- 

 trations. (London : John Murray, 1874.) 

 '■"P'HE Loangwa was crossed on December 15, and 

 -L on Christmas Day Livingstone lost his four goats, 

 a loss which he felt very keenly ; " for, whatever kind 



* Coutiluied from p. Ms- 



of food we had, a little milk made all right, and I 

 felt strong and well, but coarse food, hard of diges- 

 tion, without it, was very trying." Indeed, after this 

 Livingstone suftered much from scarcity of food, and 

 became greatly emaciated and weakened ; and to in- 

 tensely aggravate this, through the weakness of a boy 

 and the knavery of a runaway slave, the medicine chest 

 was stolen on January 20, 1867, a loss which was utterly 

 irretrievable. " I felt," he sadly says, "as if I had now 

 received the sentence of death, hke poor Bishop 

 Mackenzie." Fever came upon him shortly after, and for a 

 time became his almost constant companion ; this, with 

 the fearful dysentery and dreadful ulcers and other 

 ailments which subsequently attacked him, and which he 

 had no medicine to counteract, no doubt told fatally on 

 even his iron frame, and made it in the end succumb to 

 what he might otherwise have passed through with 

 safety. 



The Chambezi, whose course into Bangweolo Living- 

 stone has finally determined, was crossed on January 28. 

 While detained for about three weeks at the village of 

 Chitapangvva, a somewhat alale and on the whole well- 

 meaning chief, he sent off a packet of letters and 

 despatches with some Arab slaves ; these reached Eng- 

 land in safety. He also sent forward a small supply of 

 provisions to Ujiji. At last the southern shore of Tan- 

 ganyika (or Lake Liemba, as the south part is called) was 

 reached on March 31. By this time Livingstone was so 

 weak, he could not walk without tottering. At the village 

 of Chitimba, some distance west of the end of the lake, 

 he was detained for upwards of three months, on ac- 

 count of a quarrel between a chief, Nsami, and the 

 Arab Kamees, whom Livingstone found here with a 

 slaving party, and who showed the traveller much kind- 

 ness. On Aug. 30, difficulties having been adjusted, 

 Livingstone proceeded westwards, and on Nov. 8 came 

 upon the north end of Lake Moero, " a lake of goodly 

 size, flanked by ranges of mountains on the east and west. 

 Its banks are of coarse sand, and slope gradually down 

 to the water ; outside these banks stands a thick belt of 

 tropical vegetation, in which fishermen build their huts. 

 The country called Rua lies on the west, and is seen as a 

 lofty range of dark mountains." 



Proceeding southwards, Cazcmbc's, on Lake Mofwe, a 

 lakelet a little south of Moero, was reached in a few days. 

 The name of Cazembe is already known in connection 

 with the journey, in the end of last century, of Dr. 

 Lacerda, who died and was buried not far from the pre- 

 sent village. This Cazembe (he was killed shortly after 

 Livingstone's visit) was the tenth from the founder of the 

 dynasty, who came from Lunda, and conquered the then 

 reigning chief, usurping the chiefship. Cazembe treated 

 Livingstone on the whole handsomely. The traveller re- 

 mained at his village about a inonth, when he again went 

 to the north of Lake Moero, and visited the Lualaba, the 

 river which, rising in Lake Bangweolo as the Luapula, 

 and of which the Chambezi may be considered the 

 beginning, stretches away northwards and westwards 

 through Lake Kamolondo, and again north\\ards, to what 

 termination is not yet known. Livingstone had a firm 

 belief that it was the upper part of the Nile, though 

 appearances would seem to suggest that it mor? probably 

 juins the Congo. There is every likelihood that Lieut. 



