248 
NATURE 
[Fuly 15, 1886 
on a journey of exploration into Upper Assam, and the regions 
lying between this and Burmah. 
THE latest official information concerning Dr. Wilhelm 
Junker, the African traveller, comes from Zanzibar. It reports 
that while he was staying with the Kinz of Unyoro, the latter 
was attacked and defeated by the King of Uganda. The King 
of Unyoro and Dr. Junker succeeded, however, in making their 
escape. Dr. Junker lost all his collections, but saved his 
journals. 
AT the March meeting of the Geographical Society of Stock- 
holm it was decided not to distribute the Vega medal—the 
greatest honour the Society can confer—this year. (Only 
three travellers have as yet received it, viz. Nordenskjold, 
Pallander, and Stanley. ‘The Vega fund was awarded to Dr. 
F. Svenonius, for explorations in the Lapland highlands during 
the summer. 
A RECENT number of the Verhandlungen of the Berlin 
Geographical Society (Band xiii. No. 5), contains an important 
paper on Corea, by Dr. Gottsche, who travelled widely over the 
peninsula on behalf of the Japanese Government. During two 
journeys he traversed all the eight provinces of the country, and 
visited 80 of the 350 district towns. The general features are 
already tolerably well known to English students from Mr. 
Carles’s reports laid before Parliament, and his paper in the 
Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, but as Dr. 
Gottsche is a geologist, and travelled specially for scientific 
observation, he supplements Mr. Carles’s papers in this direc- 
tion. ‘The climate, he shows by meteorological tables, lies be- 
tween that of Japan and of North China, while in the North the 
climate in winter is of almost Siberian rigour. As for the 
geological formation, granite, gneiss, and_ crystalline schists 
play a predominant part. Here and there these are broken by 
the older volcanic formations, as diabase and quartz porphyry ; 
palceozoic strata occur rarely, and the later sedimentary forma- 
tions not at all. Active volcanoes do not exist on the mainland, 
and earthquakes have been unknown within the memory of 
man. The only metal in which Corea is rich is iron ; the belief 
that gold abounds is a delusion. The fauna is rich, and of much 
interest, for palzarctic and sub-tropical types meet here. With 
regard to the flora, unfortunately a large portion of Dr. Gottsches’ 
collection was lost, and the remainder was handed to Dr. Engler 
of Breslau for examination and report. In conclusion, he says 
that though Corea may never be popular with the ordinary 
traveller for pleasure, it will well repay the visitor on scientific 
objects intent. Prof. Enting, who travelled in the interior of 
Arabia in 1883-84 on an antiquarian mission, especially in 
search of inscriptions, gives a long and comprehensive account 
of the regions through which he went. 
THE new number (Heft ii. Bd. 9) of the Deutsche Geo- 
waphische Blatter, the organ of the Geographical Society of 
Bremen, contains the conclusion of Dr. Oppel’s paper on the 
Congo basin. The present instalment refers to the explorations 
of past years, the lower, central, and upper Congo region, north 
and south of the stream, the climate, meteorology, botany, 
-zoology, ethnography, &c. It will thus appear that the paper is 
an encyclopedic one on the great West African river. The 
next paper is a continuatioa of Herr Valdau’s account of his 
journey to the north of the Cameroons, especially around Lake 
Mbu, and between that and Balundu, and the coast. 
Steinvorth gives a most interesting account of a little Slav 
c lony or oasis in Hanover called the Hanoverian Wendtland, 
where the people down to this day have in great part preserved 
their original speech, customs, and other peculiarities. 
writer describes all these in some detail, and comes to the 
natural conclusion that here we have not a pure Wendt people, 
but one largely mixed with Germans, and thinks, after dis- 
cus-ing the peculiarities of the dialect spoken, that this colony 
is worthy of the attention of the student of comparative language. 
This is followed by a general article (which is anonymous) on 
the new Chilian province of Tarapaca, dealing especially with 
the silver mines and saltpetre industry. Herr Seelstrang sup- 
plies a paper of more direct geographical interest on the region 
about the source of the Rio Chubut, hitherto one of the least- 
known parts of the Argentine Republic. The rest of the number 
(which is of considerabie size) is occupied by geographical 
intelligence, reviews of books, &c. 
In the Boéletino of the Italian Geographical Society for May, 
Signor Sommier describes the excursion which he made with 
Herr | 
The | 
Signor G. Cini to Cape North in January 1885. Some interest 
attaches to this journey, which is the first made across Lapland 
and Finland in midwinter for purely scientific purposes. The 
travellers proceeded by train from Christiania to Throndhjem, 
and thence by steamer in darkness and storm to Hammerfest and 
Skarsvaag, in the island of Mager, the northernmost group of 
habitations in Europe, and the nearest permanent settlement to 
Cape North. Here they received a friendly welcome from the 
Jocal ‘* Landelsmand,” and reached the goal of the expedition 
on foot with much greater ease than had been anticipated. The 
weather was unusually calm and mild, with a temperature of 
only —2°C. At some points the evergreen lichens and other 
growths (Betula nana, Empetrum nigrum, Diapensia lapponica, 
&c.) were visible through some centimetres of transparent ice 
| clothing the surrounding rocks. The only animals seen, besides 
the eider and other water-fowl, were the raven, crow, magpie, 
Arctic fox, and frankoline, the latter (Lagopus mutus) everywhere 
present in large numbers. Several photographs were taken, and 
after a stay of eleven days in the neighbourhood, during which 
the glass never fell below — 16° C., the travellers returned by 
water to Hammerfest and Bossekop, at the head of the Alter 
fjord. Thence the route was continued overland under great 
hardships — eastwards to Lake Enare, southwards through 
Kittila to Haparanda, and round the west side of the Gulf of 
Bothnia to Sundsvall, whence Stockh»lm was reached by train. 
At Karasjok, on the road between Bossekop and Enare, the 
travellers made the acquaintance of the same Lapp family that 
visited London last year, and much valuable information was 
| collected on the Lapps, Quans, and northern Finns, This 
forms the subject of two communications sent by Stephen 
| Sommier to the Archivio per [ Antropologia el Etnologia (xvi., I, 
1886), and separately printed under the title of ‘*‘ The Lapps and 
Northern Finns.” ‘Che account of the trip to Cape North has 
| also been issued in separate form by the Italian Geographical 
Society (Rome, 1886). 
THE LUNAR SURFACE AND ITS 
TEMPERATURE 
As MONOGRAPIHL by the writer, relating to the temperature 
of the lunar surface, read before the American Academy 
of Science, September 1869, contained the following :—‘‘ Are 
we not forced to dissent from Sir John Herschel’s opinion that 
the heat of the moon’s surface, when presented to the sun, 
much exceeds that of boiling water? Raised to such a high 
temperature, our satellite, with its feeble attraction, could not 
possibly be without an envelope of gases of some kind. Indeed, 
nothing but the assumption of extreme cold offers a satisfactory 
explanation of the absence of any gaseous envelope round a 
planetary body, which, on account of its near proximity, cannot 
vary very much from the earth as regards its composition, The 
supposition that this neighbouring body is devoid of water, dried 
| up and sunburnt, will assuredly prove one of the greatest mis- 
takes ever committed by physicists.” This assertion was based 
on demonstrations showing that the circular walls of the great 
| “ying mountains” on the lunar surface are not, as supposed, 
composed of ‘‘ mineral substances originally in a state of fusion.” 
The height and diameter of these walls being recorded in ‘* Der 
Mond,” computations based on the safe assumption that the areas 
of their transverse sections cannot be less than the square of their 
height, establishes the important fact that the contents of the 
| wall of, for instance, Tycho, the circumference of which is 160 
miles, height 2°94 miles, amounts to 2°94 x 160 = 1382 cubic 
| miles. The supposed transfer of this enormous mass, in a 
molten state, a distance of 25 miles from the central vent ima- 
gined by Nasmyth, and its exact circular distribution at the 
stated distance, besides its elevation to a vertical height of nearly 
3 miles, involve, I need not point out, numerous physical im- 
possibilities. 
to have produced the “fring mountains” must consequently be 
sought in explanation of their formation. A rigid application 
of pbysical and mechanical principles to the solution of the 
problem proves conclusively that water subjected successively to 
' the action of heat and cold has produced the circular walls of 
Tycho. The supposition that these stupendous mounds consist 
of volcanic materials must accordingly be rejected, and the 
assumption admitted that they are inert glaciers which have 
become as permanent as granite mountains by the action of 
perpetual intense cold. 
Other materials and agencies than those supposed _ 
