Oct. 7, 1886] 
NATURE 
So 
with Europeans since the end of the sixteenth century. M. 
Hamy referred in detail to the manners and industry of this 
people. (4) This is a slightly heterogeneous group, consisting of 
the Obambas, Ondumbas, &c., who live in the neighbourhood 
of Franceville. In conclusion the speaker referred to the 
interest of ethnological research in relation to the movements 
of peoples on the earth’s surface. Here, he said, ethnography 
is especially bound up with geography. 
THE Portuguese explorers, Col. Serpa-Pinto and Lieut. 
Cardoza (according to the Colonies and India) recently left the 
Cape Colony for Lisbon. These gentlemen have accomplished 
a most important scientific exploration in the Lakes region. 
Leaving Mozambique, they proceeded by land to Ibo, correcting 
many errors that had crept into the charts. From Ibo they 
advanced to Nyassa at the head of an Expedition 800 men 
strong, making as they went a geodetical triangulation of the 
country, using instruments of great precision. Col. Pinto, in 
consequence of a dangerous attack of illness, was obliged to 
leave the Expedition in Mebe’s country, of which he had made a 
geological survey, occupying a long time. Lieut. Cardoza, 
who had been blind for fifty days, happily recovered his 
sight in time to take the command of the Expedition, con- 
tinuing the work to Nyassa, from whence he went to Shirva 
and Blantyre, and by a new road to Quilimane. The whole 
party suffered from hunger on the way; all the dozs died of 
starvation, and the men narrowly escaped the same fate. The 
Expedition was accompanied by 200 Zulus, who rendered splen- 
did services, being conspicuous for their courage and devotion, 
Besides their scientific work, the first of the kind done in that 
part of Africa, the leaders of the Expedition extended the Por- 
tuguese dominion over all the important chiefs visited during 
the journey, lasting twenty months. Everywhere the Expedition 
was heartily welcomed by the natives, the only place where the 
Mission was not cordially received being, it is said, the Blantyre 
Mission Station. 
THE September issue of the Scottish Geographical Magazine 
contains a paper by Prof. Meiklejohn on the history, poetry, 
&c., in geographical names. Mr. Murray, of the Challenger 
Expedition, reviews the existing state of our knowledge 
of the Antarctic regions @ propos of the project for exploring 
them. The Council have unanimously resolved to support any 
movement having for its object the careful exploration of the 
Antarctic regions, ‘‘as being certain to result in large and im- 
portant accessions to our knowledge in geography, oceanography, 
meteorology, and other branches of physical science.” They 
think the expedition should be undertaken at Government 
expense, but the co-operation of Australasian Governments 
might be invited. They suggest a conference of delegates of the 
leading scientific Societies to draw up a memorial to the Govern- 
ment on the subject. 
ACCORDING to the latest intelligence received at Zanzibar 
from the interior of Africa, Dr. Wilhelm Junker, the African 
traveller, was at Msalala, south of the Victoria Nyanza, and was 
about to start for Zanzibar. Emin Bey was still at Wadely, and 
was in urgent need of supplies of ammunition and stores. The 
King of Uganda had murdered all the English and French con- 
verts, and the missionaries were in great danger and had asked 
for assistance. 
Pror. BLUMENTRITT contributes to the last number of 
Globus (vol. 1. No, 14) an interesting article on the Manguians 
of the island of Mindoro, in the Philippines, based on a Spanish 
work by Don Morera on the geography and natural history of 
that archipelago. Next to Luzon and Mindanao, Mindoro 
contains the greatest number of wild tribes. Those which live 
on the coast and along the banks of the rivers are known under 
the general name of Manguians, while the Bangot inhabit the 
plateaus, and the Buquil and Beribi have their villages amongst 
the high mountains of the interior, but these names vary greatly 
in different parts of the island. They exhibit a mixture of 
various races. Besides the Malay:, there is Negrito blood in 
the Buquils, and in some places traces of Chinese descent also, 
Prof. Blumentritt confines himself to describing the manners, 
customs, dress, &c., of the Manguians. Incidentally, however, 
the paper tends to show the enormous complication and difficulty 
of ethnological questions relating to the Philippine Islands. The 
constant mingling of different races from China, Malaya, and 
parts of Melanesia and Polynesia has created a mixture of which 
the component parts are almost undiscernible. The vast variety 
of names given to tribes, which rarely mark any ethnical dis- 
tinction, and which sometimes are given to the members of the 
same tribe, add to the confusion. 
NOTES ON VESUVIUS FROM FEBRUARY 4 
TO AUGUST 7, 1886 
[* NaTuRE (vol. xxxiii. p. 367) I gave a description of the 
changes that had taken place in Vesuvius during the pre- 
ceding months, and of the eruption of February 4. The lava 
that issued on that occasion continued to flow in abundance 
until the rrth, forming a brilliant streak on the northern slope 
of the cone. After that date the output of fused rock varied 
at intervals till about the end of the third week in March, 
when the outflow stopped. 
On April 21, at about 5 p.m., lava rose from that portion of 
the fissure crossing the great crater plain on its south side, and 
which was the one by which the eruption of May 2, 1885, had taken 
place. The quantity that oozed out was comparatively small, 
and sufficed only to flow down the side of the great cone for 
about 100 metres, so as to just cover the point of exit of the 
lava that had issued from the same fissure in the spring of 
1885. The new lava piled itself up into a kind of boss, and 
thus soon plugged its own passage. 
A few days after, that is, on April 27, a new outburst oc- 
curred, again at a weak point—the upper limit of the fissure of 
1881-82, above the buttress of lava formed subsequent upon 
that eruption. This was sufficient to carry off the overflow for 
some weeks. Slight variations, such as are constantly going on, 
were observable in the activity of Vesuvius and the outflow of 
its lava during the whole of the month of May. During the 
eruption of Etna, Vesuvius did not show the slightest sympathy 
—just what we should expect when our conception of a lateral 
outburst is that it is simply a mechanical result of changes that 
proceed in the upper part of the volcanic chimney, and usually 
of the mountain itself. 
During the month of June the outflow of lava on the eastern 
side persisted, adding to the great boss, hump, or buttress 
formed during the years subsequent to the eruption of 1881-82. 
Owing to the height of the lateral outlet, and probably also from 
its narrowness, the level of the lava column in the chimney was 
very high, and, as a consequence, the numerous pasty lava-cakes 
added much to the size of the eruptive cone, which grew so 
rapidly during the month as to cover all the old remnants of 
crater-rings except a small portion of the northern rim of that 
of 1881-82. On June 29, when I visited the crater, I found a 
long continuous fissure extending right across the great crater 
plain in a westerly direction, and emitting an abundance of hot 
air, HCl, with vapour of chlorides, which were deposited in 
feathery bunches on the cooler edges of the fissure. This fissure 
no doubt corresponds to the upper limit of a radial dyke, as did 
the one existing for many months previous to the eruption of 
May 2, 1886, and probably does, like that one, indicate the 
direction of an eruption at some future time. When such an 
eruption takes place it will be unpleasant for the funicular rail- 
way, which, although a little south of the line of fissure, would 
be within reach of the outburst. In the above-mentioned visit 
it was possible to watch the eruptive mouth for some time from 
the edge of the cone of eruption, and to take an instantaneous 
photograph of it amidst an exciting bombardment of stones, not 
dangerous for one’s self, but unfavourable to an inactive photo- 
graphic camera. Unfortunately an accident happened to the 
negative, but I have siuce been successful in obtaining a per- 
manent record of the eruptive mouth, though hardly such a 
successful picture. The diameter of the main vent was about 
3 or 4 metres, and nearly circular. 
The crater was again visited on June 5, but no marked change 
had taken place, and lava was always issuing on the east side 
and flowing first to one side and then to the other, always 
adding to the great buttress. 
The cone of eruption, owing to its great increase of size 
during the last thirteen months, formed a very conspicuous 
mound, perched as it were on the flattened summit or crater 
plain of 1872, which truncates the great cone of Vesuvius. On 
June 28 it was observable from Naples that the cone was falling 
in, and the spine or boss forming the northern boundary of the 
crater of eruption had in part disappeared, and owing to the 
plugging of the passage the smoke only escaped in puffs. This 
crumbling in of the crater walls was no doubt due to the loss of 
