I82 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 



1 836 



OcciiUation of Slav by the Moon (visible at Greenwich) 



Corresponding 

 Dec, Star Mag. Disap. Reap. ^nslffromver- 



^ V V tg^ jQ right for 



inverted image 

 h. m. h. m. o o 



2S ... 29 Capricorni ... 6 ... iS 31 ... 19 34 ... 159 307 

 Dec, h. 



27 ■•■ '9 ■•■ Mais in conjunction with and 3° 29' south 

 of the Moon. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

 Several recent German geographical periodicals refer to a 

 paper read by Prof. Kan, of Amsterdam, before the Section for 

 Geography and Ethnology at the fifty-ninth Congress of German 

 Physicians and Men of Science at Berlin in September, urging 

 on German explorers the necessity of undertaking a geographi- 

 cal and geological e.xploration of the Moluccas. He said that, 

 although Europeans had settled in the islands for centuries, our 

 knowledge of the orohydrography, especially of the physic.1l 

 features of the archipelago, was exceedingly small. Excellent 

 charts exist in abundance, and travellers, English and German, 

 have subsequently visited it ; but they were neither geogi-aphers 

 nor geologists, but as a rule stvidied only the fauna and flora. 

 The Dutch Government has done nothing as yet in reference to 

 the geography of the Moluccas, because it has turned all ils 

 energies to procuring good maps of the more extensive Sunda 

 Archipelago. Java has been triangulated and suri'eyed ; there 

 are excellent charts of the coast of Sumatra, and the triangula- 

 tion of this great island has also been commenced, and, in late 

 years, maps of jiarts of Celebes and Borneo have been produced. 

 In geology, those islands of the Sunda Archipelago which con- 

 tain useful minerals have been studied, and excellent geological 

 maps of Sumatra, Banka, Billiton, South-East and North-West 

 Borneo have appeared. In addition, the Government places 

 annually at the disposal of the Geographical Society of Amster- 

 dam io,ooo florins, which. Prof. Kan hoped, would next year 

 be applied to the exploration of the Aru Islands. On the 

 whole, therefore, the Dutch authorities are not lax in surveying 

 and mapping their possessions in the East. Besides the Moluc° 

 cas, Flores and Timor still offer a virgin field to the explorer, 

 and Prof. Kan hinted that the traveller who undertook the work 

 would not lack pecuniary or other help in Holland. 



The last number of Peteymanii's Millcilun^en contains th- 

 conclusion of Lieut, von Fran9ois's account of his journey in the 

 Southern Congo basin, the present instalment beinj; mainly 

 occupied with climatology and detailed hydrographical observa- 

 tions. Dr. Philippi also concludes the very interesting paper, 

 to which we have already referred, on the changes wrought by 

 man in the flora of Chili. It contains systematic tables of the 

 plants introduced into Chili, and which it now has in common 

 with Europe. Dr. Emit Jung continues his examination of the 

 last census returns of India, the special subject in this number 

 being the effect of the last famine on the movement of the popu- 

 lation. There is, further, a brief review of the new edition of 

 Berghaus's " Physical Atlas," and notes on an excellent map of 

 the Dobrudja, which is appended. 



We have also received the last supplementary number (No. 

 84) of the Mitti-ilungcn. It deals with the economical geo- 

 graphy of the whole of North America, and is really the first 

 number of a series called Anhiv fur Wistschaftsgcographie. It 

 treats of agriculture, forestry, mining, industry, trade, shipping, 

 &c. '^ 



At the last meeting of the Paris Geographical Society (No- 

 vember 19), M. Hansen-Blan^sted read a communication on the 

 physical appearance of Denmark in the middle of the eleventh 

 century, as compared with the present time. M. Venukoff 

 referred to the results of M. Nikolsky's studies last year of the 

 ]3hysical geography of Asiatic Russia, especially the gradual 

 drying up of Lake Balkash. The level of the lake is lowered 

 by about I metre every fourteen or fifteen years. Two letters 

 addressed to the Ministry of Public Instruction by M. 

 Chafianjon eii route for the Upper Orinoco, were read, one 

 from Ciudad Bolivar, the second, dated August iS, from 

 Caicara. An interesting communication was read with regard 

 10 the last resting-place of Tavernier, the celebrated French 

 traveller, who died in 16S9. It was long unknown vvliere he 

 was buried, but it has at last been discovered to be the Pro- 



testant cemetery at Moscow. The question of the best method 

 of permanently marking the grave \^'as referred by the Society 

 to a Committee. Capt. Longbois read a humorous account of a 

 journey to Choa, which had for its object the exploration of the 

 Awash and its basin. 



The current number of the Bo'eliii of the Madrid Geo- 

 graphical Society contains an interesting account of Don Manuel 

 Iradier's recent explorations in the newly-acquired Spanish terri- 

 tory on the west coast of Africa. The enterprising explorer paid 

 two visits to this region— first in 1875-77, and again in 1S84-S5, 

 during which he traversed 40:0 miles between the equator and 

 3° N. lat., penetrating from the sea-board into the interior as far 

 as about 20° E. long., and surveying to their sources all the 

 coast streams between the Rio-del-Campo and the Gaboon. By 

 far the largest of these rivers is the Muni, which enters the 

 Atlantic in Corisco Bay, after receiving the contributions of the 

 Utamboni, Noya, and other considerable aflluentson both sides, 

 and draining an area of nearly 6000 square miles between the 

 Gaboon and the Rio San Benito. The whole of this river-basin 

 is now Spanish territory, the protectorate having been every- 

 where accepted by the chiefs of the local tribes, who are col- 

 lectively known as Vengas, and belong in type and speech to 

 the Bantu family. 



The same Boletin reports the arrival in IJsbon of Major 

 Serpa Pinto and Lieut. Augusto Cardoso, leaders of the Portu- 

 guese Expedition which has just completed the exploration of 

 the region between Mozambique and Lake Nyassa. Starting 

 from Ibo, south of Cape Delgado, the exi:ilorers advanced to 

 the Mutepuezi River, and thence to Medo, where, Serpa Pinto 

 falling ill, Cardoso took the lead. After traversing the 

 Metarica district, the Lienda, an affluent of the Rovuma, 

 was followed for some days, and fnind not to rise in Lake 

 Nmaramba, but to flow through that lacustrine basin from 

 Mount Songe, further to the west. From this point Lake 

 Nyassa wa; reached in the Ki-Rassia district, whence the 

 explorers proceeded by the familiar route down the Shire to 

 the Zambesi, and so on to Quilimane, on the coast. Being 

 provided with excellent instruments, the explorers were able to 

 take a very large number of astronomical and meteirological 

 observations in a region now for the first time systematically 

 surveyed. 



The prospectus has been issued in Vienna of a new geogra- 

 phical periodical to be called Gcographische Abhandltingen ; the 

 editor is Prof. Penck, of the Vienna University, and Herr 

 Holzel is the publisher. It is not intended to compete with any 

 existing geographical publications, but rather to supplement 

 them. Each number will be complete in itself; compilations 

 will be wholly excluded, and although a certain number will 

 appear in the course of a year, the dates will not be fixed before- 

 hand, in order to leave the writers as unfettered as possible. The 

 three numbers promised are on the glaciation of the .Salzach 

 district, the orometry of the Black Forest, and the arrangement 

 or distribution of the Eastern Alps, by Drs. Briickner, Neu- 

 mann, and Bbhm respectively. 



ON SOME FURTHER EVIDENCES OF GLACIA- 

 TION IN THE AUSTRALIAN ALPS'^ 

 C INCE my announcement of the discovery of glacier evidences 

 "-^ in the Mitta Mitta Valley ("On the Meteorology of the 

 Australian Alps," Trans. Roy. Soc. J'ict., 1884, p. 23), and 

 Dr. von Lendenfeld's subsequent discovery of traces of ancient 

 glaciers on Mount Kosciusko ("On the Glacial Period in Austra- 

 lia," Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. IK, 1885, p. 45), an interesting 

 controversy has arisen respecting the nature and extent of such 

 glaciation. Having recently undertaken an exploration of Mount 

 Bogong, the highest mountain in Victoria, in company with 

 Dr. von Lendenfeld, for the purpose of discovering further 

 glacier evidences, and so aiding a solution of this important 

 question, I have much pleasure in submitting the following re- 

 marks on the results of that expedition. It may be of interest 

 to review my connection with the controversy as a student of 

 physiography resident in the central part of the Australian Alps. 

 During 1SS0-S3, when studying the fiora of the Australian Alps 

 and collecting herbarium specimens for our venerable Nestor of 

 botanic science, Baron von Mueller, it appeared to me that the 

 date of the introduction of the endemic_/?(7/'«/« of the Australian 



' Paper read at the Linnean Society of New South Wales, on May 

 26, 1SS6, by James Stirling, F.G.S., F.L S. 



