354 



NA TURE 



\_Fcb. lo, 1887 



The new numberof -4 />/<r/ar:/;M contains, among other things, 

 a series of useful data, by Prof E. C. Pickering, on "The 

 Heights of the White Mountains," and a valualjle paper by Prof. 

 W. Morris Davis, on "Mountain Meteorology." 



It may interest both geographers and ethnologists to l<now 



, that in the current numbers of I.cs Missions Calholiques tlie 



Rev. Jules Rrunetli describes his recent journey up the River 



Maroni, in French Guiana, giving many details concerning the 



Negro population which is settled on its banks. 



The Austro Hungarian Expedition for the investigation of 

 Central Africa, which was organised last year by Count Samuel 

 Teleki, and reached Zanzibar last June, has left for the interior. 



A Germ.an Expedition to Brazil sailed from Bremerhafen on 

 January 25. The gentlemen are : Dr. Karl von den Steinen 

 and his cousin Wilhelm, Dr. P. Vogel (Uelfeldt), and Dr. 

 Ehrenreich (Berlin). Both Dr. K. von den Steinen and Dr. 

 Vogel took part in the German Polar Expedition to South 

 Georgia, and the former gcitleman and Dr. Clauss were with 

 the celebrated Expedition for the investigation of the Xingu 

 River in Central Brazil, while Dr. Ehrenreich was on a journey 

 in the Amazon district. 



The new number of tlie Atittlicihingcit of the Viennn Geo- 

 graphical Society contains Dr. Lenz's map of the Congo between 

 Stanley Falls and Kasonge, to the journey up which we referred 

 in a recent number of Natuke. The map gives much in- 

 formation as to the character of the country along the banks of 

 the river, and the people who inhabit them. As it is only six 

 months since Dr. Lenz arrived at Kasonge, one cannot Imt 

 remark the rapidity with which the journey between the coast 

 and the centre of Africa can now be made. As a matter of 

 fact, the London Missionary Society has a monthly mail between 

 Zanzibar and Lake Tanganyika, and letters from their mission- 

 aries on the west shire of that lake reach London in three 

 months. 



The same number contains the conclusion of Herr Baumann's 

 very valuable description of the country and people on the 

 Middle and Lower Congo ; a paper on the high lakes of the 

 Eastern .-Mps, by Dr. August Bohm ; and a coUectim of recent 

 statistics on the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 



Herr P. LANGH.iUS has been endeavouring to form an 

 estimate of the native population in the Cameroons territory 

 recently acquired by Germany. He confines himself to the 

 coast region between the Rio del Rey and the Rio Campo, and 

 gives 480,500 as the population on 26,000 square kilometres, 

 or only iS per square kilometre. The people mostly belong to the 

 north-west branch of the Bantu stock, and Herr Langhaus gives 

 some useful details as to their distribution and subdivision in the 

 Deutsche Rundschau for J anuary. 



A NEW exploration of the districts on the Upper Meikong, 

 inhabited by the Laos tribes subject to Siam, has at- 

 tracted considerable attention in Paris. Towards the 

 end of 1885, the Siamese Government found it necessary to 

 undertake an expedition against these tribes (the principal of 

 them being the Ho). An Italian officer, Capt. Pinson, who 

 was a military instructor in the Si.imese service, accompanied 

 the expedition, which ultimately arrived at Muen-Son, fourteen 

 days' march to the north-east of Luang- Prabang, in the centre 

 of a region wholly unknown to Europeans, for these Hos had 

 prevented Dr. Neis from completing his famous exploration 

 of the whole of the Laos States. The expedition, owing to 

 frontier conplications with Tonquin, was not a success, 

 and now M. Pinson has determined to explore the country 

 for himself, partly with the object of discovering commercial 

 routes along the Meikong into Yunnan and into Tonquin, both 

 starting from Luang-Prabang, and also for geographicil pur- 

 poses. He has arrived in Paris to lay the project before the 

 President of the Council and the various mercantile bodies. To 

 the former he has presented a memorial asking to toe despatched 

 on the mission by the French Government. In this document 

 he describes briefly the divisions of the Siamese Laos, the nature 

 of the soil, the commercial situation of Great Britain in Burmah 

 in regard to the Laos .States, the alternative trade routes for 

 Upper Laos — which he describes as by the Meinam to Bangkok 

 {which appears the natural route), by the Ho country into Ton- 

 quin, or by the Meikong — and other details. He expresses the 

 determination to return wilhoit delay to Luang-Prabang, and, 

 if aided by the French Government, (l) to penetrate into Yim- 



nan in order to study the peoples on the route and their com- 

 mercial wants, and (2) to explore and study in like manner the 

 two routes from the same town into Tonquin and Annam. The 

 projected exploration, it will be observed, is mainly through 

 unknown territory, Dr. Neis not having been able to penetrate 

 a large part of this region. 



In the last number of La Gazette Gctgraphiqiic M. Kalt- 

 brunner publishes an interesting article entitled " LTndicateur 

 Geograpliique. " He first gives statistics of the various Societies 

 for geography and the allied sciences in the world, .\ccording 

 to continents, the number of these is as follows : — Europe 91, 

 Africa 5, America 9, Asia 9, Australia 2, giving a total of 115. 

 France heads the list with 28, then comes Gerinany with 23, 

 then Italy with 8,, Switzerland with 7, Austria with 6, and Great 

 Britain with 4. The total number of periodicals treating of 

 geography as a principal or accessory subject is 263, of which 

 214 are published in Europe, 14 in Africa, 19 in America, 15 in 

 Asia, and i in Australia. France again heads the list with 79, 

 Germany has 42, Great Britain 18, Italy 13, Austria and the 

 United .States 11 each. Many other interesting details respect- 

 ing membership, amount of subscriptions, of Government assist- 

 ance, &c. , are given. In Great Britain, Germany, and France 

 the average subscriptions per member are 70, 35, and 15 francs 

 respectively. The writer complains that, notwithstanding the 

 great number of French Societies and publications, no one publi- 

 cation similar to Pctermaun in Germany and the Proceedings of 

 the Royal Geographical .Society in England exists. He proposes, 

 therefore, that a geographical indicator should be published con- 

 taining the title, place of publication, summary of contents, price, 

 and, where desirable, a critical review of all the geographical 

 journals, as well as of new books, maps, &c. The editor of La 

 Gazette Geographique promises to carry out the idea as far as 

 pos^ible by giving these details respecting; such of the publica- 

 tions as have reached his hands since the beginning of the New 

 Year. 



Dr. von Kt.oioEN recently published a list of 374 rivers, with 

 their lengths, and other data, in which he gave the Nile as the 

 longest river, with a length of 6470 kilometres, the Missouri- 

 Mississippi coming second with 5882 kilometres. General von 

 Tillo revises these estimates, and from more exact measure- 

 ments concludes that the Missouri-Mississippi is the longest river 

 in the world, with 6750 kilometres, the Nile coming next, with 

 6470 kilometres .as in Von Klbden's list. Other rivers given 

 both by Von Klbden and Tillo with the same measurements are 

 the Ta-Kiang, 5083 kilometres ; the Amazons, 4929 ; the 

 Yenisei-Selenga, 4750 ; the Amur, 4700 ; the Congo, 4640 ; 

 and the Mackenzie, 4615. In connection with this sub- 

 ject Petcrmann s Alitteilungen states that a new curvimeter 

 is being practically tested in Perthes's geographical establish- 

 ment ; if the results are satisfactory it will be of great service to 

 those who have much to do with maps. 



The Geographical Society of Mexico is about to resume the 

 publication of its proceedings, which has been interrupted since 

 1882. 



Coimos announces the forthcoming publication of an import- 

 ant work on the geography of the interior of Madagascar, by a 

 French Jesviit, Pere R iblet, who has explored the greater part of 

 the island. It will be accompanied by various topographical 

 maps, especially of the provinces of Imerina and Betsileo. 



At a recent meeting of the Geographical Society of 

 Paris, a note was read from M. Cervera, who is charged 

 by the M.adrid Geographical Society with a journey in Eastern 

 Africa, on his itinerary. M. Raffray, the Consul of France .at 

 Zanzibar, sent a report on the results of Dr. Junker's last journey. 

 M. Chiffanjon, writing from San Fernando, announced his 

 approaching departure for the exploration of the Orinoco ; and 

 Dr. Chervin read an interesting paper on the increase of the 

 populations of France and the principal States of Europe during 

 the present century. In France the urban population was only 

 24 per cent, of the total in 1S43, while now it is 35 per cent. 

 The writer referred to the very slow increase of the population 

 in France, although the aver.age mortality is less than in other 

 European countries. In some of the departments the population 

 is even less no* than it was in iSoi. He thought colonial ex- 

 tension was one of the most efficacious remedies for a state of 

 things "hich threatened to place France in a position of numeri- 

 cal inferiority towards other States. New colonies, he says, open 

 new fields to future generations. The process suggested, how- 

 ever, appears like that of putting the cart before the horse. 



