March 17, 1887] 



NA TURE 



475 



Plan 



Rises 

 h. 



Souths 



Sets 



Decl. 



ridian 



Mercury ... 5 4S ... 12 13 ... 18 38 ... 4 10 N. 



Venus 6 51 ... 13 43 ... 20 35 ... 9 22 N. 



Mars 6 22 ... 12 38 ... 18 54 ... 2 27 N. 



Jupiter 21 iS* ... 2 22 ... 7 26 ... 11 42 S. 



Saturn 11 7 ... 19 16 ... 3 25* ... 22 30 N. 



* Indicates that the rising is that of the preceding evening and the setting 

 that of the following morning. 

 March h. 



20 ... 22 ... Sun in equator. 



22 ... 3 ... Mercury in inferior conjunction with the Sun. 



Near 55 Aurigx, R.A. 98°, Decl. 45° N. ; and on March 20, 

 near 9 Ursse Majoris, R.A. 145°, Decl. 48° N. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

 O.XFORDhas decided to establish a Readership in Geography ; 

 candidates are invited to apply. Cambridge has postponed 

 taking a similar step till 1888. While on this subject we may 

 slate that by a new Imperial ordinance geography has been 

 raised to an equal footing with the most important subjects 

 tatight in German middle-class schools — RealschuUn and 

 Gymnasicn. The programme for the e.\amination of teachers 

 desiring to make this one of their special subjects has been 

 issued. There are three grades, and the standard in each is 

 vcr)- high. 



According to advices received at Zanzibar from Uganda, 

 Dr. Junker's caravan safely reached Emin Pasha, who was in 

 good health. Intelligence has also been sent to Zanzibar that 

 five months ago Emin Pasha visited Uganda, but that King 

 M'wanga refused to allow him or his followers to pass througli 

 his territ'jry. Emin Pasha then attempted to make arrangements 

 for his passage through Karagwa, on the western shore of the 

 Victoria Nyanza, but failed in this also, and afterwards returned 

 to Wadelai, leaving a detachment of soldiers at Unyoro under 

 the command of Capt. Casati, Emin Pasha's sole European 

 companion. 



We learn on the best authority that Mr. Stanley, on his 

 arrival at Stanley Falls with the first contingent of his Expedi- 

 tion, about 250, will proceed at once to Emin Pasha, without 

 wai'ing forthe rest of his party. No doubt he will be reinforced 

 by some of Tipjioo's men, and in this way there will not be a 

 moment's delay. The main body will follow as soon as steamers 

 are able to land them all at Stanley Falls, but first a camp will 

 be established at some distance from the Falls as a base of 

 operations. Dr. Junker gave an account of his seven years' 

 exploring work, on February 26, to the Cairo Geographical 

 Society. His magnificent maps were shown, one of them 

 measuring 13 feet by 23 feet. Dr. Schweinfurth maintained the 

 absolute accuracy of Junker's maps in all respects. Junker then 

 gave a detailed account of his sojourn in the Niam-Niam 

 country. Here he found extensive fertile plains, veritable 

 savannahs, with grass over 3 feet high, and abundance of game. 

 He then passed on to his exploration of the Welle and the 



Mepoko, to within four days' journey o[ the Congo, concluding 

 by giving some interesting details of the effect of the Mahdi 

 revolt on these countries. 



The well-known African traveller, Dr. Zintgraft", who has 

 been commissioned by the German Government to explore the 

 Cameroon district, intends visiting the Cameroon Mountains. 

 As large quantities of caoutchouc are said to be obtained there, 

 Dr. Zmtgraff will be accompanied by an expert in that material. 



An official publication of the Colonial Office (African, No. 

 332) contains a great deal of original information regarding the 

 different districts and tribes of Sierra Leone and its vicinity. 



On Monday evening last a paper on " The Alpine Regions of 

 Alaska " was read by Lieut. H. Seton-Karr at a meeting of 

 the Royal Geographical Society. In the course of a description 

 of a visit to this territory last year, the reader expressed the 

 ojnnion that the St. Elias Alpine region offers one of the best 

 places for the study of glacial phenomena under the most power- 

 ful conditions. According to Dall, the American surveyor, 

 Mount St. Elias is 19,500 feet high. It is a mass of snow and 

 ice from base to summit, and has always been marked in modern 

 maps as exactly on the 141st meridian, which is the boundary 

 line. If the shore line was correctly charted, he found that the 

 summit was east of the meridian of longitude mentioned. It 

 was therefore in the British Empire. Describing the ascent of 

 the mountain, he stated that he pioceeded to a point which the 

 aneroid instruments gave as 7200 feet above the sea-level. There 

 remained in the Alpine regions of the North Pacific a wide field 

 fur explorers. Mounts CriUon, Fairweather, and La Perouse, 

 respectively 15,900, 15,500, and 11,300 feet high, were not quite 

 so striking as the one he described, but were much nearer to 

 civilised settlements. There is a large blank space upon the 

 map of Alaska, lying between Cook's Inlet and the great Yukon 

 River. It is as unknown as any of the unexplored regions on 

 the globe. 



A JOURNEY of considerable interest is now being carried out 

 in Central Asia by Mr. A. D. Carey, of the Bombay Civil 

 Service. Mr. Carey left India in May 1885, and marched 

 through I.adak into Northern Tibet (Changtan) as far as the 

 Mangtsa Lake, and then struck northward, descending on the 

 plain of Turkestan, near Kiria. He thus traversed over 300 

 miles of country which had never before been visited by a 

 European. The altitudes on this section of the journey were 

 always very great, the track running usually at about 16,000 

 feet above the sea, while one at least of the passes crossed was 

 calculated to reach 19,000 feet. After a stay at Kiria and 

 Khotan, the Khotan River was followed to its junction with the 

 Tarim ; the route then lay along the latter river to Sarik, and 

 then across a stretch of desert to Shah-Yarand Kuchar. 

 From the latter place the Tarim was folbwed down to a point 

 where it turns southward towards Lake Lob. From this point 

 the towns of Kurla and Karastaber were visited, and about the 

 end of the year the Tarim was struck again and tracked down 

 to Lake Lob. Thus the whole length of the Tarim has been 

 explored. The country along its banks is described as fiat and 

 reedy, and the people extremely poor and miserable. Mr. 

 Carey pitched his camp at the village of Chaklik, some distance 

 south of the lake, and close to the foot of the great range of 

 mountains which forms the northern scarp of the Tibetan high- 

 lands. On April 30, 1S86, Mr. Carey staited from this village 

 on a journey southward into Tibet, over a pass in the Altyn 

 Tagh Range, and onward by a track occasionally used by the 

 Kalmucks. Since this start nothing has been heard of Mr. 

 Carey, but it is presumed that after spending the summer and 

 autumn in travelling over the elevated region he has returned to 

 Turkestan to winter. 



The principal paper in the March number of Peter mannas 

 Milteilitiigen is a special study of the basin of the Cachapool 

 in the province of Santiago, Chili, by Dr. A. Plagemann. 

 There is also a short paper on the hydrography of Batanga 

 Land, by Herr P. Langhaus. From the notes we are glad to 

 learn that the Roumanian Government has adopted a plan for 

 the triangulation of that country, which will be the means of 

 filling up an important gap in the cartography of Europe. 

 Ergiinzungsheft No. 85 of Pctcimanus contains a detailed 

 account, with map and diagram, of Dr. Gustav Radde's journeys 

 in the Alpine region of Daghestan in the summer of 18S5. 



