May 13, 1880] 



NATURE 



41 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



' It is a great relief to learn that a letter has been received at 

 St. Petersburg through Pekin from Col. Prejevalsky, dated from 

 the town of Si-Ning, March 20, announcing that the expedition 

 under his command is safe. He left the Nan Shian mountains 

 in July, and entered Thibet through Shaidash. His party were 

 attacked by Tanguts, of whom they killed four and put the 

 remainder to flight. The Thibetian troops stopped the progress 

 of the expedition 250 versts from Hlassa, and a messenger from 

 the Grand Lama of Thibet brought the refusal of the Thibetian 

 authorities to allow the Russians to proceed. The latter were, 

 therefore, obliged to return, which they did with some difficulty 

 through Northern Thibet, wintering at a height of 16,000 feet 

 above the level of the sea. Col. Prejevalsky expects to reach 

 Kiakhta in August by way of Alashan Urgu. 



At the meeting of the Geographical Society on Monday last, 

 Mr. Everard F.1m Thurn, late of the Georgetown Museum, 

 read a paper nominally descriptive of one of his journeys into 

 the interior of British Guiana, but which also furnished much 

 interesting information about that country generally. Mr. im 

 Thurn first gave an account of the four tracts, parallel to the 

 sea-coast, into which British Guiana may be divided, and after- 

 wards of his journey up the Essequibo to the Savannah tract, 

 over which he passed into Brazilian territory. At the Warraputa 

 Cataracts he saw for the first time the rock-pictures which form 

 so strange an addition to the landscape in parts not only of 

 South, but of North America. The figures represent men, 

 monkeys, snakes, &c., and are on a small scale. These pictures 

 in Guiana are not of one kind, some being cut deeply into the 

 rock, while others are merely scratched on the surface. Mr. im 

 Thurn speaks well of the climate of British Guiana away from 

 the coast, the chief .drawbacks in the interior being fever, not of 

 a dangerous kind, diarrhoea, and ophthalmia, the germs of the 

 last being probably conveyed by the countless small flies with 

 which the country is infested. His allusions to the flora of the 

 region were particularly interesting, and from a remark which he 

 made we are glad to believe that we shall have a book from his 

 pen before long on this little understood colony. Mr. Flint, 

 who had been ^Ir. im Thurn's companion, afterwards gave a 

 brief description of an expedition he had made to the Roraima 

 Mountain on the A\e»tern frontier of British Guiana, He does 

 not believe in the reported inaccessibility of this wonderful 

 mountain, and roundly asserted that no serious attempt had yet 

 been made to ascend it, previous travellers not having approached 

 within a considerable distance of its base. 



Mr. Douglas W. Freshfield, writing to the Times, sta'.es 

 that further letters have been received from Mr. E. Whymper, 

 announcing his ascent of Pichincha and his meeting with M. 

 Wiener, who is about to explore the Napo country. P'uller and 

 more formal accounts of Mr. Whymper's exploits have been 

 received, but by his request they will not be made public until 

 after his return in June. 



In continuation of our note (Nature, vol. xxi. p, 526) on 

 Mr. Easton's journey in the extreme north-west of China, we 

 learn from a furtlier instalment of his diary some additional par- 

 ticulars respecting his travels. After leaving Shunhwa-ting on 

 the upper waters of the Yellow River, he intersected at right 

 angles the longitudinal range of mountains that runs along the 

 north bank, and after a hard cliiab of fifteen miles he reached 

 Ba-rung, a small mud-walled town under the jurisdiction of 

 Sining. The hills are of mud, and landslips have split them in 

 all directions; they are uncultivated, and scarcely a blade of 

 grass is to be seen. An extensive view was obtained from the 

 top, and far away on the western horizon were seen snow-capped 

 peaks of high mountains. Sining-fu, where -Cok Prejevalsky is 

 believed to have fixed his head-quarters for the present, was 

 afterwards vi-ited, and this city is described as "rather large 

 and oljlong, but really a very shabby place ; " it is stated to be 

 400 miles distant from Tsinchow-fu, the head-quarters of the 

 China Inlan 1 Mission in the interior of the Kansu province. On 

 his return to that place from Sining, Mr. Easton crossed the 

 Velio iv River near SinchC-ng, about ico miles from Sining, and 

 he describes its width at that point as about 100 yai-ds, but 

 further down it widens to about 150 yards. The river winds 

 very much, and abounds in rapids. 



Where at one time, says the Eureka Leader, was Ruby 

 Lake, there is at present not a drop of water. This sheet of 

 water, seven or eight years ago, was from eighteen to twenty 



miles in length, and varied in breadth from half a mile to two or 

 three miles, and was in a number of places very deep. It was 

 fed by numberless springs along the foot of Ruby Mountain, and 

 was the largest body of water in Eastern Nevada. For a num- 

 ber of years past it has been gradually drying up, until at last it 

 has entirely disappeared. What has been the cause of this is a 

 mystery. The Ruby range of mountains is considered the largest 

 and finest between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas, and 

 besides being well wooded, has been the best-watered range of 

 mountains in Nevada. 



A PARTY of United States engineers has recently taken 

 soundings of the Niagara River below the falls. It was a work 

 of great difficulty to approach the falls in a small boat. Great 

 jets of water were thrown out from the falls far into the stream, 

 and the roar was so terrible that no other sound could be heard. 

 The leadsman cast the line, which gave 83 feet. This was near 

 the shore. Further down stream a second cast of the lead told 

 off 100 feet, deepening to 192 feet at the inclined railway. The 

 average depth of the Swift Drift, where the river suddenly 

 becomes narrow with a velocity too great to be measured, was 

 153 feet. Immediately under the lower bridge the whirlpool 

 rapids set in. Here the depth was computed to be 210 feet. 



The German African Society, in the last number of its 

 Mittheilungeii, publishes a list of all the scientific expeditions 

 sent out by the (former) German Society for the Investigation 

 of Equatorial Africa, and by the new Society (under its present 

 title) during the years from 1S73 to 1S79. Altogether there 

 were no less than eight expeditions, viz. :■. — i. The Loango- 

 Expedition, and to the Chinchoxo Station, 1S73 1876 ; cost 

 10,532/., less 1,133/. realised from sale of specimens ; leader, 

 Dr. Paul Giissfeldt, not Prof. A. Bastian (who took part at his 

 own expense in the preparatory steps for the establishment of 

 the Chinchoxo Station). 2. The Ogowe-Expedition of Dr. 

 Oscar Lenz, 1S74-1S76, cost 1,563/. 3. Cassange-Expedition, 

 1S74-1S76, cost 4,457/. Members : Capt. A. von Ilomeyer, 

 Dr. Paul Pogge, Herm. Soyaux, Lieut. A. Lux. 4. Eduard 

 Mohr's Expedition, 1S76, cost 692/. 5. Engineer Schiitt's Ex- 

 pedition, 1S77-1S79, cost 2,590/. 6. Dr. Max Buchner's Expe- 

 dition, since 1S7S, cost (till October, 1879) 1,523/. 7. Rohlfs' 

 Expedition, since 1S7S, cost (till October, 1S79) 2,255/. Mem- 

 bers : Dr. Gerhard Rohlfs, Dr. Anton Stecker. S. Dr. Oscar 

 Lenz's Expedition to Marocco, since the end of 1879. 



In his just published report on Borneo H.M.'s Consul-General 

 says that owing to its geological formation the soil of the island 

 cannot be compared with that of Java, Sumatra, the Sulu 

 Archipelago, and the Philippines, all islands of volcanic origin. 

 Towards the north, however, and in the plains in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Great Kim Balu range, the soil is exceedingly good, 

 as is shown by the success with which the natives grow in their 

 rude manner rice, tapioca, indigo, &c. At present the greater 

 part of tlie island is clothed with a dense prima:val forest of 

 lofty trees, many of which afford excellent timber, and until the 

 virgin soil thus covered has been cleared it is useless to speculate 

 on the mineral resources of the country, but there is no doubt of 

 the existence of coal, antimony, ore, and gold in Northern 

 Borneo. Mr. Treacher, we may add, accompanies his report 

 with a useful sketch-map of this part of the island. 



Dr. Dutrieux, who until quite lately was on the staff of the 

 first Belgian expedition to East Central Africa, has just published 

 at Brussels (Lebegue et Cie.) some of the results of his observa- 

 tions in that country, under the title of "La Question Africaine 

 au point de vne Commerciale." 



In a communication, entitled " Cimbebasie," in the last 

 number of Lcs Missions Catholiques, Pere Duparquet furnishes a 

 good deal of interesting information respecting Ovampo-land in 

 "Western Africa. Pere Duparquet gives, in fact, a rapid sketch 

 of his explorations from Olokonda to Quanhama in about 17° S. 

 lat., 16° li. long. He has besides, however, collected a mass of 

 notes about a large tract of country hitherto almost entirely 

 unknown, and of which he expresses a high opinion. 



The new number of Les Annales de I'Extreme Orient is 

 chiefly occupied with an instalment of Prof. P. J. Veth's notes 

 on the languages and .literature of Java, and the interminable 

 question of M. J. Dupuis and Tongking. 



In the new number of the Verhandliingen of the Berlin 

 Geographical Society (Band vii. No. 3) Herr Flegel gives an 

 exceedingly interesting account of his residence in West Africa, 



