NATURE 



\_Nov. II, 1880 



but long may we wait, it is to be hoped, before this 

 event shall happen. 



Of the curious nesting habits of Scopus we have 

 excellent accounts from Brehm, Heuglin, and other 

 naturalists who have visited the Upper Nile. But one of 

 our own countrymen, a not less active or experienced 

 observer — has likewise written a most interesting account 

 of this bird's economy, and we cannot do better than 

 transcribe a part of it. 



"The Ha)iiinerkop (literally hammerhead)," says Mr. 

 Layard in "The Birds of South Africa," "is found 

 throughout the Colony and all the way to the Zambezi, 

 frequenting ponds, marshes, rivers, and lakes. It is a 

 strange, weird bird, flitting about with great activity in 

 the dusk of the evening, and preying upon frogs, small 

 fishes, &c. At times, when two or three are feeding in 

 the same small pool, they will execute a singular dance, 

 skipping round one another, opening and closing their 

 wings, and perfoi-ming strange antics. 



"They breed on trees and on rocky ledges, forming a 

 huge structure of sticks, some of them of considerable 

 thickness. These nests are so solid that they will bear 

 the weight of a large, heavy man on the domed roof with- 

 out collapsing. The entrance is a small hole, generally 

 placed in the most inaccessible side. The eggs, three to 

 five in number, are of a pure white, axis i" 9" ; diam. 

 i" 4"'. 



"On my late friend Jackson's farm, at Nel's Poort, 

 there is a singular rocky glen between two hills. In this 

 spot a beautiful permanent spring called ' Jackalsfontein ' 

 takes its rise. Of course, in consequence, there are a few 

 wild almond and other trees, and the place is a little oasis 

 atiiid the barren mountains. It is a favourite resort of 

 wild animals, hyrenas, leopards, jackals, &c., and here 

 Mr. Jackson has constructed one of his most successful 

 hy^na-traps. On the ledges of the rocks in this secluded 

 spot a colony of Hammerkops have built for years. Some 

 of the nests are quite inaccessible, while others can be 

 reached with a little trouble. I counted six or eight 

 within fifty yards, and some of them contained at least a 

 large cartload of sticks. Mr. Jackson told me thev 

 occupied the same nest year after year, and added to it 

 or repaired it as required. About some that I visited 1 

 found brass and bone buttons, bits of crockery, bleached 

 bones, &c. Mr. Jackson said if a ' Tottie ' lost his knife 

 or tinder-box on the farm, or within some miles of the 

 place, he made a point of examining the hammerkops' 

 nests, and frequently with success, the birds, like the 

 'Bowerbird' of AustraUa, embellishing their dwellings 

 with any glittering or bright-coloured thing they can 

 pick up." 



A SUCCESSFUL AFRICAN EXPEDITION 

 A FRICA is overrun with explorers of all nationalities. 

 -^^- Too often of late have we had to read of failures, of 

 abortive attempts on the part of expensively-equipped 

 expeditions to reach the field of their work, or of deaths 

 by fever or assassination after the first difficulties were 

 overcome. In spite of all, however, the unprecedented 

 activity of recent years in this favourite field of explora- 

 tion has pretty well filled up, with the leading features at 

 least, that great blank space in the heart of the continent 

 which in the rude maps of our schoolboy days was 

 marked "unexplored." In the very centre of that space 

 there is still however a blank, giving ample scope for 

 work for the numerous Belgian expeditions that have 

 hitherto done so little. It was to fill up this blank to 

 some extent that the Geographical Society, about two 

 years ago, obtained subscriptions to send out an expedi- 

 tion under young Keith Johnston, who had inherited 

 an enthusiasm for geographical work quite worthy of the 

 name he bore. As his subordinate and as geologist to 

 the expedition, the Society appointed another young 



Scotchman, Mr. Joseph Thomson, a pupil of Prof. Geikie, 

 who recommended him to the Geographical Society. To 

 him, we grieve to say, it has been left to tell the story of the 

 expedition, which he did, and did well, on Monday night at 

 the opening meeting of the Geographical Societv. This 

 expedition is remarkable in many respects, in sonie points 

 more remarkable than any other .'\frican expedition that we 

 know of. The outline of its story is soon told. With 150 

 of the best men that could be found in and around Zanzi- 

 bar Keith Johnston left that place in May, 1S79, and 

 striking at once to the south-west, made for the north 

 end of Lake Nyassa, which was the real starting-point 

 for fresh work. Little more than a month after the start, 

 young Johnston, who seemed to have the nerve and 

 stamina of an athlete, succumbed to the malarious in- 

 fluences of the coast region, and was buried by his com- 

 panion at Behobeho, to the north of the Lufiji river. Mr. 

 Thomson, inexperienced youth of twenty-two though he 

 was, was equal to the emergency. With admirable tact and 

 nerve he took his place as the sole leader of the expedition, 

 and accomplished even more than the work which the So- 

 cietyhad challccd out forit. By an unexplored route, through 

 barren wistes and over lofty mountains, through the 

 sneaking Wakhutu and the warlike Mahenge, he and his 

 followers made their way till their eyes were gladdened 

 and their weary spirits refreshed by the sight of the 

 waters of Nyassa. Thence, after brief rest, they re- 

 sumed their march over the lofty and undulating plateau, 

 which they found occupied the region between the 

 north end of Nyassa and the south shore of Tanganyika. 

 Leaving here the bulk of his followers, Mr. Thomson, with 

 a handful of men, trudged his way over the rugged 

 western shores of Lake Tanganyika, to visit the Lukuga 

 and settle the question whether it was an outlet or an 

 affluent of the lake, a question, which, one would think, 

 could be easily solved, but on which Stanley and Cameron 

 published diametrically opposite statements. After visit- 

 ing the missionary station near the mouth of the river, 

 and running across to Ujiji, Mr. Thomson returned to the 

 Lukuga and traced it for some miles of its downward 

 course. After barely escaping from the murderous Warua 

 with their lives, the party sailed down the lake, and 

 rejoining their companions made the return journey to 

 Zanzibar along the usual caravan route with unprecedented 

 rapidity, in about a year after the expedition set out under 

 their late chief. Mr. Thomson declared with just pride that 

 all this was accomplished without the shedding of a drop of 

 blood for either offensive or defensive purposes ; with one m 

 exception he brought all his men back "in the best of health ■ 

 and condition" ; he has collected certain information about ^ 

 a considerable region which no white man had previously 

 visited ; he has solved one of the few remaining great 

 problems of African geography ; and he has located with 

 certainty a great salt lake (Hikwa) whose existence pre- 

 viously had only been based on native rumour. Mr. 

 Thomson is a trained geologist, and as such he has 

 doubtless seen more than almost any previous explorer. 

 He tells us of the metamorphic schists and gneiss which 

 compose the mountains of the great central plateau ; of 

 the many extinct volcanic cones that lie around the 

 north-west end of Lake Nyassa, and of the metamorphic 

 clay slates, felspathic rocks and volcanic porphyries 

 and tuffs that look down on the lake from the north and 

 north-east. His further geological insight may dispel 

 some of the illusions that seem to be abroad as to the 

 abounding wealth of the African interior. Much of the 

 country between the coast and Nyassa is barren waste ; 

 and the chief characteristic of the region between Nyassa 

 and Tanganyika he found to be " utter barrenness and 

 the absence of anything worth trading for." Instead of 

 the mountains of iron and the miles of surface coal, J 

 nowhere did he see a single metal in a form which a 1 

 ^vhite man would for a moment look at as a profitable or " 

 workable speculation ; there is very little more iron, he 



