134 



NATURE 



\Pcc. 9, 1880 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



Some time back it was publicly stated that Commander 

 Cheyiie and his friends intended to apply to the Geographical 

 Society for countenance and support to their plans of Arctic 

 exploration. A deputation accordingly waited on Lord Aber- 

 dare, the president, on October 12, and, in pursuance of a sug' 

 gestion he then made, a statement of Commander Cheyne's 

 plans was lately drawn up by a committee for submission to the 

 Council of the Society. This has been considered, and in reply 

 the President and Council regret that the scheme, as explained 

 by the statement, does not commend itself to them as one con- 

 taining the elements of success and of usefulness, and that, even 

 if it were feasible, tlie means proposed to be adopted for encoun- 

 tering the great dangers and difficulties necessarily altendant 

 upon such an enterprise, do not appear to them sufficient. We 

 believe the Geographical Society is to take up the subject of 

 Arctic exploration this session. An Arctic Committee will be 

 appointed to bring together all that has been done since the last 

 English expedition, to enable the Society to decide what steps 

 they should take. 



The post of honour in this month's issue of the Geographical 

 Society's Proceedings is naturally assigned to Mr. J. Thomson's 

 report of the journey of the East African Expedition, of which 

 we have already given a raitme. It is illustrated by a map 

 showing his route, constructed from the explorer's original map 

 and other sources. There is also a useful little map of a route 

 from Kagei to Tabora, by the Rev. C. T. Wilson of the Church 

 Missionary Society's Nyanza Mission. Capt. A. H. Markham's 

 "Visit to the Galapagos Islands in 1880" follows, with same 

 observations by Mr. O.sbert Salvin on recent additions to our 

 knowledge of the fauna of the group. From the geographical 

 notes we learn tliat medals and other rewards are to be presented 

 to Mr. Thomson's native followers, and that Dr. Kirk is to 

 receive the formal thanks of the Society for the important 

 services he rendered to the East African Expedition. Some 

 interesting extracts from Capt. Carter's diary on his fatal march 

 from Karema are next given, with a suaimary of recent ne-.\s 

 resiiecting African exploration. The remaining notes deal with 

 M. Mushketof's ascent of the Zarafslian glacier, Russian explora- 

 tions in Eastern and Western Siberia, surveys in Turkey, and an 

 attempt to explore the affluents of the Rio Purus. 



Mr. J. Banting Rogers has devised and published a game 

 which is likely to be of service not only as a really interesting 

 amusement, but also as a means of acquiring a considerable know- 

 ledge of navigation and meteorology. It is entitled the game of 

 a " Voyage Round the World," and is played on a large board 

 representing the ocean, suitably divided for counting by knots, 

 and with hazards in the shape of cyclones, collisions, &c., 

 which add excitement to tlie game. The game is played by 

 means of a number of small models of ships of various kinds, 

 and cards in which the number of knots is marked within 

 which the players may move. Logs are kept, watches appointed, 

 and a captain of the watch to record distances, &c. Altogether 

 it will be seen that in Mr. Rogers's ingeniously devised game 

 there are great possibilities both of amusement and instruction. 



Two Danish Expeditions \\ hich have been carrying on scien- 

 tific exploration in Greenland have returned to Copenhagen. 

 One of them, under Lieut. Hammer, has been continuing°t]ie 

 investigations into the movement of the mainland ice into the 

 fjords and the formation of icebergs. In the course of the 

 summer several previously unknown fjords were visited, and the 

 western part of the island of Disko surveyed and mapped. The 

 other expedition, under Lieut. Holm, was to explore several of 

 the large rains of former settlements in the district of Julianhaab 

 and to obtain information on the population and condition of the 

 east coast. Several extensive ruins were found, wliich must have 

 been left quite 100 years ago, and of which the present natives 

 know nothing. Among these ruins many objects of etlmological 

 mterest were found. The weather during the whole summer was 

 ramy and cloudy ; indeed people who have been many years in 

 Greenland never knew of so rainy a summer. 



We believe there is some prospect of Mr. Joseph Thomson 

 being engaged to lead an expedition from Sierra Leone towards 

 Timbuctoo, mainly to establish trading relations between the 

 English Colonies and the interior. It would be a pity should 

 Mr. Thomson be compelled to become a mere trading-caravan 

 leader. 



Major Serpa Pinto's account of his remarkable journey, 

 which IS still unpublished, is to be called "How I crossed 

 Africa," instead of "The King's Rifle." 



The following telegram has been received in St. Petersburg 

 frorn Col. Prejevalsky :— " Have finished my travel. Rich col- 

 lections : 2000 birds, many mammals, 1300 species of plants. 

 Will be in St. Petersburg at the beginning of January." 



At the last meeting (November 17) of the Russian Geographi- 

 cal Society, Dr. Piasetzky read an interesting paper on China. 

 He has very closely si udied the character of the Chinese, their 

 life, their moral principles, and the education of ch Idren. Dr. 

 Piasetzky, who has travelled during several years in China, is 

 the author of a very interesting Russian work in two volumes on 

 that country : the « ork is illustrated with very good drawings, 

 which represent "types" of Chinese towns, streets, dwellings, 

 market-places, &c. At' the same meeting the Society resolved 

 to take part in the next Geographical Congress and Exhibition 

 at Venice. 



Before proceeding to Paris, as we mentioned last week, MM. 

 Verminck, Zweifel, and Moustier were present at an enthusiastic 

 meeting of the Marseilles Geographical Society, when the Pre- 

 sident, M. Rabaud, after a eulogistic address, presented them 

 with medals for the part they respectively took in the expedition 

 to the sources of the Niger. 



Lieut. E. W. Petley, of the Marine Survey of India, has 

 lately drawn up some interesting notes on Marmagao (Goa), 

 Portuguese India. 



The new Bulletin of the Antwerp Geographical Society 

 contains an account of Mr. Andrew Goldie's last journey in 

 New Guinea, and some observations on artesian wells in the 

 Sandwich Islands. 



Mr. Todd, the Government Astronomer at Adelaide, is to 

 proceed next May to Port Darwin, in the Northern Territory, 

 to determine by telegraph the difference of longitude between 

 that place and Greenwich. 



A RECENT telegram from the Austrian traveller Oscar Lenz 

 states that he had reached Medina, Senegal, on November 2. 

 Oscar Lenz penetrated to Timbuctoo from the north, and went 

 thence by Bassikonon, Sokolo, Goumbon, Nioro, and Konnia- 

 kany to Medina. 



Herr Stier, director of the Gymnasium in Zerbst, found, a 

 .short time ago, a detailed account of Vasco da Gama's second 

 voyage to India. It is drawn up by a Dutchman (who accom- 

 panied Vasco da Gama), and in his own tongue. Herr Stier 

 has now published a German translation of it. 



MR. MUN BELLA ON EDUCATION LW 

 SCIENCE 

 I "\N Friday last the Textile and Dyeing Departments of the 

 ^■"^ Yorkshire College, Leeds, were formally opened, and at 

 the dinner which followed the Right Hon. A. J. Mundella, 

 M.P., Vice-President of the Council, proposed the toast of the 

 occasion: — "Success to Yorkshire College." His remarks in 

 connection therewith are so significant, coming from our tie facto 

 Minister of Education, that we give them in full. 



There had not, he commenced by saying, been a more gratified 

 spectator of the proceedings of that day than he was. There 

 had been no one amongst them who had enjoyed more, if so 

 much, the sense of satisfaction — he had almost said of triumph 

 — that he had enjoyed that day. Sixteen years ago when he 

 was, like many of those present, a captain in the ranks of 

 industry, he took some interest in the question of the application 

 of science to the industries of this country. His attention had 

 been called to it by the advantages he possessed of seeing what 

 was being done in other countries. He saw the infancy of 

 technical education abroad, and now he stood by its cr.adle at 

 home. The School of Arts et Metiers in Paris was not by any 

 means a new school, and it had done great things for French 

 industry. There was no one who was acquainted with that 

 school who would not endorse his remarks when he said that it 

 had done marvellous things for French manufactures, and he 

 had learned since he came to Leeds that we had some of its most 

 distinguished scholars in this town. He witnessed the beginning 

 of technical instruction in Germany with the erection of the 

 Polytechnic School of Zurich ; and when he went to the 

 members of the Chamber of Commerce of which he was 



