Feb. 24, 1 88 1 J 



NA TURE 



399 



illness which kept the traveller in his bed for more than two 

 mouths. Nevertheless the ethnographical collections brought in 

 are very interesting. 



The Smolemky I'cstnik gives the following information as to 

 Colonel Prjevalbky. lie was born on April 12, 1839, at the village 

 of Otradnoye, in the Smolensk district. His mother and his old 

 nurse, both still alive, were the fir^t who inspired him with a 

 warm love of nature, and his life, on the estate of his mother, 

 contributed to the develjpment of this love. He studied at the 

 Smolensk College (gymnasium), and notwithstanding the desire 

 of his mother, who wished him t) enter a university, he entered 

 as a sub-officer in the Polotzk infantry regiment. Promoted to 

 the grade of officer, he went to the military academy, and soon 

 we find him as an officer during the Polish campaign, and after- 

 wards as a teacher of geography and history in the cadet school 

 at Warsaw. A keen hunter, he could not stay long in a city, 

 and he sjon undertook a journey to the Oussouri. This deter- 

 mined his ultimate career; the richnes;of the fauna and the 

 pleasure of hunting in uncivilised countries determined him to 

 undertake further journeys, first to .Southern Mongolia, then to 

 Lob-nor, and finally to Tibet, which he reached last year. 



Under the title of "The Expiring Continent," Mr. A. \V. 

 Mitchinson gives an account of his travels in Senegambia, 

 mainly of journeys he made up the rivers Senegal and Gambia. 

 The work contains no dates, thus detracting somewhat from its 

 scientific value, and abounds with speculations and reflections on 

 all sorts of subjects connected with Africa. His notes on what he 

 saw during his journeys are of value as showing the recent con- 

 dition of the country visited, and, as may be inferred from the 

 title, the author's vieus are rather despjnding. His inference 

 from his observations on the small district visited by him, that 

 the African continent as a whole is "expiring," is far too 

 sw'eeping. While like the other continents it contains "desert 

 places," the bulk of it, so far as we know it, is capable of the 

 greatest industrial devebpaient. That its waters are drying up 

 a.-, a whole there is no reason for believing; but evidently in this 

 and in other respects there is ample room for trustworthy scientific 

 examination. The publishers are Allen and Co. 



The February number of Pelermann's Mittheilittgen begins 

 with a paper on the Chukchis on the shores of the Arctic 

 Ocean, their number and present position, based on two articles 

 by O. Nordqvist and Lieut. Hovgaard. Dr. Gu^tav Radde 

 contributes the first part of a narrative of his j jurney to Talgsch, 

 Aderbeijan, and Sawalan in 1S79-80. From the papers in the 

 North American Kt'trw a long account is given of M. Desire 

 Charnay's explorations of the ruins in Central America. There 

 is an elaborate and detailed map, with accompanying text, 

 illustrating Dr. Junker's journey through the valley of the 

 Chor Baraka, in the Egyptian province Taka in 1876. 



Messrs. W. and A. K. Joh.\ston have sent ui the first two 

 parts of a "Statistical Atlas of England, Scotland, and Ireland," 

 by Mr. G. Phillips Bevan. These two parts include Religioui 

 and Educational Statistic , and subsequent parts will be devoted 

 1 1 Industry, Crime, Marine, Agricultural, Railways, Geology, 

 and Mining, &c. ; there will be fifteen parts in all. In the first 

 two parts a vast amount of useful statistics are graphically 

 exhibited on the maps, and systematically arranged in separate 

 tables. Much of the information thus exhibited could not be 

 obtained from any other single source. 



No. 90, the conclading part of the fifieenth volume of the 

 Zeilschrift of the Berlin Geographical Society, contains the con- 

 clusion of the late Dr. Erwin v ..n Bay's interesting j nirnal of his 

 journey from Tripoli to Ghat and Air, anl a paper on the region 

 which caused the recent contest between Chili and Bolivia, by 

 Dr. C. Marten. The rest of the number, 130 pages, is occu- 

 pied with the bibliography of the past year, one of the most 

 valuable features of this most important of geographical journals. 

 The bibliography is practically exhaustive, is arranged in a 

 thoroughly sy-tematic manner, and includes works relating to 

 all departments of geography. 



M. SiBiRiAKOFF has safely returned to St. Petersburg, where 

 he had a brilliant reception. At a meeting of the Society for the 

 Furtherance of Russian Coaimercial Navigation, M. Sibiriakoff 

 pointed out the grave err jrs contained in Rnssiaii marine charts, 

 which caused two of his captains to mistake the Gydan Bay for 

 the Yenisei Estuary. Th 'y entered it on September 12, and soon 

 met with thick-packed ice. The Nordland\^\i. stopped at once, 

 the Oikar Dickson proceeding some loo versts further to the 



soath. Thence the travellers had journeyed to Obdorsk, with 

 Samogedes as guides. 



The Ruppell fund at Frankfort-on-the-Main, which was 

 founded in honour of the Nestor of African travellers. Dr. 

 Eduard Riippell, and for the exclusive object of supporting 

 scientific exploration, consisted of the sum of 35,570 marks 

 (1770/.) at the end of last year. From this the Senkenberg 

 Naturforschende Gesellschaft, at their last meeting, granted the 

 sum of 3000 marks (150/.) to Dr. Wilhelm Kobelt of Schwan- 

 heim, an eminent conchologist. Dr. Kobelt is now engaged 

 upon the investigation of the existing and fossil moUuskan fauna 

 of the Mediterranean, and had during the last few years re- 

 peatedly visited Italy and Sicily for this purpose. His next 

 tour, which is to extend from March to September, will com- 

 prise .Spain, Algeria, and, if possible, Morocco. We may 

 remind our readers that the journeys of Drs. Noll and Grenacher 

 to Spain and the Canary Islands in 1871, as well as thoe of 

 Verkriiz-n to Newfoundland in 1S74 and 1S75, were also largely 

 supported by grants from the Ruppell fund. 



Geodetical measurements will be begun next spring on the 

 stretch between Great St. Bernard and the St. Gothard for 

 connecting together the Italian and the Swiss geodetical net- 

 work. 



A NEW expedition will s*art, next spring, for the exploration 

 of the Obi, under the direction of M. Moi^eeff. Six pupils of 

 the Marine School of Arkhangelsk will accompany him. 



There is some talk of uniting the three geographical societies 

 of Switzerland, those of Berne, Geneva, and St. Gall, as well as 

 those which may be created afterwards, into one great Swiss 

 ge )graphical association, which will have a central committee 

 and an annual general assembly devoted to the study of geo- 

 graphical questions, and especially of those which have a 

 c iramercial interest. 



Under the title of "Das Frauenleben der Erde," illustrated 

 by A. von Schweiger-Lerchenfeld, A. Hartleben of Vienna has 

 published a highly interesting description of the social life of the 

 women of all nations. The work contains much that is of 

 ethnographical value, and the nu nerous well-executed illustra- 

 tions, as well as the attractive style of the text, are likely to 

 render it of popular interest. 



The Au-trian Section of the German aid Austrian 'Alpine 

 Society held its annu.al meeting at Vienna, on January 26 last. 

 The Section now numbers 1302 members. 



0.\ January 29 a branch of the Berlin " Centralverein " for 

 commercial geography was formed at Diissehiorf. The new 

 branch is directing its main attention to South Africa. 



In the place of the late Dr. Mook, Dr. Manthey has joined 

 the Riebeck expedition, which will leave Cairo in the course of 

 a few days, and will, first of all, proceed to Soco'.ra by way of 

 Aden. 



ABNORMAL VARIATIONS OF BAROMETRIC 

 PRESSURE IN THE TROPICS AND THEIR 

 RELATIONS TO SUN-SPOTS, RAINFALL, 

 AND FAMINES 

 TWr K. F. CHAMBERS, in his valuable and highly interesting 

 ^ ^ article (vol. xxiii. p. 88) under the above title, has made an 

 important steptowards placing the relation between secular weather 

 changes and sun-spots on a more substantial basis than it has hither- 

 to occupied. This has been mainly effected by his employing the 

 m 5st reliable data we at present possess of the latter phenomena, 

 thereby biinging the salient features of their minor variations for 

 the first time into direct ^comparison with a definite meteoro- 

 logical element, which, it may be remarked, possesses the distinct 

 advantage of representing the integrated effect of changes 

 occurring throughout the entire atmospheric envelope. 



He his also shown how the remarkable lag which takes pLace 

 in the occurrence of the critical barometric epochs at the more 

 easterly stations may be utilised to previse famines from a 

 knowledge cf what is going on at more westerly ones. 



This h iwever would only be practicable if we knew for certain 

 that famines in all the di-tricts mentioned, invariably took their 

 rise from one set of conditions, such as failure of the usual 

 summer rains, preceded and accompanied by high barometric 

 pressure. In attributing the majority of the famines occurring 

 within the tropics to such a proximate cause, Mr. Chambers 



