88 NATURE 
still under consideration with the Government in the Dutch 
Indies. It was mentioned, however, that the expedition would 
probably go to Doreh or to Onin; many offers to accompany it 
have been made to the Society. 
AT a recent meeting of the Paris Geographical Society, 
M. Romanet du Caillaud described the life and travels of 
Ordonez de Cevallos; who was bom at Jaen towards the 
middle of the sixteenth century, and who commenced his 
journeys all over the world at the age of seventeen. He 
visited various countries in Europe, and travelled several 
times to both Americas. He then became a priest, without, 
however, renouncing his dominant passion. He went as mis- 
sionary to the Philippines, thence to Canton and Japan. From 
Japan he set sail for China again, but a storm drove him on the 
coasts of Tonquin. Having received permission to land, he 
went to the Court in 1590, and visited various parts of the Indo- 
Chinese peninsula, Malacca and India. He started then for 
Buenos Ayres, touching at the Cape of Good Hope, and endea- 
' voured to go to the west coast of South America by the Straits 
of Magellan, but was prevented by an English fleet, which 
barred the Straits. He returned to Buenos Ayres, and in 1595 
undertook a journey, similar to that in which Crévaux lost his 
life, by Tucuman, the Paraguay, Potosi, &c., preaching by the 
way to the savage tribes, whom he calls the Quixos, Omaguas, 
&c. He fought also agains the black Indian cannibals, called 
by the Spaniards the Gimarrons or Caribs. Ultimately he 
returned to Seville and became a canon. In 1607 the Bishop of 
Macao gave him a message from the King of Tonquin desiring 
him to return to that country, but he could not do so. The 
works of this indefatigable traveller are: (1) ‘‘ Historia y Viage 
del Mundo” ; (2) ‘‘ Relaciones verdaderas de los Reynos de la 
China, Cochinchina, y Champaa” (Jaen, 1628) ; (3) ‘‘ Triunfos 
de la Santissima Cruz” ; (4) ‘‘ Descriptio Indiz Occidentalis,” 
in the ‘‘ Novus Orbis sive descriptio Indiz Occidentalis” of 
Antonio de Herrera (Amsterdam, 1622). 
A BLUE-BOOK- just issued by the Foreign Office contains five 
maps referring to the Russo-Afghan boundaries. The first is a 
chart of the routes followed by members of the Boundary Com- 
mission from Kushan to Bala Murghab ; the second is a repro- 
duction in English of a Russian military map of the frontier ; 
No. 3 is a copy of a map of South-Western Turcomania, pro- 
duced in Russia; No. 4, which was prepared by M. Lessar, 
shows his explorations ; while the last is a sketch map to illus- 
trate the various zones and lines of frontier proposed at one time 
or other recently by Russia and England. 
The Austrian Tourist Club has appointed a committee with 
the view of making experiments for the improvement of the 
natural drainage of certain parts of the Karst which are liable to 
periodical inundation. This celebrated region in the north of the 
Adriatic is remarkable for its underground rivers, which com- 
municate with the surface here and there by vertical shafts. 
Through these openings the surplus waters escape to the surface 
when the underground channels are filled to overflowing, and in 
that way considerable tracts are periodically converted into tem- 
porary lakes. The well-known Lake Zirknitz is only one of 
dozens of such lakes that are formed in this district every year. 
The practicability of preventing these inundations by enlarging 
the underground channels has been discussed on several occa- 
sions in the Tourist Club, and now the first attempt to carry this 
scheme into effect is about to be made with the Pinka Jama, a 
natural shaft leading down to an underground channel about a 
mile and a half from the Adelsberg Cavern. 
HERR GLASER, the Austrian explorer, is about to undertake 
a new journey in Southern Arabia. He will go first from 
Sanaa to Marib, and will then visit in succession Wadi-Davyassir, 
Nedjd, Omaun, and Hadramant. In a similar journey which 
he made some time ago he brought back 276 inscriptions of the 
Sabeans, who were regarded in the time of the Ptolemys as the 
wealthiest people of Arabia. 
Capt. JENNINGS of the Royal Engineers, has returned to 
India (according to the Proneer) after a successful exploration of 
South-eastern Persia, including the hitherto unknown Sarhad 
country. He carefully examined all the roads and the configura- 
tion of the country, and is said to bring back a mass of useful 
information with regard to this region. 
THE last number (xx.) of the Lxcursions et Reconnaissances 
of Saigon contains, among others, two papers by that inde- 
fatigable student of Indo-China, Capt. Aymonier, one on Cam- 
[AZay 28, 1885 
bodian epigraphy, the other on a journey in Laos. Dr. Tirant 
gives the second. part of his paper on the reptiles of Cochin 
China and Cambodia, and M. Hardouin concludes the account 
of a recent journey in Siam. ~ 
Petermann’s Mittheilungen (No. 5, 1885) contains a paper, 
accompanied by an excellent map, on Kaffraria and the eastern 
boundary lands of the Cape Colony, by Herr Schunke, some 
observations on the sanitary features of the Upper Amu-Darya, 
and an account of the Geographical Congress at Hamburg. 
A YEARLY AND A DAILY PERIOD IN 
TELEGRAPHIC PERTURBATIONS 
SINCE July 1, 1881, all disturbing currents at forty-four tele- 
graphic stations in Norway and Sweden regarding time, 
duration, force, direction, &c., have been at my request regularly 
recorded. These observations will of course first obtain real 
importance when a longer series is available ; still, I believe it 
would be of interest at present to investigate whether for these 
telegraphic perturbations a similar yearly and daily period could 
be established, such as have been proved for the aurora and 
other terrestrial magnetic phenomena, My time being now 
rather limited, extensive researches are not possible; of the 
mentioned forty-four stations I have therefore selected four, and 
herewith present the results of my investigations. 
The four stations are named and located as follows :— 
Kistrand VOwseNe 25 13 E.G 
Loédingen ... 68 24 ,, sz 10; steers 
Trondhjem... (923) if og 3.5 aes 
Bergen 60 24 ,, ee) 5 
My researches have been made for the three years from July, 
1881, to June, 1884. As the Norwegian stations do not do 
night work, the observations could only be taken from 7 o’clock 
in the morning till midnight. 
I have first noted the number of days for each month on which 
telegraphic perturbations have been observed, excluding those 
caused by thunderstorms. These numbers besider the totals for 
each month and year are shown in Tables I. to IV. 
TABLE I.—A‘zstrand 
Month 188x to 1882 1882 to 1883 1883 to 1884 Total 
il yee ee see not 2 eee 8 se II 
Aviousi eee sO, oe 12 cee 3 15 
September... 7 one 12 II 30 
October ... 14 auc 20 6 40 
November... 10 366 22 3 35 
December ... 13 ere 8 3 24 
January e's} 508 a [o} 12 
February ... 7 20 10 9 26 
March... ... 13 oe 16 4 33 
Atpril ete a0 6 12 43 
Matyas cme LO ee 4 3 26 
TRA cao cos =o 5 5 24 
Year ... 128 ren) 2A ve 67 sie) 
TABLE II.—7Zrondhjem 5 
Month 1881 to 1882 1882 to 1883 1883 to 1884 Total 
Wel eB Goa 4 ae 5 co 10 oey 22 
PATIO U SER ss) Ee: Bo 8 ton 3 15 
September... 10 aes 6 3 5 19 
October... 15 20 II 6 32 
November... II && 16 6 33 
December ... 14 6 5 25 
January ... 12 oe 7 I 20 
February ... 16 B06 10 4 30 
Marches) <0 908) 500 8 7 33 
April yey yee O70 4 2 20 
Mays) eee ay 2 I 20 
Wenn oo Oo 6 3 15 
Year ... 144 89 eco 51 w= -284 
The monthly totals for the three years are graphically repre- 
sented in Fig. 1. Both the numbers and the figure show appar- 
ently that the yearly period for the telegraphic perturbations is 
identical with that of the aurora, z.e. its maximum coincides with 
both solstices and its minimum with both equinoxes. Of especial 
importance is the minimum at the time of the summer solstice, 
when the aurora, as is well known, ceases, on account of the 
ee 
a ae ee 
“ip dma 
