August 13, 1885 
regard to the arrangements for the Austrian Expedition to the 
Congo ; a sketch of the results of Danish explorations in Green- 
land by A. Rink ; the conclusion of Dr. Breitenstein’s paper on 
Borneo, and the recent letters of Colonel Prjevalsky. Dr. 
Breitenstein’s account of Borneo is of great interest. He points 
out that in this great island may be studied in succession almost 
every stage of human development from the lowest to the highest. 
It is not sixty miles, for example, from Pengaron, where 
European machinery is employed in the coal mines, to Punun or 
Olo Ott, where the people are almost quite naked, and where 
their only protection from the weather is a grass hut here and 
there. It is hardly a hundred miles between Banjermassin, 
where Eurpean war-vessels and Krupp guns keep the Dyaks in 
check, and the kampong of the Prince of Murong which is pro- 
tected by a thin palisade, from the top of which the heads of 
those captured in raids look down on the traveller. In this 
narrow district we have a kaleidoscopic picture of all the steps of 
human civilization. 
AT the last meeting of the Geographical Society of Paris, 
M. du Caillaud read a note on the fortress of Camlo in Annam, 
to which the attack on the French at Hué has just given some 
importance ; M. de Lesseps referred to soundings recently made 
at Gabes with a view to establishing a fort there; M. Rouire, 
who has recently returned from a scientific mission to Tunis, 
recounted his explorations in the regions between Kairwan, Susa, 
Hammanet, and Lake Felbiah. M. Delaplanch also read an 
account of a journey which he made through the centre of Persia, 
from Resch on the Caspian to Teheran. 
Dr. P. L. SCLATER suggests ‘‘ Torresia” as an appropriate 
name for British New Guinea. 
In the Bollettino of the Italian Geographical Society for July, 
Sig. Buonfanti publishes a reply to the doubts of Herr G. A. 
Krause on his journey from Tripoli across the Sahara and 
Western Sudan to the coast of Guinea. The writer, whose 
letter is dated May 6, on board the Cortsco at Banana, states 
thac documentary proofs of the trip cannot be given till his 
arrival in Brussels, where the papers lie under Jock and key in 
charge of Prof. du Fief. They include, he says, correspondence 
already forwarded to two American journals from Tripoli, 
Murzuk, &c., besides translations of safe-conducts and firmans 
received from the Sultans of Bornu and Socoto, and of a letter 
from the Sheikh [s7c] of Timbuktu, the originals of which will 
be forthcoming. There are also accounts, invoices, &c., of 
Maltese dealers, certificates of sea-captains, certificates of mis- 
sionaries, and so forth. He explains that Herr Krause heard 
nothing of his movements at Lagos, because he reached the 
coast not at that place, but at Portonuovo, some 45 miles further 
west. For the same reason nothing was known of him in the 
Yoruba country, which lies 200 miles to the east of Dagomba, 
Bagouza, Dahomeh, and the other districts through which he 
travelled. 
THE Vienna Geographical Society has received good news of 
Dr. Oscar Lenz’s African exploring expedition, which, on 
July 17, had reached Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. The 
next news will be from the Cameroons. 
THE death is announced from Sydney of Thomas Boyd, the 
first white man to cross the Murray river, and the last surviving 
member of Hume and Hovell’s exploring party. He was eighty- 
eight years of age, and had lived in great poverty for some years 
prior to his death. 
MEASUREMENT OF EVAPORATION 
I SEND a brief sketch of an instrument which I have just 
made for the measuring of evaporation from a water surface. 
The figures and letters refer to the accompanying drawings :— 
Fig. 1, A.—Tank-mine, 20 in. X Io in., standing in a large 
tank 60 in. X 40 in. The sides are double, a space one-tenth 
of an inch being between the walls and opening all around inner 
wall (a) with an outflow-pipe (Figs. 3, 4, G) let into bottom. 
Tank filled as Fig. 4, and refilled every three or four hours, the 
amount poured in being carefully measured. 
Fig. 1, A, B, C.-—Complete instrument. A, evaporating-tank ; 
B, reservoir filled with water to (7) ; (Z) a graduated glass coil, 
by which water pouring out through tap (/) is registered. 
Pressure upon tap regulated by (2) a tube and funnel buoyed up 
by (4). Water flows from B to A through a perforated, semi- 
circular chamber (e), which makes water spread over the entire 
NATURE 
357 
surface of tank. Overplus flows over at (/) down (c, @’) into 
reservoir C, similar to B in fittings. Then loss from B —gain in 
c =the evaporation from A. This arrangement intended chiefly 
for experimentation upon running water, removes the necessity 
for refilling the tank, although good results can be attained even 
then 
Fig. 2.—Tank from above. 
(2) space between walls ; (4) 
inflow-pipe from B ; (e) perforated chamber or rose ; (@) outflow- 
ipe. 
4 Wig. 3.—End of tank ; letters as before. The outer wall in 
part cut away to show chamber (a) with emptying: pipe (g). 
Fig. 4.—Transverse section : (0 2), walls ; (a), space ; g, pipe ; 
p, strengtheners. Height of water also represented. 
The following points are worthy of notice :— 
Fig.2 
(1) The level of the water can be kept constant by regulating 
the flow from the tap / (Fig. 1, B). 
(2) Error arising from splashing out of water, when heavy 
wind blowing, removed, the displaced water flows down (as 
Fig. 2), and through pipe g (Fig. 3), and is collected in a small 
measured vessel. 
(3) Error arising from rainfall similarly corrected ; rain falling 
into tank A, for greater part flows off at 7 and is collected in 
Cc; when very heavy, flows also into a, and is collected zs men- 
tioned above. Then, the amount of rainfall being known from 
the rain-gauge, the following simple process gives the evapora- 
tion :—. = rainfall in cubic cents. ; y = water in reservoirs ; 
« — y = evaporation in cubic cents. GEORGE HASLAM 
Trinity College, Toronto 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 
THE following candidates have been successful in the compe- 
tition for the Whitworth Scholarships, 1885, in the Science and 
Art Department, South Kensington :—Thomas Clarkson, age 
20, engineer, Manchester, 200/. ; Hugh O. Bennie, 20, engineer, 
Glasgow, 150/. ; Robert H. Unsworth, 20, engineer, Pendleton, 
near Manchester, 150/.; Harold M. Martin, 21, engineer, 
