Sept. 3, 1885 | 
NATURE 
429 
do not use any specially significant figures, peculiar to each 
tribe, analogous to the totems of the North American Indians. 
They consider no kind of edible food unclean, but eat even 
monkeys, snakes, and scorpions, which they kill by means of a 
blow-pipe, throwing a dart poisoned with the juice of the Ipoh or 
Upas tree. For large game they use a kind of cross-bow, consist- 
ing of a sharpened bamboo spear placed horizontally on a grooved 
log, and a bent sapling fastened back bya rattan cord. This cord 
is stretched across a path in the jungle, and, on being touched, 
releases the sapling with sufficient force to drive it completely 
through a deer’s body. The Sakeis live in small huts built of 
bamboo and thatched with leaves of the Bertam palm, raised 
eight feet or more above the ground. They are shy and easily 
frightened, but are quite harmless, and are gradually becoming 
accustomed to Europeans, by whom they are employed to track 
game and to cut paths through the jungle. They are smaller in 
stature, but are otherwise very similar in appearance to the Malays, 
from whom they differ, however, in usually having wavy instead 
of straight-growing hair. A few Malays are attached to every 
Sakei community to act as go-betweens in the sale of their 
produce, and the officials have received special instructions to 
protect these aboriginal tribes. 
THE last issue (Bd. xxviii. Nos. 7 and 8) of the Vienna Geo- 
graphical Society contains a paper by Dr. B. Jirus describing 
several visits made by him to the Scoglios, or small reefs off the 
Dalmatian coasts. —Dr. Polek writes on the colonies of Lippor- 
wans, or Ras Kolniks, Russian schismatics who fled in the 
middle of the seventeenth century into Bessarabia and Moldavia, 
which they subsequently left for Bukowina in a romantic way. 
The writer discusses the history of their flight, and describes 
their manners and mode of life. The charm of mystery hangs 
around this small sect of the Greek Oriental Church.—Mr. H. 
Polakowsky discusses the historical value of the Spanish heroic 
poem ‘‘Araucana,” recording the struggles the Spaniards for 
the possession of the central part of the present Republic of 
Chili. The object of the author of the paper is to draw atten- 
tion to this poem, and its translation into German, and by a com- 
plete critical examination to separate the historical and actual 
from the poetical and imaginative.—Herr Baumann describes 
the projected geodetic work of Dr. Lenz’s Congo expedition, 
and also writes from the vessel taking out the expedition on the 
present position of the question it is going out to solve. 
THE Geographical Society of Hamburg has published a 
memorandum showing the territorial extent of the recent 
German annexations in the Pacific Ocean. Reduced to English 
measurements the German estimates are as follows :—Kaiser 
Wilhelm’s Land (German New Guinea), 34,508 square miles ; 
New Ireland, 3,398°8 square miles ; New Britain, 9,348°8 square 
miles ; the Bismarck Archipelago, 15,261°6 square miles; in all 
about 65,512 English geographical square miles. The same 
authority estimates the area of New Guinea taken under British 
protection as 65,517°76 square miles, or about the same as the 
total of the German annexations in the Pacific, and in each case 
the area acquired is rather more than twice that of Ireland. 
THE Jndépendance Belge announces that the two Portuguese 
explorers, Capt. Capello and Commander Ivens, who started 
last year upon an expedition across Africa, have reached the 
Cape after a most adventurous journey. Leaving Mossamedes 
in March, 1884, with an escort of 120 men recruited along the 
coast between that place and St. Paul de Loanda, they reached 
Quillimane, upon the eastern coast, to the south of Mozambique, 
in May, 1885, after having discovered the watershed whence the 
rivers of Central Africa flow north and east towards the sea. 
They travelled over 4500 miles of territory, and they are said to 
haye discovered the sources of the Lualaba. They also came 
upon a region which is extraordinarily rich in copper, this being 
the district of Yaranganga, situated between the Lualaba and 
the Luapala. The chief of the country, however, was so hostile 
that they could not visit it in detail, but they think that as this 
was the first visit of white men his hostility may be appeased by 
judicious presents. Messrs. Capello and Ivens found that the 
tsetse fly was very abundant. The /udépendance Belge adds that 
the two explorers started again at the beginning of last month 
for Mossamedes, with the intention of returning to Europe by 
way of the Congo. 
THE Calcutta correspondent of the Zzmes states that the 
Government of India has conferred the title of Raj Bahadoor 
and a grant in perpetuity of a rent-free village in Oude on 
Pundit Kishen Singh Milwal, an emp/oyé of the Survey 
Department, who is well known to all geographers for his ex- 
plorations in Thibet, which have been published under the 
initials ‘‘ A. K.” 
On August 10 Col. Lockhart was at Hargil, near Gilghit, 
and is now probably marching to Chilval. His mission is 
expected to largely increase our knowledge of the country 
towards the upper waters of the Oxus. 
THE IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE 
HE autumn meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute is being 
held in Glasgow this week, under the presidency of Dr. 
Percy, F.R.S. 
On Tuesday, after the President had acknowledged the wel- 
come given to the Institute by the Corporation of Glasgow 
and referred to the depression of trade, due, in his opinion, 
to over-production, and to be remedied only by a diminution of 
production or increased consumption, the three following papers 
were read, of which abstracts are given below. 
On the Iron Trade of Scotland, by Mr. F. J. Rowan.— 
The author separates the history of iron-making into two 
periods—the emirical, characterised by rude and imperfect 
appliances ; and the sczentific, in which exact methods of work- 
ing are employed, the introduction of the hot-blast in 1830 
closing one and opening the other period. At this period there 
were in Scotland 27 blast-furnaces making 37,5000 tons ; at 
present there are 92 in blast, with an average production of 200 
tons per week each, and 269 puddling-furnaces at work, each 
producing annually 732 tons. There has been a steady increase 
in the production per furnace, and reduction in the amount of 
coal used to produce a ton of pig iron, the latter result being 
due to the introduction of closed tops, higher furnaces, and 
higher temperatures of blast. About two-thirds of the coal 
raised have been from the coal-measures, and one-third from 
the carboniferous limestone series. It is remarkable that the 
increased production of coal that has recently taken place has 
been accompanied by a reduction in the proportionate number 
of persons employed due to mechanical haulage and other im- 
provements both below and above the surface. The increased 
manufacture of open-hearth steel, which employs a large 
quantity of Spanish and African ore, has caused a diminution in 
the output of ironstone, and has also had an influence on the 
pig-iron trade ; this, however. has been compensated for by the 
malleable iron tube manufacture, the manufacture of boiler tubes 
having increased ten times in the last twenty-five years. The 
author claims for Scotland a good record of advancement and 
improvement in connection with the iron trade—the first cylinder- 
blowing engine, the first use of raw coal in the blast-furnace, 
the discovery of blackband ironstone by David Mushet, the 
invention of the hot blast by Neilson, and the collection and 
utilisation of the gases from the tunnel-head. The spirit of 
enterprise is still potent among Scottish ironmasters, and it is 
hoped more prosperous times will soon reward and further 
stimulate the energy and ability which are to be found in all 
branches of the iron trade in Scotland. 
The Rise and Progress of the Scotch Steel Trade, by James 
Riley.—The author first makes a short reference to the manu- 
facture of cast steel in crucibles, which is carried on only to a 
very small extent. 
As regards the Bessemer process, the first trial, which proved 
unsuccessful, was made in 1857, at the Coats Iron Works, by Mr. 
T. Jackson, the apparatus being fitted up from the drawings and 
letterpress in the Z//ustrated London News. 
Other attempts on a small scale were afterwards made to 
introduce the manufacture, but since the application of the basic 
lining to the Bessemer converter, by which the pig-iron of the 
district will become available, the process has again received 
attention, and a large production is anticipated. 
The history of the Scotch steel trade really commences with 
the formation, in 1871, of the Steel Company of Scotland, which 
manufactured open-hearth steel by the processes of the late Sir 
William Siemens, their output being principally boilerand ship 
plates, angles, bars, castings, and forgings. The extension of 
manufacture in these directions has been dne to the fact that the 
Admiralty in 1875 declared for steel, ‘‘ giving Siemens’s steel a 
preference,” and that in 1879 concessions were made to steel by 
Lloyds’ and the Board of Trade, which has caused a great 
demand for shipbuilding and for the purposes of the civil 
engineer, who has recognised that by the use of steel, difficulties 
