582 



SCIBNCJS. 



[Vol. 1., No. 20. 



hectares of forest in 1840. and 5.5. .584 in 1SG2, the un- 

 ])liniled part being chiefly the Httle valleys (lettes) 

 between the Dunes. From 1861 to 1805 tlie greater 

 part of tlie forests on tlie Dunes was sold by the 

 government for a total of 13,000,000 francs ; but, as 

 the supply of resin from our southern states was 

 just then diminished by the war of tlie rebellion, the 

 pines were much injured by bad treatment from their 

 jirivate owners. The Marensin is a region of old 

 forests included in the district of lagoons between 

 the southern quarter of the Dunes and the Grandes- 

 Landes as far soutli as Dax. It has long produced a 

 valuable yield of resin, and is thouglit to have had har- 

 bors and ports in Roman times; but tliese have long 

 since been destroyed by tlie drifting sands. The Ma- 

 remme comes next fartlier south along the coast. It 

 is a region of lai-ge dunes of irregular form, independ- 

 ent of the present coast, and probably mucli older 

 than the sand-liills farther north, occupied by an old 

 forest of cork-oaks and resin-pines. The Chalosse is 

 the only agricultural part of the Landes. It extends 

 souiliward of the Adour to tlie department of Basses 

 Pyrenees, — a rolling, well-watered, fertile country. 

 After this introductory description, M. Blanc dis- 

 cusses the future of the region, and its improvement 

 by furtlier tree-planting, and by opening a canal to 

 connect all its lagoons behind the Dunes. — {Rev. 

 scient., 1SS3, 3dl.) w. m. d. [1118 



METEOROLOGY. 

 Rainfall iu South Australia. — The tropical rains 

 on the north coast prevail during the summer 

 months, commencing generally towards the end of 

 October or beginning of November, and lasting 

 until April, little or none falling during' the inter- 

 mediate montlis. These tropical rains extend more 

 or less across the interior, down to, or even south of 

 the Peake (lat. 28°), but fall off considerably south of 

 the Daly Waters (lat. 16° 15'). This, however, varies 

 greatly in different years, according to the force and 

 southerly dip of the north-west monsoon. In some 

 cases, heavy thunder-storms and torrential rain extend 

 over nearly the whole of the interior, and in other 

 years the rainfall is heavy for only a few hundred 

 miles from the north coast; and the countiy, espe- 

 cially south of the tropics, down even to the head of 

 Spencer's Gulf, is exposed to long and severe drought. 

 On the other hand, the winter rains occasionally ex- 

 tend well up into tlie interior, sometimes reaching or 

 passing the centre of the continent. This, perliaps, is 

 more especially tlie case when tlie centre of a cyclonic 

 disturbance passes to the north of Adelaide, from 

 west to east, and also wlien cyclonic disturbances in 

 Queensland, or on the east coast, have their western 

 quadrant extending well into the central regions of 

 till' continent and the northern pastoral districts of 

 Soutli Australia. But most of our disturbances have 

 their centre soutli of tlie continent, their patli being 

 roughly parallel to the coast-iine, so that as a rule our 

 winter rains thin off, and become uncertain about 

 a hundred miles nortli of the head of Spencer's Gulf, 

 and are heavy north of the Gulf only along or near 

 tlie Flinders Range. The area of minimum rain- 

 fall extends from the Great Australian Bight to Port 

 Augusta, at the head of Spencer's Gulf; northwards 

 up Lake Toi'rens and Lake Eyre; and again over the 

 plains to the east of the Flinders Range, up to about 

 lat. 25°, reaching on either side to within, perhaps, 

 a few hundred miles of the east and west coasts (es- 

 pecially the latter). All south of this, and for some 

 distance northwards, along an<l in the immediate 

 neighborhood of the Flinders Range, we usually liave 

 good winter rains, but uncertain summer rains; the 



latter being heavier and more frequent over the north- 

 ern limits of this region, where they bear a large ratio 

 to the total fall during the year. — {Met. obs. Ade- 

 laide observ., 1880.) [1119 

 Rainfall in France. — At the last meeting of the 

 Meteorological society of France, a paper was read by 

 Mr. Moureaux, showing that the law of the raijis 

 south of the central plateau of France is independ- 

 ent of the meteorological conditions on the oceanic 

 side. This shows the importance of being in di- 

 rect connection with Algiers. — {Nature, March 22.) 



H. A. H. [1120 



GEOGRAPHY. 



(Arctic.) 



Arctic notes. — In the year-book of the Verein 

 fiir vaterliindishe naturkunde in Wurtterabei'g, Zeller 

 has an article on the Algae and zoophytes of the 

 Nordenskiold Sea, collecte'd by Graf Waldburg-Zeil. 



Nature (vol. xxviii. no. 3) gives a woodcut of 



the Russian meteorological station at the Lena mouth. 



The Leo is announced to sail for Point Barrow, 



June 12, from San Francisco. The steamer Pro- 

 teus is to go to tlie relief of the Lady Franklin Bay 

 party, and is expected to sail about the 20tli inst., or 

 as soon as she can be joined by U.S.S. Yantic, which 

 is to act as tender, and to utilize as far as possible 

 the scientific opportunities of the voyage. — w. h. d. 



[1121 

 (A/jnca.) 



African notes. — In spite of the disastrous end- 

 ing of the Flatter's expedition, two more parties are 

 planned by the French foj' Saliaran exploration, im- 

 der Col. Bernard and F. Foureau. According to a 

 recent despatch from Wargla, four members of Flat- 

 ter's party are still alive as prisoners among the 



Tuaregs. In western Africa the active French 



advance has met with opposition. Dr. Bayol was re- 

 fused permission to continue on his way "to Kaarta, 

 and has returned to Bafnlabe on the Senegal. Col. 

 Berguis-Desbordes writes from the upper Niger, that, 

 after his losses on the way there, he must at once re- 

 turn to the coast unless immediately re-enforced. A 

 sketch of the rapid progress of the French in this 

 region is given by J. Aiicelle in liev. de r/eor/r., 



1883, 161-183. R. Flegel writes from Lagos' under 



date of March 20, 1883"^ of his safe return from 

 Adamaua and the source of the Benue ; liis fartlier 

 journey was cut sliort by lack of means. The In- 

 ternational Kongo association has despatched Lieut. 

 V. Kerkhoven from England with supplies for the 

 parties in the field. It is stated tliat he takes a 

 number of carrier-pigeons with wliicli to keep up 

 communication from tlie interior with Zanzibar ; but 

 this must be a mistake. A general review and map of 

 the later explorations in the Kongo basin is given 

 in Peterm. mitth., 1883, 177. News has been re- 

 ceived from Dr. Pogge at Mukenge, on his way to 

 the west coast, after parting from Lieut. Wissmann 



in the farther interior. Dr. Holiib is about to 



start for southern Africa after a course of special geo- 

 graphic study ; he proposes to go northward from the 



Cape to the lake district. Giraud and Thomson, 



recently entering Africa from Zanzibar, have been 

 heard from in good condition, a short way on their 



respective journeys. Revoil has left Somali-land 



for the Zanzibar region. The French and Italian 



exploration about Shna and Assab is still very active 

 in spite of the unattractive climate of these districts. 

 At Assab nearly all the drinking-water has to be dis- 

 tilled from the sea. Schuver, the Dutch explorer, 



arrived in Kartum last December, and Dr. Junker is 

 expected there shortly from his journeys in the far 



