February 13, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



9^ 



1889) as superintendent of classification and distribution in the 

 Newberry Library, Chicago. Albert Shaw (Ph.D. 1884) has be- 

 come the American editor of the Review of Reviews. 



— M. Em. Deschamps transmitted from Mahe, on the Malabar 

 coast, some interesting information respecting the Veddas, de- 

 scendants of the first-known inhabitants of Ceylon. He says, 

 according to the " Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society," 

 that they ai'e probably the "Yakkas," or " demons," of whom the 

 ancient works and legends speak, — an appellation derived from 

 their demoniacal cult, and which was probably changed by the 

 first conquerors of the island into that of '"Veddas" ("hunters"). 

 They inhabit a belt of forests lying on the eastern confines of the 

 central province. As a race, they are rapidly disappearing, and 

 now number only two hundred or three hundred. Their villages 

 lie several miles apart, and consist of one or two huts, formed of 

 the branches and bark of trees. Some, when the rains come on, 

 find shelter in the rocks, and have received the name of' " Galla- 

 Veddas." Their weapons, consisting of bow, arrows, and hatchet, 

 are their principal goods. They are great hunters. The Veddas 

 never speak unless absolutely obliged, and do not know how to 

 laugh. Their manner of speech is brusque, and their language is 

 very poor, being deficient in whole series of words, i.e., trees, 

 plants, colors, etc. Although living in the midst of a population 

 which is at once polygamus and polyandrous, they remain monog- 

 amists. The baptism of children is the only ceremony to which 

 they attach great importance. They have no chief or social 

 organization. Their religion consists in fear of the demons, of 

 which the jungle is supposed to be full. The dead are now buried 

 in the forest. Not long ago it was the practice to simply abandon 

 the corpses. The Vedda never betrays any sentiments: anger 

 astonishes, and laughter exasperates him. Dancing is his favorite 

 occupation. Doctors and medicines are unknown. The people 

 meet to dance away the devil of a sick man. The men are rather 

 small, strongly built ; their lower limbs badly made, and not well 

 proportioned; hair black and coarse; eyes black and sparkling, 

 with a fierce look; forehead straight and broad; nose broad; the 

 genera! appearance of the countenance not disagreeable ; their body 

 is maroon in color, and is repulsively dirty. The women are 

 small, and possess few of the attractions of their sex. Their cloth- 

 ing, like that of the men, is of the scantiest. 



— At a meeting of the Geographical Society of Paris held on 

 Nov. 7, 1890, M. Cholet, the administrator of Brazzaville, gave 

 some account of his recent ascent of the Sangha, an important and 

 hitherto practically unexplored tributary of the Kongo. The 

 Sangha enters the Kongo at Bonga, a French station between the 

 embouchures of the Alima and Mobangi. The "Proceedings of 

 the Royal Geographical Society " (Jan.) states that the traveller, 

 who was accompanied by M. Pettier, quitted Brazzaville in the 

 little steamer " Ballay " on the 19th of February, and on the 30th 

 of March commenced their voyage up the Sangha. The river 

 varies in breadth from 1,000 yards to a mile and a half. Its 

 course is encumbered with islands and sand-banks, the latter, when 

 the waters are low, swarming with hippopotamuses. In the lower 

 course the river-banks are low and marshy. The villages lie far 

 from the stream, and are inhabited by the Afurus, a commercial 

 people, who bring ivory from the Upper Sangha down to Bonga. 

 The middle coiu'se is inhabited by the Busindes, whose villages 

 are situated on the banks, which are more elevated here. The 

 upper part of the river, up to the point reached by the party, is 

 inhabited by the Bassangas, a rich and powerful tribe, whose vil- 

 lages are built on islands. At the village of Uoso the Sangha 

 receives an important affluent, the N'goko. and itself takes the 

 name of Masa. The latter arm is over 3,000 yards broad, but the 

 sand-banks prevented an ascent being made for any considerable 

 distance. The N'goko has, on the other hand, a narrow bed, never 

 exceeding in breadth 220 yards. High vvooded mountains lie on 

 both sides of the stream. Elephants abound in this region. The 

 people live at a distance from the river. A few miles above Uoso 

 the N'goko receives a ti'ibulary, the Maugango (100 yards broad), 

 and changes its name to Monba. Beyond this point the country 

 seems quite uninhabited. Navigation becoming difficult and pro- 

 visions failing, the return voyage was commenced on the 15th of 



May, and Bonga was feached on the 31st of May. The natives 

 were friendly after their first fears had been overcome. They 

 have no relations with the people of the Mobangi, and are not 

 cannibals. Judging by their weapons, language, and dances, they 

 seem to resemble the Pahuins and the Udumbos. The country is 

 rich in ivory. India-rubber was also found. 



— It is with much pleasure that Science reprints the following 

 extract from the Congressional Record of Feb. 6, 1891, on the con- 

 sideration of the Sundry Civil Appropriation Bill in Committee of 

 the Whole House, Feb. 9, 1891 : " Mr. Cannon. Mr. Chairman, — I 

 desire, if I can have the attention of the gentleman from Texas 

 [Mr. Sayers], to state that the next eleven pages of this bill cover 

 items of appropriation for the Coast Survey. They are about the 

 same as in the current year, with the exception of an increase of 

 about $13,000 for printing charts, etc., found to be absolutely 

 necessary. Last year and this year the Committee on Appropria- 

 tions gave a most exhaustive examination of this service, and, I 

 believe the committee is unanimously of the opinion that it is 

 conducted in as economical, praiseworthy, and profitable a man- 

 ner for the benefit of the government as any part of the public 

 service; and that substantially, if not literally, we have given the 

 amount that is estimated for. For the purpose of saving time, I 

 ask the committee, with the approval of the gentleman from 

 Texas, that we may pass over the Coast-Survey items." Such a 

 speech is seldom made concerning a bureau of one of our depart- 

 ments, on the floor of our legislative halls ; and it must be very 

 gratifying to the superintendent, and to his subordinates, who 

 several years ago felt that they were subjected to much criticism 

 which was unjust. Recognition of this character serves to stimu- 

 late the zeal of those engaged in scientific pursuits as well as in 

 other walks of life. 



— The El Diario, July 3, of Buenos Ayres announces the return 

 of M. Storm's expedition from the Pilcomayo, after an absence of 

 over five months. Like other expeditions into this region, as 

 quoted in the January " Proceedings of the Royal Geographical 

 Society," the party encountered great difficulties, but escaped 

 without loss of life. The river was navigated in the steamer for 

 a long distance, and numerous obstacles wei-e surmounted, but at 

 last the leaders, with a few men, had to take to their canoes. Not- 

 withstanding the hostility of the Indians, the party pushed on to 

 the Bolivian frontier, and explored a large part of this little-known 

 region. They have brought back important zoological and botani- 

 cal collections. There seems to be no doubt that the western arm 

 of the river is the true Pilcomayo. 



^ Further nevvs of Capt. Page's unfortunate expedition up the 

 Pilcomayo has been received by the Royal Geographical Society, 

 London, in a letter from Mr. J. Gi-aham Kerr, one of the English 

 members of the party, who wrote from latitude 24° 58', longitude 

 58° 40', on the 4th of October last. He says that the expedition 

 started with provisions for six months, and that they had then 

 been nine months on the way, and were in a starving condition. 

 Fortunately, however, they had been able to kill a good many 

 deer. The relief party of twenty soldiers, sent up by the govem- 

 menit, arrived on Oct. 4. The river Pilcomayo. he says, at that 

 season is a mere brook, a few feet wide and only a few inches 

 deep. Even in the season of higher water, when they ascended 

 it, navigation was very difficult, owing to the shallowness and 

 the numerous snags and tree-trunks that encumbered the passage. 

 In April they resorted to the laborious method of constructing 

 dams below the steamer, and waiting till the water rose to a 

 sufficient height to move a,head for a short distance. They 

 reached the position from which ^Mr. Kerr wrote, on June 14. 

 Capt. Page died on his way down to obtain succor with three men 

 in the only remaining boat. The remainder of the party, left to 

 their own resources, were in daily fear of an attack from the 

 hostile Indians of the Chaco; but, though watched continually, 

 they received only one visit from them, on Sept. 18, and that 

 passed off in a friendly manner. At the time of writing, prepa- 

 rations were being made for retreat down the river in the boat 

 whicli brought up the relief party. If the boat should prove use- 

 less, they intended to burn it and march to the Paraguay, a 

 journey of two months or thereabouts. 



