284 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 32: 



" The next day, April 23, Mr. Jephson was despatched with a 

 strong force to take the boat to the Nyanza. On the 26th the 

 boat's crew sighted Mawa Station, the southernmost belonging to 

 Emin Pacha. Mr. Jephson was there hospitably received by the 

 Egyptian garrison. The boat's crew say that they were embraced 

 one by one, and that they never had such attention shown to them 

 as by these men, who hailed them as brothers. On April 29 we 

 once again reached the bivouac ground occupied by us on Dec. 16, 

 and at 5 P.M. of that day I saw the Khedive steamer about seven 

 miles away steaming up toward us. Soon after 7 P.M., Emin Pacha, 

 Signor Casati, and Mr. Jephson arrived at our camp, where they 

 were heartily welcomed by all of us. Next day we moved to a 

 better camping-place, about three miles above Nyamsassie, and at 

 this spot Emin Pacha also made his camp. 



"We were together until May 25, when I left him, leaving Jeph- 

 son, three Sudanese, and two Zanzibaris in his care. In return he 

 caused to accompany me three of his irregulars and 102 Madi na- 

 tives as porters. Fourteen days later I was at Fort Bodo. At the 

 fort were Capt. Nelson and Lieut. Stairs. The latter had returned 

 from Ugarrava twenty-two days after I had set out for the lake, 

 bringing with him, alas ! only 16 men out of 56. All the rest were 

 dead. My 20 couriers whom I had sent with letters to Major 

 Barttelot had safely left Ugarrava for Yambuya on March 16. 

 Fort Bodo was in a flourishing state. Nearly ten acres were under 

 cultivation. One crop of Indian-corn had been harvested, and was 

 in the granaries. On June 16 I left Fort Bodo with 11 1 Zanzibaris 

 and loi of Emin's people. Lieut. Stairs was appointed command- 

 ant of the fort, Capt. Nelson was second in command, and Sur- 

 geon Parke was medical officer. The garrison consisted of 59 

 rifles. I thus deprived myself of all my officers in order not to be 

 encumbered with baggage, provisions, and medicines, which would 

 have to be taken if accompanied by Europeans. 



"On June 24 we reached Kilonga, and on July 19 L'garrava. 

 The latter station was deserted. Ugarrava, having gathered as 

 much ivory as he could obtain from the district, had proceeded 

 down the river about three months before. On leaving Fort Bodo. 

 I had loaded every carrier with 60 pounds of corn, so that we were 

 able to pass through the wilderness unscathed. Passing on down 

 the river as fast as we could go, daily expecting to meet the cou- 

 riers, who had been stimulated to exert themselves for a reward of 

 ^10 per head, or the major himself, leading an army of carriers, 

 we indulged ourselves in pleasing anticipation as we neared the 

 goal. On Aug. 10 we overtook Ugarrava with an immense flotilla 

 of 57 canoes, and, to our wonder, our couriers, now reduced to 17, 

 who related an awful story of hairbreadth escapes and tragic 

 scenes. Three had been slain, two were still feeble from wounds, 

 and all except five bore on their bodies the scars of arrow-wounds. 

 A week later, Aug. 17, we met the rear column of the expedition 

 at Bunalya." 



Then Stanley goes on to describe his disappointment at hearing 

 of the disaster that had befallen his rear guard, and says that he 

 intended to go back to the Albert Nyanza to unite with Emin. 



CALIFORNIA 'WINES. 



A REPORT by Major B. C. Truman, and published by the Los 

 Angeles Board of Trade, expresses some optimistic views of the 

 future of California wines, which seem likely to be realized. 



No one acquainted with the varied soil and diversified climate of 

 California can doubt that it is to that State that the American 

 people are to look for the wines which will in time take the place of 

 the vintages of Bordeaux, Rheims, Epernay, Oporto, Madeira, and 

 Tokay. California may not probably produce a Chateau Lafitte, a 

 ■White Hermitage, or a Chablis, for some time to come ; she may 

 never perhaps be able to produce similar wines ; but, even if she 

 succeeds in perfecting processes of wine-making, and producing 

 brands that are rich in bouquet and aroma, they may never, in the 

 estimation of some, reach the perfection of those just named, and 

 otherwise not be like them. No two wine-producing countries are 

 precisely alike, although there may be similarity of climate, soil, 

 cultivation, and manipulation. In California, grapes are grown in 

 all kinds of soil, altitudes, and under very dissimilar atmospheric 

 conditions ; some of these conditions of climate, soil, and altitude 



resembling France and Italy, others Germany and Greece, others 

 Spain and Portugal, while not a few of the Californian conditions 

 are totally different from those of the European wine districts. 

 Thus, to a great extent, the result will be the production of a new 

 type ; and our vintages, with their pretty names, may sound as 

 sweetly in the ear of the connoisseur of the next generation as do 

 Rousillion or Amontillado in our own. 



During the last thirty years improvements have been made, and 

 are still being made, in the cultivation of the vine, and the pro- 

 cesses of wine-making in California. Commissioners and experts 

 have visited foreign countries, and skilled workmen from leading 

 European vineyards and wine-houses have been brought over here 

 at great cost. Cuttings from all the rare vines of Europe have been 

 imported, and all possible information respecting the cultivation of 

 the vine, and the processes of wine-making, have been collected 

 from every available source. Some species do not take kindly to 

 this new climate and soil, while others appear to have gained new 

 virtues ; and although we cannot always expect that the identical 

 flavor of the wine from the imported vine will be repeated in their 

 new home, still many show a decided improvement. There are 

 Rieslings in the market now, and some rare old white wines with- 

 out a name in many a cellar, which, had their bottles been decked 

 with the picture of some ruined old castle, might pass for a real 

 Teutonic article from the banks of the Rhine. Other wines, like 

 the Cucamonga of San Bernardino and the Angelica of Los An- 

 geles, are noted for their luscious sweetness. Other blendings, like 

 Kohler's or Baldwin's Bonanzas, have a quaint and fascinating 

 flavor, while there are ports enough like their namesakes to defy 

 comparison, and some sherries and muscatels which at no distant 

 date will substantially supplant that class of imported wines in the 

 United States. 



As an illustration of the growing popularity of Californian wines 

 at home, it is not too much to say that twenty years ago not teiv 

 gentlemen in the State ever placed either native wines or brandy 

 on their table. Gradually, however, the white and red acid wines 

 of Los Angeles and other counties improved, and were trusted ; 

 and now no Californian is ashamed of entertaining his guest with 

 either the Sauterne, Hock, Muscatel, Zinfandel (claret), Riesling, or 

 Burgundy of his native land. These wines are becoming favorites 

 in the Eastern States, and even in England, and particularly among 

 connoisseurs who know pure wines from adulterated ones. It alsO' 

 may not be generally known that certain French firms even export 

 to their American customers red wines which were originally made 

 in California, and shipped to France for the purpose of adultera- 

 tion, or, at least, deception. The port wine from Los Angeles 

 County is undoubtedly the best, purest, and truest port used in the 

 country. It is palatable, medicinal in its effects, and purer than 

 any port that comes from foreign countries, or that is manufactured 

 in the cellars of importing-houses of New York and other Eastern 

 cities. The Californian sherry is also gaining in favor, and its sale 

 is daily increasing in the East ; and what has just been said of the 

 Californian port and the foreign article holds good for the sherry of 

 California and its rival from abroad. 



The excellence of the Californian vintages lies in their absolute 

 purity, but they lack age and that exquisite manipulation which 

 imparts to imported concoctions a mellow taste and an acceptable 

 aroma. There is a nutty flavor to the so called cheap sherry from 

 abroad, that often pleases the senses more than that of the unadul- 

 terated sherry from California ; and, while the former is actually 

 guilty of deleterious effects, the latter is only deemed deficient iii 

 high-bred quality, which may be traced to its newness, and nothing 

 else. Angelica wine from Los Angeles County has always been, 

 a favorite in the East, and is the wine that attracted the admira- 

 tion of the jurors ot the Paris Exhibition in 1867. 



There is no other vegetable growth in California which finds so 

 generally a congenial place as the grape. It is a good bearer, and 

 never fails if properly attended to. It never greatly suffers from 

 cold or heat, or other elemental disturbance, and does not average 

 one pound of decayed or indifferent berries in a thousand in the 

 pickings. The vine suffers nothing from the elements, as a general 

 rule ; although whole vineyards in the lowlands, which have been 

 primed too early, have been injured by frost, and so rendered non- 

 producing for one season. The phylloxera has as yet occasioned 



