164 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 188. 



which it has emanated, has a great many things 

 in its favor. The illustrations are particularly 

 good. 



It deals with a country whose northern boun- 

 dary, as yet unknown, probably reaches the 

 watershed lying between the Congo and the 

 Zambesi. On the east it is limited by the 

 Kafukwe river and on the west by an indefinite 

 boundary at about 20° east of Greenwich. On 

 the south it is bounded by the Zambesi and the 

 Linyanti. The extent of the country, there- 

 fore, might be defined by stating that it lies 

 between the 12°th and the 18°th south latitude, 

 and between the 20°th and 29°th in east longi- 

 tude. The essence of the book, however, is 

 not in the three hundred pages of the text ; 

 but in the twenty pages of the two appendices. 



The first part of the volume deals with a 

 visit to the diamond mines at Kimberley. It 

 is interesting to note that, while there were no 

 houses upon the site of this city in 1870, 

 Kimberley now contains nearly twenty thous- 

 and inhabitants and its daily product reaches 

 the sum of $50,000. The railroad from the 

 Cape extends through this city to Mafeking. 

 It is only at this latter point that the signs of 

 civilization begin to disappear. Here it is that 

 the caravans start for the interior. ' 



Some of the comments of our writer upon 

 tlie phases of life through which he passes 

 are interesting, because they indicate the watch- 

 ful French mind, wide open to new impressions. 

 He seems to admire immensely the ' Boule- 

 dogues ' taken along as guardians of the camp. 

 Then come a series of observations upon the 

 experiences of the caravan in its trip to the 

 northward, along the border of the desert of 

 Kalahari. At Palapye he meets King Kahma, 

 the disciple of Moffat and Livingston, who ap- 

 parently is a model monarch. It appears that 

 there is at least one place where the sale of al- 

 coholic beverages can be prevented by regal 

 enactments, and this African king seems to be 

 more successful than some of his white breth- 

 ren in the prosecution of this work. 



The author comments upon the supervision 

 of these colonies by Great Britain with great 

 satisfaction, as he finds that they are managed 

 with much good sense and are practical because 

 they are adapted to the conditions. 



It is hardly necessary to devote any space to 

 the consideration of the details of the trip to 

 the Zambesi, with which nearly one-third of the 

 volume is taken up. At length, however, the 

 Machile river is reached. This stream is a 

 branch of the Zambesi, and, though known be- 

 fore, has onlj' been tentatively placed upon the 

 maps. The author can be interesting, but a 

 great deal of the story suggests nothing but lists 

 of mud settlements, terribly hot days, bad 

 water and various subsidiary rhapsodies upon 

 each new dish of game which seem to produce 

 a novel sensation upon his digestion. He seems 

 to have paid a profitable visit to King Lewanika, 

 who gave him a great deal of information with 

 reference to the country he was exploring ; but 

 much of the information given is still a secret 

 between himself and the king, as the descrip- 

 tion given of this new region is very scanty, in- 

 deed. 



The author visits the celebrated Victoria Falls 

 of the Zambesi before starting out upon his re- 

 turn trip, and his description of the trip down 

 the river in canoes is well done, in spite of the 

 fact that we become tired at length of the 

 groans of the hippopotami and the yawns of 

 the crocodiles. 



His account of the beauty and grandeur of 

 the famous falls is well worth reading, though it 

 would seem that geology and geography rather 

 suffer in his hands from neglect. On his return 

 journey the author has a bad attack of fever in 

 the ' thirst ' desert, where he is nearly prostrated 

 and has some \ery sad experiences. Event- 

 ually, however, he reaches Pretoria. From 

 this city he visits the gold mines of Johannes- 

 burg, of which a careful description is given. 

 He happened to be in the city at the time of the 

 Jameson raid in January, 1896, and his experi- 

 ences as a prisoner in the city at that time are 

 well given. The trip occupied nearly a whole 

 year, from March 23, 1895, to March 2, 1896. 



The author was fortunate in obtaining from 

 M. Jalla the records of ten years of tempera- 

 ture observation, from which the following 

 notes are taken : 



Hot season. 



+ 47° C. in shade 2 to 4 p. m. 

 -f 20° to 22° C. at night. 



End of October. 



