NOVKMBKR 13, lilO.'i. 



SCIENCE. 



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lasting 20 months. Tho f.\i)Oilitioii has re- 

 sulted in some thousands of miles of hitherto 

 unknown <!ountry being mapped, and in the 

 discovery of six new tribes, including a race 

 of so-called magicians. Data have also been 

 collected regarding the cave dwellers of Mount 

 Elgon. Fifty different species of animals 

 have been secured, some of which will probably 

 prove to be new to science. The explorer also 

 succeeded in bringing back some perfect spec- 

 imens of tive-horned giraffes. For several 

 months the expedition was traversing a region 

 between the Upper Nile, Lake Kudolf and 

 Lake Victoria in which no white men had pre- 

 viously set foot. Of the so-called magicians, 

 whom Major Powell-Cotton came upon half 

 way between Ijike Kudolf and Lake Albert. 

 and who in their appearance and their customs 

 are quite distinct from any other tribe, he 

 gives the following account : " Their villages 

 were remarkable. Built of wattle and grouped 

 together in dozens on the upper slopes of the 

 hills, these dwellings were constructed with 

 two storeys, the upper floor being approached 

 through a dormer window, reached from the 

 ground by means of a rude ladder. At no 

 other point have T seen native houses consist- 

 ing of two floors. These people, living in the 

 liigher altitudes, are able to grow corn, while 

 the warlike natives in the plains below are 

 scorched by drought, and yet in such awe are 

 the magieiatis held that the starving people 

 below, who outnumlier the hill villagers by per- 

 haps a thoujsand to one, have never been known 

 to attack them. These people had never be- 

 fore seen a white man, and during the several 

 days I spent in their country they were quite 

 friendly and supplied us with food." 



A BULLETIN from the Bureau of Forestry 

 states that the Territorial Cioveniinent of the 

 Hawaiian Islands will aiipoiiit as superin- 

 tendent of forestry this winter a man fur- 

 nished it by the Bureau of Forestry, who will 

 take charge of important projects for the 

 betterment of the islands' forests. The man 

 appointed will have the responsibilities first of 

 determining the location and the boundaries 

 of a system of forest reserves, and later of 

 superintending a great deal of forest planting 

 both on public and private lands. The forest 



conditions of the islands arc unlike any liiat 

 l)revail in this country. Mr. William L. Hall 

 of the Bureau of Forestry, who has just re- 

 turned from a two months' examination of 

 the islands, reports peculiar and interesting 

 problems which forestry must solve there. The 

 islands contain scarcely any forests capable 

 of yielding timber of value for lumber. 

 Nearly all the lumber used for building inir- 

 posos comes from the Pacific Coast. But there 

 are several hundred thousand acres of forest 

 land of the greatest value for protective pur- 

 poses. Indeed, so great is the importance of 

 these forests that on their preservation depends 

 the existence of the sugar industry, and that 

 is equivalent to saying the continued pros- 

 perity of the islands. The sugar exports of the 

 last fiscal year amounted to $25,000,000, and 

 sugar is practically the only export. The rais- 

 ing of sugar requires an enormous ainount of 

 water, Hearly all of which must be supplied 

 by irrigation, the water being carried in 

 flumes and ditches from the wet, mountainous 

 parts of the islands to the dry plains on which 

 the sugar cane is grown. The rainfall of the 

 islands is nearly all confined to the northeast 

 and east mountain slopes, where it is tremen- 

 dously heavy, some years more than 200 inches. 

 On the other side of the divide, and in the 

 plains beyond, where the sugar cane grows, 

 there may be no more than 15 inches of rain a 

 year. The forests are largely confined to tlie 

 rainy side of the mountains, and are neceasar^- 

 as a protective cover, to keep the groun<l from 

 washing from the slopes and the rain from 

 rushing back too rapidly into the sea. The 

 I)resence of the forest cover, since it makes 

 the stream flow regular, preventing both floods 

 and periods of low stream flow, is indis|)eii- 

 sable to the success of irrigating projects. 

 The value of this forest, strangely cnougli, 

 consists not so much in the trees it contains 

 — for they are frequently low. crooked. an<l 

 sparsely scattered — as in the imixMietrable 

 mass of undergrowth beneath them. This 

 undergrowth, composed of vines, ferns and 

 mosses, is of so dense a character that it 

 shades the ground absolutely and holds water 

 like a sponge. It is, however, exceedingly 

 delicate and easily destroyed. Let cattle into 



