SCIENCE. 



[Vol. , XV. No. 361 



Australia exported also large amounts. In Austria-Hungary, im- 

 ports dinninished from $10,950,000 in 1S79, to $S, 000,000 in 18S7, 

 while exports increased from $20,750,000 to $33,900,000. In the 

 United States, imports increased from $7,100,000 in 1879, to $16,- 

 650,000 in 1887, while exports decreased from $128,800,000 to 

 $112,600,000. Importations into Belgium decreased from $16,400,- 

 000 in 1879, to $10,400,000 in 1S87 ; in Italy, from $21,200,000 to 

 $14,000,000; in Russia, from $18,330,000 to $10,400,000. By add- 

 ing the above figures, it is found that the entire imports of meat 

 into the countries specified have diminished from $490,970,000 to 

 §403,120,000, while the entire exports decreased from $278,180,000 

 to $244,700,000. In 1875, Germany possessed 24,400,000 neat- 

 cattle (four small cattle, such as sheep, hogs, and goats, being 

 reckoned as one) ; in 1883, only 23,500,000. Between 18S1 and 

 1887 there was in France an increase from 19,700.000 to 20,750,- 

 000; in Great Britain, from 17,800,000 to 18,600,000; while in 

 Austria-Hungary the figures remained the same. The increase in 

 population in these countries during this time was as follows : in 

 Germany, 3,500,000; France, 480,000; Great Britain, about 3,000,- 

 000 ; and Austria-Hungary, 2,000,000. The ratio in France on ac- 

 count of the small increase of population is most favorable. This 

 country, therefore, could increase its exports, says the United 

 States commercial agent. In Germany the ratio is very bad, the 

 number of neat-cattle having diminished 900,000 head, and the 

 population having increased 3.500^000. It is most r.rnarkable in 

 the case of the- ^United. States, where imports increased 130 per 

 cent, and exports diminished I2i per cent, although the number of 

 neat-cattle increased from 56,600,000 head in iSSo, to 71,200,000 in 

 1888, and the population increased only from 50,500,000 to 62,- 

 000,000. 



STANLEY'S EXPLORATIONS.^ 



I REMEMBER, while Standing on the edge of the plateau which 

 overlooks the southern end of Lake Albert, in December, 1S87, that 

 looking across the lake to the Unyoro plateau, and running my 

 eye along its unbroken outline from north to south, I was much 

 struck by the gradual but steady uplift of the land to a point near 

 the lake's end, where a wide cleft separated the plateau from the 

 disjointed mass and higher elevations culminating around Mount 

 Ajif. Southward beyond Ajif we could see nothing but dark im- 

 penetrable clouds, ominous of a storm ; yet underneath these 

 night-black clouds lurked a most interesting mystery, — that of the 

 long-lost and wandering Mountains of the Moon. Little did we 

 imagine it, but the results of our journey from the Albert Nyanza 

 to Unyampaka, where I turned away from the newly discovered 

 lake in 1876, establish beyond a doubt that the snowy mountain 

 which bears the.native name of Ruwenzori or Ruwenjura is identi- 

 cal with what the ancients called "Mountains of the Moon." 



Note what Scheaddeddim, an Arab geographer of the fifteenth 

 century, writes : " From the Mountains of the Moon the Egyptian 

 Nile takes its rise. It cuts horizontally the equator in its course 

 north. Many rivers come from this mountain and unite in a great 

 lake. From this lake comes the Nile, the most beautiful and 

 greatest of the rivers of all the earth." 



If, adopting the quaint style and brevity of the Arab writer, we 

 would write of this matter now, we would say, " From Ruwenzori, 

 the Snow Mountain, the western branch of the Upper Nile takes 

 its rise. Many rivers come from this mountain, and, uniting in the 

 Semliki River, empty into a great lake, named by its discoverer the 

 Albert Nyanza. From this lake, which also receives the eastern 

 branch of the Upper Nile, issues the true Nile, one of the most fa- 

 mous of the rivers of all the earth." 



But this is a matter of slight moment compared to the positive 

 knowledge that in the least-suspected part of Africa there has shot 

 up into view and fact a lofty range of mountains, the central por- 

 tion of which is covered with perpetual snow, which supplies a 

 lake to the south of the equator, and pours, besides, scores of 

 sweet-water streams to the large tributary feeding the Albert Ny- 

 anza from the south. 



You will remember that Samuel Baker, in 1864, reported the 



1 Letter from Mr. Henry M. Stanley to the Royal Geographical Society of Lon- 

 don and to the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, written from Camp at Kizinga 

 Uzinya, Aug. 17, 1889. 



Albert Nyanza to stretch " inimitably " in a south-westerly direc- 

 tion from Vacovia ; and that Gessi Pacha, who 'ffrst circumnavi- 

 gated that lake, and Mason Bey, who in 1877 made a more careful 

 investigation of it, never even hinted at the existence of a snowy 

 mountain in that neighborhood ; nor did the two last travellers pay 

 any attention to the Semliki River. I might even add that Emin 

 Pacha, for years resident on or near Lake Albert, or Capt. Cas- 

 sati, who for some months resided in Unyoro, never heard of any 

 such remarkable object as a snowy mountain being in that region : 

 therefore we may well call it an unsuspected part of Africa. Surely 

 it was none of our purpose to discover it. It simply thrust itself 

 direct in our homeward route, and, as it insisted on our following 

 its base-line, we viewed it from all sides but the north-east. Only 

 then could we depart from its neighborhood. 



Surrounded as I am by the hourly wants of an expedition like 

 this, I cannot command the time to write such a letter on this 

 subject as I would wish. I must even content myself with allow- 

 ing a few facts to fall into line for your leisurely consideration. 



If you will draw a straight line from the debouchure of the Nile 

 from Lake Albert, 230 geographical miles in a direction nearly 

 south-west, magnetic, you will have measured the length of abroad 

 line of subsidence, which is from 20 to 50 miles wide, that exists 

 between 3° north latitude and 1° south latitude in the centre of the 

 African continent. On the left of this great trough, looking north- 

 ward of course, there is a continuous line of upland, rising from 

 1,000 to 3,000 feet above it. Its eastern face drops abruptly into 

 the trough : the western side slopes gently to the Ituri and Lomva 

 basins. To the right there is another line of upland. The most 

 northerly section, 90 miles, rising from 1,000 to 3,000 along the 

 trough, is the Unyoro plateau, whose western face almost precipi- 

 tously falls into the trough, and whose eastern face slopes almost 

 imperceptibly towards the Kafur. The central section, also 90 

 miles long, consists of Ruwenzori range, from 4,000 to 15,000 

 above the average level of the trough. The remaining section of 

 upland, and the most southerly, is from 2,000 to 3.500 feet higher 

 than the trough, and consists of the plateaus of Uhaiyana, Unyam- 

 paka, and Ankori. 



The most northerly section of the line of subsidence, 90 miles in 

 length, is occupied by the Albert Nyanza; the central section, also 

 90 miles, by the Semliki River valley ; the southernmost portion, 

 50 miles long, by the plains and New Nyanza, which we have all 

 agreed to name the Albert Edward Nyanza, in honor of the first 

 British prince who has shown a decided interest in African geog- 

 raphy. 



You will observe, then, that the Semliki valley extends along the 

 base of Ruwenzori range; that the northern and southern extremi- 

 ties or flanks of Ruwenzori have each a lake abreast of it ; that the 

 Semliki River runs from the upper to the lower lake in a zigzag 

 course. 



If you were to make a plan in relievo of what has been described 

 above, the first thing that would strike you would be, that what 

 had been taken out of that abyss or trough had been heaped up in 

 the enormous range; and if along its slope you were to channel 

 out sixty-two streams emptying into this trough, and let the sides 

 of the trough slope here and there sharply towards the centre, you 

 would be impressed with the fact that Ruwenzori was slowly being 

 washed into the place whence it came. However, all these are 

 matters for geologists. 



For months all Europeans on this expedition, before setting out 

 on their journey towards Zanzibar from the Albert Lake, were ex- 

 ercised in their minds how Sir Samuel Baker, standing on a hill 

 near Vacovia, five or six miles from the extremity of the Nyanza, 

 could attach " illimitability " to such a short reach of water ; but 

 after rounding the Balegga Mountains, which form a group to the 

 south of Kavalli, we suddenly came in view of the beginning of the 

 Semliki valley, — a sight which caused officers to ask one another, 

 " Have you seen the Nyanza ? " and the female portion of the 

 Egyptian following to break out into rapturous " Lu-lu-Ius." Yet we 

 were only four miles away from the valley, which was nearly white 

 with its ripe grass, and which indeed resembled strongly the dis- 

 turbed waters of a shallow lake. 



This part of the Semliki valley, which extends from the lake 

 south-westerly, is very level : for 30 miles it only attains to an alti- 



