50 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XV. No. 364 



49,312; France, 37,156; Algeria, 20,478; Italy, 12,061 ; Holland, 

 3,218, — a total of 2,106,213 acres. 



The consumption of tobacco in the United Kingdom is large 

 and progressive, and the revenue derived from it last year was 

 nearly $43,750,000. The average consumption is largest in Hol- 

 land, — nearly 7 pounds per head ; in the United States, about 4I 

 pounds; in Hungary, Denmark, Belgium, and Germany, from 3 to 

 3| pounds. In the Australian colonies it is also high, — 3I pounds ; 

 in France it is about 2 pounds; and in the United Kingdom, under 

 1} pounds. 



The yearly production of tobacco in Cuba is about 300,000 bales, 

 and 181,000,000 cigars are also exported. The Spaniards have 

 hitherto monopolized the trade in cigars, alleging that parts of the 

 soil of Cuba were alone suited to the production of Havana tobacco. 

 This assertion is now disproved, for with good choice of seed, soil, 

 and leaf, and skilled manufacture, Jamaica is said now to send into 

 the market as excellent a cigar as was ever shipped from Havana, 

 and at a far cheaper rate. In the Philippines 100,000 hundred- 

 weights of tobacco are produced. The Dutch possessions in the 

 Eastern Archipelago ship a large quantity of excellent tobacco, 

 which is held in high repute in Europe. The imports of Sumatra 

 tobacco in Holland now average 140,000 bales; and of Java to- 

 bacco, 130,000 bales. 



Although there are about fifty species of the genus Ntcotiana 

 known, only three or four are much cultivated for the leaf. The 

 two principal commercial forms are by some botanists treated as 

 varieties, and not as distinct species. These are N. iabacum, the 

 most extensively cultivated kind of plant, which may be at once 

 recognized by its longish pink flowers and tapering oval-lanceolate 

 sessile leaves ; and N. riistzca, which has short greenish flowers, 

 and stalked ovate, cordate leaves. The leaves are coarser and 

 more crumpled than those of the preceding. This is popularly 

 known as the Turkish form, but is most probably a native of Mex- 

 ico and California. N. repanda is not very extensively cultivated, 

 but is said to yield some of the finest qualities of Cuban tobacco. 

 N. Pe?-szca furnishes the Persian or Shiraz tobacco. .V. angiisti- 

 folia, a species found in Chili, yields a very strong tobacco. 



The West Indian, Latakia, and American tobaccos are obtained 

 from cultivated plants of N. tabacum ; while the Manila, Turk- 

 ish, and Hungarian are reported to be derived from N. nisiica. 

 In India N. rnsiica is only cultivated to a very limited extent, and 

 chiefly in eastern Bengal and Cachar, and the leaf is never ex- 

 ported to Europe. N. tabacum has become an abundant weed 

 in many parts of India. The gross annual value of the tobacco 

 harvest in Bengal may be roughly estimated at $10,000,000, but the 

 quantity exported is small, averaging only $65,000 in value. 



Of the species, N. inacrophylla is considered to possess the 

 qualities that distinguish a good tobacco in the highest degree. 

 Some of the Havana tobaccos belong to this species. Madras, 

 where the climate is admirably suited for the growth of tobacco, 

 stands first with regard to the development of this industry in In- 

 dia. Dinnigul is the great tobacco district, and cheroots are man- 

 ufactured at Trichinopoli. The islands in the delta of the Godav- 

 ery also yield what is called Lunk tobacco, the climate being suita- 

 ble ; and the plants are raised in rather poor light soil, highly 

 manured and well watered. No better evidence could be afforded 

 of the universal use of this plant than the extensive display which 

 was made of it in every section of the Paris Exhibition ; and al- 

 though most of the cases were under seal of the customs, yet many 

 of the kiosks were privileged to sell, such as the Dutch, Belgian, 

 Spanish, Mexican, etc., although the sale and manufacture is a gov- 

 ernment monopoly in France, and licenses are only granted to 

 privileged people. 



WHAT STANLEY HAS DONE FOR THE MAP OF 



AFRICA. 1 

 It is nineteen years this month since Stanley first crossed the 

 threshold of Central Africa. He entered it as a newspaper corre- 

 spondent to find and succor Livingstone, and came out burning 

 with the fever of African exploration. While with Livingstone at 

 Ujiji he tried his 'prentice hand at a little exploring work, and be- 



' J. Scott Keltic, in Contemporary Review, Januan-, 1890. 



tween them they did something to settle the geography of the 

 north end of Lake Tanganyika. Some three years and a half later 

 he was once more on his way to Zanzibar, this time with the de- 

 liberate intention of doing something to fill up the great blank that 

 still occupied the centre of the continent. A glance at the first of 

 the maps which accompany this paper will- afford some idea of 

 what Central Africa was like when Stanley entered it a second 

 time. The ultimate sources of the Nile had yet to be settled. The 

 contour and extent of Victoria Nyanza were of the most uncertain 

 character. Indeed, so little was known of it beyond what Speke 

 told us, that there was some danger of its being swept off the map 

 altogether, not a few geographers believing it to be not one lake, 

 but several. There was much to do in the region lying to the west 

 of the lake, even though it had been traversed by Speke and Grant. 

 Between a line drawn from the north end of Lake Tanganyika to 

 some distance beyond the Albert Nyanza on one side, and the west 

 coast region on the other, the map was almost white, with here 

 and there the conjectural course of a river or two. Livingstone's 

 latest work, it should be remembered, was then almost unknown, 

 and Cameron had not yet returned. Beyond the Yellala Rapids 

 there was no Kongo, and Livingstone believed that the Lualaba 

 swept northwards to the Nile. He had often gazed longingly 

 at the broad river during his weary sojourn at Nyangwe, and 

 yearned to follow it, but felt himself loo old and exhausted for the 

 task. Stanley was fired with the same ambition as his dead mas- 

 ter, and was young and vigorous enough to indulge it. 



What, then, did Stanley do to map out the features of this great 

 blank during the two years and nine months which he spent in 

 crossing from Bagamoyo to Boma, at the mouth of the Kongo .^ 

 He determined, with an accuracy which has since necessitated but 

 slight modification, the outline of the Victoria Nyanza ; he found 

 it to be one of the great lakes of the world, 21,500 square miles in 

 extent, with an altitude of over 4,000 feet, and border soundings of 

 from 330 to 580 feet. Into the south shore of the lake a river 

 flowed, which he traced for some 300 miles, and which he set down 

 as the most southerly feeder of the Nile. With his stay at the 

 court of the clever and cunning Mtesa of Uganda we need not con- 

 cern ourselves ; it has had momentous results. Westwards he 

 came upon what he conceived to be a part of the Albert Nyanza, 

 which he named Beatrice Gulf, but of which more anon. Coming 

 southwards to Ujiji, Stanley filled in many features in the region 

 he traversed, and saw at a distance a great mountain, which he 

 named Gordon Bennett, of which also more anon. A little lake 

 to the south he named Alexandra Nyanza ; thence he conjectured 

 issued the south-west source of the Nile, but on this point, within 

 the last few months, he has seen cause to change his mind. Lake 

 Tanganyika he circumnavigated, and gave greater accuracy to its 

 outline; while through the Lukuga he found it sent its waters by 

 the Lualaba to the Atlantic. Crossing to Nyangw6, where with 

 longing eyes Livingstone beheld the mile-wide Lualaba flow- 

 ing "north, north, north," Stanley saw his opportunity, and em- 

 braced it. Tippo-Tip failed him then, as he did later ; but the 

 mystery of that great river he had made up his mind to solve, and 

 solve it he did. The epic of that first recorded journey of a white 

 man down this majestic river, which for ages had been sweeping 

 its unknown way through the centre of Africa, he and his dusky 

 companions running the gauntlet through a thousand miles of hos- 

 tile savages, is one of the most memorable things in the literature 

 of travel. Leaving Nyangwe on Nov. 5, 1876, in nine months he 

 traced the many-islanded Kongo to the Atlantic, and placed on the 

 map of Africa one of its most striking features. For the Kongo 

 ranks among the greatest rivers of the world. From the remote 

 Chambeze that enters Lake Bangweolo to the sea, it is 3,000 miles. 

 It has many tributaries, themselves affording hundreds of miles of 

 navigable drains ; waters a basin of a million square miles, and 

 pours into the Atlantic a volume estimated at 1,800,000 cubic feet 

 per second. Thus, then, were the first broad lines drawn towards 

 filling up the great blank. But, as we know, Stanley two years 

 later was once more on his way to the Kongo, and shortly after, 

 within the compass of its great basin, he helped to found the Kongo 

 Free State. During the years he was officially connected with the 

 river, either directly or through those who served under him, he 

 went on filling up the blank by the exploration of other rivers. 



