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8CmNCE. 



LVoL. IX., No. 215 



Africa. 



The Mongalla, one of the northern tributaries of 

 the Kongo, the lower part of which may be seen 

 on the sketch-map contained in the last issue of 

 Science, has been explored by Lieut. E. Baert, who 

 ascended it on the small steamer belonging to the 

 station of Bangallas. He followed its course for two 

 hundred and twenty miles, when his progress was 

 stopped by rapids. Its course is very meandering, 

 similar to that of the Biverre. The country around 

 the river is hilly, and inhabited by the Sebi, who 

 are, like other tribes of central Africa, very good 

 blacksmiths. The rapids of the river are in lati- 

 tude 3"=" 30' N., and longitude 2^° W. If this 

 position be correct. Junker's Ali-Kobo will proba- 

 bly be a little farther north. The direction of the 

 l^ongalla is north-east and south-west : its valley 

 is densely wooded. 



Lieutenant Webster, late commander of the 

 station of Stanley Falls, has returned to Brussels, 

 and gives a description of the Mburu, the eastern 

 tributary of the Kongo emptying near Stanley 

 Falls. He ascended the river for two days in a 

 canoe. At the mouth it is about 1,100 feet wide. 

 On the northern side, a little above the mouth, it 

 has a tributary called ' Lindi,' which comes from 

 the north-west and is about six hundred feet wide. 

 The main river is called by the natives ' Anki- 

 ambo.' It seems to come from the east. At the 

 farthest point reached by Webster it is eight hun- 

 dred feet wide. In two places there are rapids. 

 The country is wooded and abounds in elephants. 

 It is inhabited by the Wabeda, who have villages 

 of two or three thousand inhabitants on the middle 

 part of the Mburu. 



According to a telegram puMished in the 

 Mouvement geographique, Tippo-Tip has declared 

 his submission to the Kongo Free State, and ex- 

 pressed his regret as to the attack on the station of 

 Stanley Falls which occurred during his absence. 

 As he has a great influence in central Africa, his 

 submission will probably lead to the re-establisii- 

 ment of the stations on the upper Kongo. 



The Stanley expedition for the relief of Emin 

 Pasha, which left Zanzibar about three weeks ago, 

 arrived at Cape Town on March 9, and proceeded 

 for the Kongo the next day. 



News has been received from Emin Pasha to the 

 effect that in November last he went to Uganda, 

 and that King Mwanga refused to permit him to 

 go through the country. Then Emin Pasha 

 tried to effect a passage out through Karagwe, on 

 the western shore of Lake Nyanza. In this he 

 also failed. He then returned to Wadelai, leaving 

 a detachment of soldiers at Unyoro under the 

 command of Casati, his sole European companion. 



America. 



The missionary E. I. Peck has succeeded in 

 crossing Labrador from west to east. In the win- 

 ter of 1882, in the summer of 1883, and in the 

 winter of the same year, he failed in his endeav- 

 ors to reach Fort Chimo in Ungava Bay. In 

 1884 he started from his station on Little Whale 

 River on July 17, and reached Fort Chimo on 

 Aug. 11. He travelled by boat on the numerous 

 lakes and rivers of the peninsula, and while cross- 

 ing Clear Water and Seal lakes. The numerous 

 watersheds and rapids of the rivers he passed by 

 making portages. From his journal, which has 

 been published by the Church missionary intelli- 

 gencer in 1886 (p. 510), it appears that the maps 

 are unreliable ; but he has not made any observa- 

 tions which would enable us to correct the errors 

 of the maps. The geography of this district is 

 still very little known. It is even doubtful wheth- 

 er the western half of Labrador belongs to the 

 mainland, as, according to some reports, there ex- 

 ists a connection between Mosquito Bay on the 

 east coast of Hudson Bay, and Hope Advance Bay 

 in Ungava Bay. 



In the American naturalist for January, 1887, 

 Mr. John Murdoch publishes a paper on some 

 popular errors in regard to the Eskimos. He 

 points out that there is no evidence of polyan- 

 dry among this people ; that they do not live in 

 underground dens, keeping up their internal heat 

 by enormous meals of raw blubber washed down 

 with draughts of lamp- oil ; and that they are not 

 at all of dwarfish stature. Though we concur 

 with the main points of the author's opinions, we 

 wish to add a few remarks. Murdoch quotes 

 Graah as the only reliable authority who knew by 

 report that the East Greenlanders practised poly- 

 andry. The best authority on this subject is 

 Ross, who lived from 1829 to 1833 among the Es- 

 kimos of Boothia Felix. In his ' Narrative of a 

 second voyage in search of a north-west passage ' 

 (London, 1835, pp. 356 and 373), he refers to two 

 brothers who had one wife, and mentions this as a 

 thing of frequent occurrence. Probably, how- 

 ever, it is not real polyandry, but a state of 

 things brought about by the prevailing custom 

 among them of lending the wife to an intimate 

 friend. Murdoch says that the winter houses in 

 the great middle region, from Hudson Bay north- 

 ward, are generally of snow, built upon the frozen 

 ground. Throughout this district dug-out winter 

 houses are in frequent use. They have a subter- 

 ranean entrance, the rear part of the roof being 

 at a level with the ground, and the front being 

 formed by a large whale-rib covered with seal in- 

 testines, which admits the light. The roof is made 



