432 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 222 



has already constructed a short Ime in that city, 

 is at present busy on the construction of mining 

 roads ; one of these, now under way, being six 

 thousand feet long, and wholly in the mine. The 

 Sprague company of this city has completed a 

 short road for a Boston sugar-refinery, and is now 

 making estimates for street-lines in several of our 

 larger cities. This company has made a series of 

 tests with storage-batteries for street-car pm-- 

 poses, which have given very satisfactory results. 



A cross-town line in this city is to be equipped 

 with the Bentley-Knight conduit system, — a sys- 

 tem specially devised to meet the requirements of 

 street-car traffic in crowded city streets. A road 

 in Allegheny City, Penn., is contracted for by the 

 Bentley-Knight company. On the Eighth Avenue 

 road in this city, and also on a road in St. Louis, 

 the Julian storage-battery system has been tried, 

 and, it is claimed, with results showing economic 

 features as compared with horse-traction. 



After referring to the many systems still in the 

 purely experimental stage, Mr. Martin concludes 

 as follows : " At Ansonia, Conn., an electric road, 

 three and a half miles long, from Derby to Bir- 

 mingham and Ansonia, using overhead wire, has 

 been contracted for. It will be used for both 

 freight and passengers, and power to drive the 

 dynamo will be taken from the Housatonic dam. 

 At Newton, Mass., a road is to be built by a com- 

 pany already formed ; one is proposed for Worces- 

 ter, Mass. At Brookline, Mass., two will soon 

 be in operation, and one each is in view at Bangor 

 and Biddeford, Me. Two roads are contemplated 

 in Brooklyn, one at Coney Island, and one at 

 Eockaway. Pelham Park, N.Y., is to have a road 

 this summer, and Asbury Park, N.J., is adver- 

 tising for bids on another. Franchises are asked 

 for a road in Jersey City and Bayonne ; and Plain- 

 field, N.J., is also wanting a road. In Pennsyl- 

 vania, Scran ton, with one successful road, is to 

 have another, and probably two. A road is to be 

 built from Carbondale to Jermyn, four miles. In 

 Reading, the Perkiomen Avenue company pro- 

 poses to adopt electricity. Harrisburg is to have 

 a road, and it looks as though, before the end of 

 the year, Pittsburgh will have half a dozen. 

 Down south, steps have been taken to construct 

 new electric roads, or adopt the system on old 

 roads, in Jacksonville, Fla. ; Pensacola, Fla. ; Bir- 

 mingham, Ala.; Selma, Ala.; Atlanta, Ga. ; and 

 Fort Smith, Ark. Among roads spoken of in 

 Ohio are several at Cincinnati, Cleveland, Tiffin, 

 and other places. Wichita, Kan. , is proposing to 

 adopt electricity for its street-cars. Lincoln, Neb., 

 has formed a company to operate an electric rail- 

 way from the business part of the town to the 

 stock-yards. In San Francisco a road is to be 



built on Fillmore Street hill, and roads are also 

 wanted at San Jose and Riverside, San Bernardino 

 county. If I were at liberty to do so, I could add 

 to the above list about fifty names of j)laces where, 

 from present indications and movements, it is 

 safe to say that electric roads will be running 

 w^ithin a year.*' 



EXPLORATION AND TRAVEL. 



Sierra Leone. 



We give elsewhere a brief sketch of the tribes 

 of Sierra Leone. Our knowledge of this country 

 is principally due to the commercial companies 

 which are established on the coast, and to the en- 

 deavors of the English and French to extend their 

 colonies towards the interior. We find some very 

 interesting notes on Sierra Leone in letters by 

 Lieutenant Mathews, which were published in 

 1791 ; and his descriptions of the people are still 

 true, though a long time has elapsed, and the 

 slave trade was long since abolished. The first to 

 enter the interior was Major Laing, who, in 1832, 

 succeeded in reaching the sources of the Scarcies 

 and Rockelle, the principal rivers of the colony. 

 R. Caillie, on his journey from the Senegal to 

 the Joliba (the upper Niger) and Timbuktu, and 

 thence through the Sahara to Morocco, 1824^28, 

 crossed the territory of the Mandingos, and gave an 

 interesting description of their customs and mode 

 of life. In 1843, W. C. Thomson explored the 

 district north of the Scarcies River and Futa-Jalon, 

 where the Scarcies, Gambia, and many tributa- 

 ries of the Senegal and Niger, have their sources. 

 In 1869, Winwood Reade, who was sent out by the 

 London geographical society, explored the country 

 between the Scarcies and Rockelle rivers, and 

 after having reached the town of Falaba, Major 

 Laing's farthest point, crossed the watershed and 

 descended the Niger, which he followed a long 

 distance. The latest important researches are 

 those of E. W. Blyden, who travelled in the Susu 

 country, north of the Scarcies, in 1872, and of J. 

 Zweifel andM. Moustier, who were sent out by the 

 French merchant Verminck for the purpose of 

 discovering the source of the Niger (1879). They 

 followed Reade's route as far as Falaba, and then 

 turned south to the head waters of the Niger. Most 

 of these routes run parallel to the large rivers. 

 The tributaries which are crossed by these routes 

 are little known, and much work remains to be 

 done before the geographical features of the 

 country and the ethnological character of its in- 

 habitants will be tolerably well known. 



The proposed French expeditions to the upper 

 Niger will add considerably to our present knowl- 

 edge of the interior parts of this district. Owing 



