SCIENCE 



FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, if 



According to a Reuter's telegram, dated Sept. 9, from St. 

 Paul de Loanda, Major Barttelot, who was left at the camp at 

 Yambuya, at the foot of the Aruvimi Rapids, with a garrison of 

 about one hundred men, has forwarded the following information 

 to Leopoldville concerning Mr. H. M. Stanley's expedition : " Major 

 Barttelot received news from Mr. Stanley, despatched about July 

 12, after he had made a ten-days' march from Yambuya towards 

 the interior. Mr. Stanley was at that date still proceeding up the 

 Aruvimi, which he had found to be navigable up to a certain dis- 

 tance above the rapids. Here he launched a steel whale-boat 

 which he had brought with him, as well as several rafts manufac- 

 tured by the expedition, and which had been utilized for conveying 

 the heavy baggage. All the members of the expedition were in 

 good health, and provisions were easily procured in the large vil- 

 lages near the river. The country through which the expedition 

 was passing showed a gradual rise towards some high table-lands. 

 Another caravan of 480 men was following the expedition on the 

 left bank of the Aruvimi ; the advanced guard, consisting of forty 

 Zanzibar!, under the command of Lieutenant Stairs, being com- 

 posed of men lightly burdened, whose duty was to search for pro- 

 visions. Mr. Stanley hoped to arrive about July 22 in the centre of 

 the Mabodi district, and expected to reach Wadelai in the middle 

 of August, or even before. The advance had been so peaceably 

 accomplished that Mr. Stanley had instructed Major Barttelot, that, 

 should it continue so, he would shortly send him orders to follow 

 the expedition by the same route at the head of the one hundred 

 men left at Yambuya." A later telegram, dated Oct. 2, from St. Paul 

 de Loanda, states that the further progress of the expedition was very 

 satisfactory. About July 25 the expedition had ascended the Aruvimi 

 to the elevated country belonging to the Mabodi district. The river 

 becoming too narrow, they left the rafts ; and the men for several days 

 had to carry a double burden of provisions. The steel whale-boat was 

 carried past the narrows, and again launched. Stanley calculated, 

 that, upon arriving at the summit of the table-lands giving shape to 

 the basin of the Aruvimi, the expedition would halt two days for a 

 rest, and would establish a camp there to be garrisoned by twenty 

 men, with a European officer. The districts traversed were tran- 

 quil, and little difficulty was experienced in obtaining provisions 

 from the natives. The progress of the expedition averaged twelve 

 miles daily. Tippo-Tip, in his last message, wrote that he was still 

 at his post at Stanley Falls, awaiting re-enforcements. He had 

 gained the good will of several neighboring chiefs. Owing to the 

 disturbed state of the country, Tippo-Tip could not, as he had 

 agreed to, organize a revictualling caravan to despatch direct to 

 Mvutan Nsige, but he intended to do so as soon as possible. Dis- 

 quiet continued between Stanley Falls and the confluence of the 

 Aruvimi and the Kongo, and many villages had been pillaged. It 

 is believed that the garrison which Stanley left at Yambuya has 

 been forced to interfere to maintain order in the neighborhood. It 

 appears from all reports that Tippo-Tip, since he has become con- 

 nected with the Kongo Free State, has some difficulty in regaining 

 his former influence over his countrymen. The disquiet on the 

 Upper Kongo, to which reference is made in the second telegram, 

 probably refers to the ravages of the Arabs of Stanley Falls, who 

 extend their slave-hunting expeditions down the Kongo. It is to 

 be hoped that Tippo-Tip's influence, supported by Major Barttelot's 

 troops, which are stationed near the mouth of the Aruvimi, will 

 suffice to confine their raids to the territory above Stanley Falls. 



It is in accordance with Emin Pacha's former actions that he de- 

 clares at the present time his intention to stay in his province, and 

 to further the work of civilization he has so successfully begun. It 

 appears from the meagre news that has reached America, that the 

 messengers who were despatched to inform him of Stanley's expe- 

 dition have met him, and that this is his reply to the message. 

 Emin expresses the hope that England will help him to open a 

 route of commerce to the Indian Ocean, but it seems more probable 

 that communication with the Kongo will be opened by Stanley's 

 expedition. Junker's travels show that there is no serious obstacle 

 to travel in the region of the northern tributaries of the Kongo ; 

 and therefore it seems probable, that, while political complications 

 close the routes of the Nile and of Uganda, Emin and Stanley may 

 succeed in opening trading-routes from the Upper Kongo to the 

 Equatorial Province. 



If the presidents of all our colleges would follow the ex- 

 ample of President Barnard of Columbia, and publish each year a 

 full report on the progress of the institutions over which they re- 

 spectively preside, it would be an advantage not only to the institu- 

 tions themselves, but to the cause of higher education in general. 

 Mr. Charles F. Thwing, always an observant critic of college 

 methods, emphasizes this point in a recently published article. 

 President Barnard's report for the last academic year has just been 

 issued, and, with its appendices, is a most valuable document. It 

 rehearses the changes and improvements of the year, traces the 

 work of the various schools separately, and discusses such questions 

 as those of attendance, scholarship, the marking system, elective 

 studies, and the wonderfully successful public lecture courses of 

 the past two winters. We are glad to notice the steady growth of 

 the graduate department, as it augurs well for the future of the in- 

 stitution. President Barnard says very little concerning the finances 

 of the college, and we are therefore led to infer that no appreciable 

 part of the sum asked for three years ago has been obtained. An 

 announcement reaches us with the president's report, which should 

 be referred to in this connection. It is the programme of courses 

 in the Oriental and Hamitic languages offered for the present year. 

 From this we learn that the most complete department of its kind 

 in America exists at Columbia, and that, under the inspiring leader- 

 ship of so cultured a scholar as Dr. H. T. Peck, no fewer than 

 nineteen courses in the Oriental and Hamitic languages are an- 

 nounced. This is a remarkable showing, and when considered in 

 connection with the courses of Professors Bloomfield and Haupt at 

 Baltimore, Whitney at New Haven, and Lyon, Toy, and Lanman at 

 Cambridge, proves that a great impetus has been given to advanced 

 philological study in this country. 



THE HIGHER SCHOOLS OF NORWAY. 

 The Norwegian school-laws of the 17th of June, 1869, according 

 to the Zeitschrift fiir das Reahchulwesen, xii. 3, recognize three 

 fundamental principles. First, all higher schools must have a 

 lower course in common, so that it will not be necessary at the out- 

 set, with the choice of a school, to choose also one's ultimate voca- 

 tion. Secondly, the length of the course must be so regulated that 

 the pupil, upon its completion, shall be of an age to enter intelli- 

 gently upon the active duties of his calling ; the curriculum must 

 also form in itself a whole, and be so arranged that the pupil who 

 has completed it carries with him into life a good general education. 

 Finally, the time devoted in the upper classes to preparatory studies 

 must be so disposed that the pupil may confine himself more espe- 

 cially either to history-philology, on the one hand, or to mathe- 

 matics-natural sciences, on the other. 



