GEOGRAPHIC NOTES 
219 
Upper Bcrma. Active operations looking to the development of the 
mineral wealth of Upper Burma are about to be commenced. A promis- 
ing gold reef has been discovered in the Wuntho district, and coal of ex- 
cellent quality is reported from Lawksawk, in the Southern Shan country. 
. Cni.v.A. An imperial edict directs the constniction of a railway from 
Shanghai to Soochow, 65 miles, at an estimated cost of 2,000,000 taels. 
Shares for one-half the amount are offered to the public at Shanghai. 
Only Chinese stockholders will be admitted, and the government will 
retain control. The government has sanctioned a large increase in the 
production of salt as an additional source of revenue for the rej^ayment of 
the Russian loan. 
Turkestan. The Russian government is said to have decided to take 
another step toward getting within striking distance of Herat. A broad- 
gauge railway is to be built from Merv to a point near the Afghan fron- 
tier, a distance of about 130 miles, and all necessary material is to be 
collected at the far end of the line for the rapid extension of the road to 
Herat, a further distance of only 94 miles, in the event of war. Authority 
has also been given to the Turkestan administration to begin the build- 
ing of a railroad along the Oxus from Charjui, where the river is bridged, 
to Kerki, within a short distance of the Afghan frontier. 
AFRICA 
West Coast. An amicable settlement of the boundaries between Sene- 
gal and Gambia has been arrived at by the French and English commis- 
sioners. 
Ea.st Coast. In the British Colony of Natal there are more than 
51,000 Indian laborers, and the Europeans are clamoi’ing for the prohi- 
bition of further immigration. 
Profe-ssor Elliot’s Expedition. Consul Masterson reports that Prof. 
D. G. Elliot and Messrs Akeley and Dodson arrived at Aden April 14, 
where they procured 70 Somalis, 80 camels, and 20 horses and mules. A 
week later they crossed to Berliera, on the Somali coast. An absence of 
10 months is planned, during which they will cross Somali into Gallaland 
and pass to the south of Juba river. The main object of the journey is 
the collection of mammals, but no effort will be spared to make the 
zoological collection varied and complete. 
Dr S.mith’s Expedition. Interest is added to Elliot’s journey by the 
very successful exiiedition of Dr A. Donaldson Smith, of Pliiladelpliia, 
who left Berbera July 10, 1894, and visited the unexi>lored country of 
Gallaland, between Shebeli river and lake Rudolf. This lake, to tlie 
northeast of Victoria Nvanza, was reacbe<l in July, 1895. After a jour- 
ney of 4,000 miles. Dr Smith arrived at Lamu, on the ea.st coast, north of 
Zanzibar, on October 25, 1895, having lost only six men in sixteen months. 
His most interesting discovery was a race of pigmies, the Dunne, very 
black, flat-nosed, large-lipped, woolly-haired, and averaging only five feet 
in height, the tallest being 5 feet 2 inches. The most valuable results of 
the expedition are the large and varied natural history collections, con- 
