180 The National Geographic Magazine 



siderable anxiety is felt in Sweden and 

 Norway for his safety, and a relief ex- 

 pedition is planned to set out in a few 

 weeks. 



It has been cabled from Europe that 

 Baron Toll, who has been seeking to re- 

 peat Nordenskiold's voyage around the 

 entire north coast of Asia, has given up 

 his original plan and is now returning 

 tj St. Petersburg. His vessel passed 

 the winter among the New Siberia Isl- 

 ands. There was not coal enough to 

 continue the voyage eastward, and to 

 transport coal to the New Siberia Isl- 

 ands would have cost so much that the 

 original plan was abandoned. It is 

 stated that Baron Toll is proceeding up 

 the Lena River, and will meet the Trans- 

 Siberian Railway at Irkutsk. 



In the South Polar regions the Ger- 

 man expedition on the ship Gauss sailed 

 from the Kerguelen Islands in the latter 

 part of January of this year, bound for 

 Termination Land. The party were in 

 good spirits, and everything ready for a 

 successful winter. 



The English expedition, after consid- 

 erable difficulty with their vessel, the 

 Discovery, because of its leaking, sailed 

 from New Zealand early in 1902, bound 

 for Victoria Land. A relief expedition 

 is now being prepared in England . King 

 Edward has subscribed $500 toward the 

 expenses of the party. 



The Swedish South Polar Expedition 

 reached Cape Horn too late in the season 

 to proceed very far south. The expe- 

 dition will remain among the New Falk- 

 land Islands during the present southern 

 winter, and then proceed south toward 

 the end of 1902. 



Dr Emil Holub, the well-known ex- 

 plorer of interior Africa, died on Febru- 

 ary 2i, 1902. As a young man Dr 

 Holub read the journeys of David Liv- 

 ingstone and became greatly interested 

 in the problems of natural life on the 

 great continent. After studying medi- 

 cine and natural science at Prasrue he 



went to South Africa in 1872, as a doc- 

 tor to the diamond fields. During the 

 next few years he made several journeys 

 into the interior, in 1875 reaching the 

 Zambezi and Victoria Falls and always 

 making large collections. On his re- 

 turn to Europe in 1879 he distributed 

 his many collections to 113 Austrian 

 and foreign museums and schools. Sev- 

 eral years later he again went to Africa 

 with the purpose of proceeding from 

 Cape Town straight across the continent 

 to Cairo. The troubles in the Sudan, 

 however, made this plan impossible and 

 confined his work to southern Africa. 

 In 1887 he returned to Europe with 

 13,000 objects, which he again distrib- 

 uted to schools and museums. He pub- 

 lished many books and lectures — " Sie- 

 ben Jahre in Siidoffike," " Die Koloni- 

 sation Afrikas," "Von Kapstact in's 

 Land der Mashukulumbe," etc., etc. 



Photographic films may now be devel- 

 oped in a small apparatus or box about 

 the size of a camera without recourse to 

 a dark room and by a process wonderful 

 in its simplicity. This new and impor- 

 tant addition to photography is the re- 

 sult of several years of careful experi- 

 ment and research by Mr. Arthur W. 

 McCurdy, of Washington, D. C. 



The first automobile to cross the great 

 mountain range of the Caucasus, by 

 way of the Georgian Military Road and 

 the Dariel Pass, has recently carried 

 from Vladikavkaz to Tiflis the present 

 Minister of Ways and Communications, 

 Prince Hilkof. The behavior of the 

 automobile, says the Russian Terek 

 Messe?iger, was in every way satisfac- 

 tory, and even on steep descents, with 

 sharp curves, where travel with horses 

 is sufficiently terrifying, the vehicle 

 maintained a speed of twelve miles an 

 hour, without the least jerking or jolt- 

 ing. "This achievement," the Mes- 

 senger says, ' ' proves that automobiles 

 may be used, not only on the great Cau- 



