4 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



Mr. Rhodes, who accompanied Capt. Nelton in a combined hunting and 

 exploring expedition, had reached the southern extremity of the lake, and thence 

 proceeded along its western shore. 



About a mile from the lake and twelve miles south of Florence Bay, he 

 reached, in ascending a ravine, an elevated plateau of sandstone, in which, at 

 an elevation of about four hundred feet above the lake, he found in the bed of 

 the ravine, some little fragments of carbon. On continuing his investigations 

 he discovered three distinct veins of carbon in the ground, one of which was not 

 less than seven feet, and the other two from one to three feet in thickness. 



SOUTH AFRICAN EXPLORATION. 



Pinto, the Portugese explorer, telegraphs his arrival at Pretoria with eight 

 followers left of the 400 with whom he set out on his expedition across the Afri- 

 can Continent, from east to west. He reports he has saved all his papers, con- 

 sisting of twenty geographical charts, many topographical maps, three volumes 

 of notes, meteorological studies, drawings, and a diary of the complete explora- 

 tion of the Upper Zambesi, with its seventy-two cataracts. 



SELECTION OF AN INTERNATIONAL MERIDIAN. 



A writer in a recent number of La Nature argues in favor of the establish- 

 ment of an international meridian, and recommends for this purpose the meridian 

 io° east of Paris, which passes through Venice and near Rome (name so dear to 

 history and so well known to geographers). He also proposes the establishment 

 upon the island of Levanzo, through which this meridian passes, an international 

 astronomical observatory, to be the common property of all civilized nations. 

 For this purpose, it is assumed that the Italian Government would cede to the 

 scientific world the control of this little island. 



He also suggests that the United States cede, for the same purpose, a part of 

 Oonalaska, through which the one hundred and eightieth meridian would pass. 

 The two observatories thus established would be under uniform control. 



AN AFRICAN HARBOR OF REFUGE. 



In a recent discourse before the Scientific Association of France, M. de 

 Lesseps explained his plan for the establishment upon the Niger, at a point in 

 the great cuive which that river makes toward the north, a place of refuge for 

 slaves, which would also be a center of civilization in that benighted region, 

 under the direction of the French section of the African Association. 



This plan will probably form the first subject of discussion of a commission 



