288 Chronicles of Science. [April, 



under an amount of restraint and rule from Mr. Warner, the super- 

 intendent of the Tambookies in Cape Colony, who will for the future 

 live beyond the frontiers for the purpose of regulating these barbarous 

 chiefs, most of whom receive some salary from our Government, and 

 are therefore partially amenable to our rule. 



An account of " Madagascar and its People " has been written by 

 Mr. Lyons M'Leod, formerly consul on the opposite coast of Mozam- 

 bique. Naturally from his position the writer has been able to collect 

 the best materials for such a work, which includes a history of the 

 island, from its earliest discovery down to last year. The latest news 

 from this same island is, that the queen has received our consul with 

 cordiality, and professed a desire to remain in alliance with Queen 

 Victoria as a means to her own well-being. 



Complaints are frequently made of the antiquity of most of the 

 maps of India. Several publishers have had good maps of India 

 executed, but, like many other parts of the world, the frontiers of the 

 various governments in the countries comprised under this general 

 term have varied and extended so much of late years, that it is im- 

 possible to keep the whole world supplied with the latest information 

 at a small cost. During the last twenty-five years the British frontier 

 has advanced 1,000 miles, and the Eussian territory is not only 

 creeping onwards with steady strides at an almost equal rate, but 

 the intermediate district is being traversed first by such men as 

 M. Vambery, and afterwards by many English travellers, and that 

 constant attendant of Englishmen, the red-bound Murray, is adding 

 Central Asia to the almost world-encircling region mapped out and 

 chalked out to be done by the energetic Englishman in search of ex- 

 citement. 



Mr. Ussher has published a very bulky and extensive work on 

 Georgia, Kurdistan, Persia, and their neighbourhood, which throws 

 much light on these countries. Thanks to M. Vambery, and others 

 who have explored the districts bordering on his route, Central Asia 

 will be before long as well known as Central Africa or Central 

 Australia as exercising ground for scientific travellers. Mr. W. 

 Gifford Palgrave, who has penetrated into previously unknown parts 

 of Arabia, has been made Prussian consul at Bagdad. 



Much attention has of late been attracted to Bhotan, and it is 

 to be hoped that, if no other advantage accrue from the war now 

 being waged in that territory, at least some geographical information 

 and some good maps may result from it. The country is said to be 

 in some parts adapted for the cultivation of tea, especially near the 

 province of Assam. In a few years we may expect to find that it will 

 be a matter of great doubt whether the tea we drink comes from that 

 country which we have so long considered to have the monopoly of 

 its growth. India already supplies a very large proportion of that 

 which is drunk in England ; and the colourless Japanese tea also 

 finds not a few patrons. Englishmen are acquiring land in India 

 for this purpose, and the natives are stirred up into some excitement 

 by the demand for native tea, which is sold at a good profit, at Is. 6d. 

 a pound. 



