1876] Geography and Exploration. 629 
) ANTHROPOLOGY. 
AN AFRICAN POTTER AT HER Work. — I was much interested in 
one village (Kisunge) by watching a potter at her work. First she 
pounded enough earth and water for one pot, with a pestle such as they 
use in beating corn, till it formed a perfectly homogeneous mass. She 
then put it either on a flat stone or on the bottom of another, and giv- 
ing it a dab with her fist in the middle to form a hollow, worked it into 
ashape roughly with her hands, keeping them constantly wet, and then 
smoothed out the finger-marks with a corncob, and finally polished it 
over with one or two bits of gourd and a bit of flat wood, the bit of 
gourd giving it the proper curves, and finally ornamenting it with a 
sharp-pointed stick. I went to look at it, wondering how it was to be 
taken off the stone and the bottom shaped, when lo and behold, it had 
no bottom! I waited to see what would be done, and after it had been 
drying four or five hours in a shady place it was stiff enough to be han- 
dled carefully, and a bottom worked in of another piece of clay. I timed 
one from beginning to pound the clay till it was put aside to dry, and it 
took thirty-five minutes ; putting in the bottom might take ten more. 
This pot would hold from two and a half to three gallons. The shapes 
of many are very graceful, and all are wonderfully truly formed (like | 
the amphora in Villa Diomed at Pompeii) ; they are used for palm oil. 
— Cameron’s Diary, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. 
GEOGRAPHY AND EXPLORATION. 
EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS IN GREENLAND. — In the summer of 1875, 
Mr, Helland, a Norwegian geologist, visited Greenland and made some 
exact and consequently very important observations on the rate of move- 
Ment of the interior ice. His measurements were made at the great 
- Jacobshavn glacier and also at the Itifdliarsuk glacier, at the opening of 
7 the Tossukuset Fiord, whence the great harvest of icebergs sweeps down 
aigat. 
In April, 1876, Mr. Steenstrup, the eminent geologist, and Lieutenant 
om, a young and enterprising officer of the Royal Danish Navy, 
‘tiled for Greenland, according to the Geographical Magazine, with the 
| sation of penetrating into the interior. The first attempt will prob- 
OY be made from the Tunnudliarbik Fiord, near Julianehaab, in the 
„Pe of being able to reach a mountain-peak which has been observed 
: ' the far distance to pierce the surface of the glacier, and is known one 
: the « Jomfruerne” or « Niviarsit.” But this will only be preliminary, 
: ~m the gallant explorers intend to renew their attempts for three or four 
Saja until they succeed. The Danish government has granted the 
: Meessary funds for this noble enterprise. 
° interested in arctic research will be glad to hear that Dr. 
: Rinks famous work on Greenland is to be translated into English. 
: This is the most authoritative work on that country, Dr. Rink having 
