1880, ] Microscopy. 65 
while, the French are proposing to construct a railroad across the 
Sahara to connect Algeria with the river Niger. The French 
Government has appointed a Commission to conduct preliminary 
investigations, and French engineers are exploring the line of the 
proposed road as far as the Laghouat on the south. M. Paul 
Soleillet will leave shortly for St. Louis, Senegal, under orders to 
visit the unexplored regions lying to the east of that colony as 
far as Timbuktu. The Nature states that at a recent sitting of the 
Paris Geographical Society, Mr. Soleillet read a paper proposing 
that the railroad be made from Dakkar, on the Atlantic coast, 
and St. Louis. The Senegal should be opened to navigation as 
far as Bafoulabé and a canal constructed from thence to Bamakou, 
on the Niger. The Niger is now navigable from Bamakou to 
Timbuktu and lower down for a distance of 1500 miles, The 
aggregate expense of the whole work is estimated at $5,000,000, 
and the population brought into close connection with Senegal at 
thirty-seven millions. These projects have been adopted by the 
High Commission and the survey for the canal will begin imme- 
diately. M. Soleillet believes that the semi-civilized races occupy- 
ing the region he is to visit will be friendly to Europeans, and offer 
no obstacles to the success of this great project. The country from 
Senegal to the Niger is level, fertile and inhabited by two races, the 
Bambara and Solenké. Nothing would be easier than the estab- 
lishment of a preliminary trade-road between the two rivers; it 
would suffice,to mark out a straight line and clear it of bushes to 
enable a bullock-dray to travel for 200 or 300 miles. Amongst 
other products is a vegetable wax which can be reduced to oil, 
and made to serve many useful purposes in the arts. Drs. Greef — 
and Gasser have been despatched on a scientific mission to study — 
the Zoology of the West African Islands. By means of the 
electric light the junction of the Algerian survey with the Euro- 
pean net-work of triangles has been completed. One of the 
most important events in African exploration during the past year 
has been the discovery, by two Frenchmen, MM. Zweifel and 
Moustier, of the sources of the river Niger. Starting from Sierra — 
one they ascended the Rokelle river and succeeded in cross- _ 
ing the Kong mountains, heretofore impassable in consequence of 
the hostility of the. natives, and visited the heads of the three 
Streams which, uniting after a short distance, form the Niger. — 
5 
