146 General Notes. [ February, 
Mpwapwa on August 15th last, and expected to commence the jour- 
ney across Ugogo on September 3rd. Mr. Stanley left Sierra Leone 
on September 3rd, for Banana (Banza?) on the Congo. Accord- 
ing to the Academy King Mtsesa has recently showed himself 
less friendly to the Missionaries of the English Church Mission, 
accusing them of complicity with the Egyptians. The Mission- 
aries have been reinforced by the arrival of three more by way of 
the Nile via Magungo and the Albert Nyanza, and of two others by 
the lake from Kagei at the southern extremity. Menelek, king 
of Shoa, has written to the Geographical Society of Paris urging 
the sending out of a French Mission, promising to employ all his 
power on their behalf. The Sultan of Somali land, on the western 
coast of the Gulf of Aden, has also invited foreigners to visit his 
dominions.——Gessi Pacha has succeeded in 1 capturing the last 
refuge of the slave traders in the Soudan. r 4000 have been 
expelled from the country and twenty- ies dine caravans of 
between three and four hundred slaves each have been captured. 
Dr. Wilhelm Junker has returned recently to Europe after 
three years spent in explorations on the upper Nile. Dr. Schwein- 
furth writes to the Atheneum (August 23, 1879,) giving an account 
of his travels, illustrated by a small map of the Welle basin. Dr. 
Junker has brought back with him and given to the Russian Acad- 
emy of Sciences the largest and best ethnological collection yet 
obtained in these regions. His careful surveys throw a flood of 
light upon the water shed separating the Nile from the Welle, and 
present a basis for mapping an area of four square degrees. He 
has also made a survey of the lower Sobat. The results of his 
investigations in the district lying between the Welle river and 
the Bahrel Ghazel are given in much detail, and the Pe wes | 
necessary in Schweinfurth’s own REA indicated. Dr. Junker 
reached his furthest point in lat. 20° 30’ N., where at a distance of 
twenty miles he saw a range of high mountains identified by him 
as the Blue mountains of Baker to the west of the Albert Nyanza. 
MICROSCOPY.! 
Turn Grass SLIDE Troucus.—These are made of glass slips, 
three inches by one and one-third inches, to which are cemente 
slips of thin glass two inches by one inch, out of which a seimi- 
circle of three-quarters of an inch radius has been cut, and then 
covered with another thin glass two inches by one inch. It is 
well to have an assortment of these, of different thicknesses or 
depths, and for those of greater depths it is more convenient to ~ 
e the distance-plates of vulcanite instead of glass. These 
troughs should always be washed out directly after use. 
PREPARATIONS OF CRYSTALS FOR THE PoLariscore.—A fter epre- : 
paring crystals, dry, in Canada balsam, and in castor ‘oi, t 
1 This department is edited by Dr. R. H. Warp, Troy, N. Y. 
