722 General Notes. 
mass of the group is volcanic, consisting of basalt and phonolite, 
but Boobie Island and Egg Island are raised masses of reef rock, 
which occurs also upon the basalt of Platform Island, and on the 
southern beach of Rat Island. Mt. St. Michael is a phonolite peak 
385 feet high. The Peak (El Pica), is a huge mass of columnar 
phonolite, with a talus or débris around it. Two other phonolitic 
masses stand like bastions on the south coast, separated by a ridge 
of basalt. As the group is surrounded by deep sea, and nothing 
voleanic occurs near it, Mr. Lea is inclined to think that it marks 
the site of an isolated vent. The islets of the southern coast are, 
with one exception, composed of phonolite. Where the phonolite 
and basalt join, both, especially the former, are more or less disor- 
ganized in structure. The Sapate, or southwestern heights of the 
main island, are basaltic. Three-quarters of the insects taken by 
the expedition were new to science, and of the three reptiles an 
amphisbzena and a lizard are peculiar, as are two of the three land- 
birds. About 200 species of plants were found, some thirty, of 
which were peculiar. Invading plants have mastered the plains, 
and are gaining the heights and the sea-shore. On the East Hills 
were found two scrambling bushes of a strange plant which seemed 
to be the last of their race. Few of the native plants have conspi- 
cuous flowers, and many are berry-bearing shrubs, Euphorbiaceae, 
and grasses. But the flora includes a new dodder, an endemic fig, 
and two species of Oxalis, also a new Convolvulus. Out of the 
human population of rather over 2,000, about 1,400 are convicts. 
GEOGRAPHICAL News.—The census of Paris for 1886 gives 4 
population of 2,260,945, out of whom 1,802,53 are foreigners— 
nearly eight per cent. As this does not include foreigners peme 
decreases with each successive year. In 1887 the total number 0 
births was 60,666, and the excess over deaths only 5,820. 
The population of Melbourne is now estimated at spiel - 
two-fifths of the total population of the colony of Victoria, ana on 
seventh of that of the whole of Australia. 
The Argentine Republic contained in 1887 a population x 
3,935,286. Nearly 4,000 miles of railroads are in operation é ds 
the conceded lines extend over nearly one and a half times as m 
territory. 
ver Hawash 
M. Ant. de Abbadie has found the sources of the ri and. 08 
at the foot of Mount Ilfata, at the end of the Meca range, 
