52 General Notes. (January, 
great part by Mantzu tribes. Reaching the Chin-sha Chiang or 
river of golden sand, he then proceeded to Ta-li Fu and Yunnan 
Fu, when he descended the Yung-ning river to Lu Chou. In 
1884 he went to Ho Chou, north of Ch’ung-Ch’ing, thence through 
a cultivated and fertile country to Chia-ting Fu, on the right 
bank of the Min and thence south on the eastern side of indepen- 
dent Lolodom, to the river of Golden Sand at the town of Man-i- 
ssu. Chia-ting is the great center of sericulture in Ssu-ch’uan, 
and the chief insect wax-producing city in the empire. A day’s 
journey from it is the famous mount O-mei, 11,000 feet high, 
sacred to the worship of Buddha. 
Asiatic News.—The total forest area of British India is com- 
puted at 75,270 square miles, Colonel Prejevalsky has again 
failed to penetrate into Tibet over the Keria mountains in conse- 
quence of the strenuous opposition of the Chinese. Dr. Otto 
Finsch has explored 1000 miles of the coast of Northern (Ger- 
man) New Guinea, has discovered several good harbors, and has 
followed a large river thirty miles into the interior. The interior 
is mountainous, the plains near the sea are richly covered with 
trees and bush and well watered, the soil is of the richest fertility, 
and the natives are friendly. Dr. Finsch found no trace of min- 
erals, and regards the reported discovery of gold on the Fly river 
ss »”» 
as a “ schwindel. 
Arrica.—Somaliland—The October issue of the Proceedings 
of the Royal Geographical Society, contains F. L. James’s account 
of his journey through the Somali country to the Webbe Shebeyli. 
The journey was in many respects the most successful that has 
ever been made in that region, since the party succeeded in pene- 
trating Ogadayn, more than half crossing the peninsula, and 
returning without a contest. The return was, however, compelled 
by the attempt of the Sultan of Barri to make his visitors assist 
him against his rival. The greatest danger to which the travelers 
were exposed, arose from Lord Granville’s telegram forbidding 
the expedition to proceed, This arrived after their departure, but - 
its open publication in Berbera caused the Somali to believe that 
the travelers were in disfavor with the British government. Fire- 
arms were new to the Somali of Ogadayn, and the rifles insured 
respect. Most of the country appears to be a stony desert, but 
settlements are abundant on the Webbe, which does not reach the 
ocean, but loses itself a few miles from the coast. In Ogadayn 
there is a subject people called Adone, with strongly-marked ` 
negro features. About 150 species of plants, chiefly herbs and 
under-shrubs, were brought back, including a specimen of an 
, apocynaceous plant which affords an arrow- poison. Sixty-one 
species of birds, seven of which are new, and forty-six kinds ga l 
Lepidoptera, seventeen of them new, were also brought back. 
The genealogy of the Somali tribes is given. They are all said 
