January 2, 18S5. | 



SCIENCE. 



5 



and frequent communications in respect to 

 matters which come under their cognizance. 



Second, Science aims to gather like reports 

 from the best British and foreign sources in 

 respect to the advancement of knowledge in 

 other countries. In respect to work which is 

 done abroad, where there are so many excel- 

 lent journals, we cannot be so full as we are 

 in respect to the investigations of our own coun- 

 trymen ; but, as science knows no geographical 

 restrictions, our columns are open to intelli- 

 gence from every part of the globe. 



Third, in presenting what we have to say, 

 our purpose is to be brief, as becomes a jour- 

 nal published weekly ; alert in selecting those 

 topics which are of the most immediate inter- 

 est ; accurate, or we should soon lose all stand- 

 ing in the scientific world ; and readable, by 

 which w T e mean that the articles written b}' 

 specialists in their several domains shall be 

 phrased in terms comprehensible, without a 

 dictionary, to those whose studies and pursuits 

 are in very different fields. 



Fourth, in the discussion of important ques- 

 tions, or in the expression of opinions on dis- 

 puted points, Science endeavors to be free 

 from the influence of an}' school or clique, to 

 speak only in the interests of advancing truth, 

 and to suggest such methods as will promote 

 the economical employment and enlargement 

 of scientific funds, the diffusion of sound ideas 

 among the people at large, and the suppression 

 of all needless animosities. 



As for the future, we are hopeful. Our ar- 

 rangements for receiving and printing such 

 communications as we wish to lay before our 

 readers were never better than now. Our con- 

 tributors, many of whom we have never per- 

 sonally seen, and who are scattered far and 

 wide over this land, have never been in better 

 accord with the editorial staff. Our subscrip- 

 tion list is enlarging, and our pages now come 

 before the principal workers in all departments 

 of science. But we are free to add, that if 

 Science is to be all that it should be, all that 

 we desire to make it, there must be a more lib- 

 eral financial support. Those who have fur- 

 nished the capital requisite to begin and to 



sustain for a period the publication of a jour- 

 nal which they believed would be of the great- 

 est utility cannot be expected to continue their 

 support indefinitel}', unless the}' are sustained 

 by the cordial support of individuals and asso- 

 ciations who are interested, quite as much as 

 the directors of Science, in the perpetuation of 

 the influences which we now represent. 



We therefore ask our readers and friends, 

 and especially our contributors and subscribers. 

 to continue during a third year their hearty and 

 outspoken good will. 



THE KONGO. 



Ten years ago Stanley left Zanzibar for the 

 great lakes of eastern Africa, intending, if pos- 

 sible, to cross the continent, and ascertain if the 

 Luluaba of Livingstone was the Kongo. We 

 then knew little of central or western Africa. 

 The courses of the streams and mountains dot- 

 ted on the map were derived from imagination 

 or the vague reports of natives. Schweinfurth 

 had explored Sudan and Darfur and the west- 

 ern branches of the Nile ; but nearly all of 

 Africa south of Algeria, and west of the Nile 

 and the great lakes, was unknown. Since then, 

 Stanley has followed the course of the Kongo 

 nearly two thousand miles, from the great 

 lakes of western Africa to the ocean. 



The English have explored the Niger and its 

 tributary, the Benue, nearly to Lake Tschad ; 

 while Capt. Cameron has crossed from Zanzi- 

 bar, south of the watershed of the Kongo, to 

 the Atlantic at Benguela. The Portuguese, 

 under Messrs. Capello and Ivens, and De Serpa 

 Pinto, starting from Benguela, 12° south lati- 

 tude, about three hundred miles south of the 

 Kongo, have traversed the continent between 

 the 12th and 15th degrees of south latitude, 

 and explored a vast tract of country and the 

 valle}^ of two great rivers running north, but 

 were prevented by the natives from following 

 them to their junction with the Kongo. 



We have now a general knowledge of Africa 

 from 10° north of the equator to the Cape of 

 Good Hope, including central and south Africa ; 

 leaving only the territor} r south of Algeria, the 

 western Sudan beyond Darfur, terra incognita. 

 Into this region the French are travelling from 

 Algeria, and the Germans from Eg}-pt ; and 

 soon the whole of Africa will be explored, so 

 far as its general features are concerned. 



The western coast of Africa has loua; been 



