April 24, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



351 



chromolithographed plates of African tribes and of 

 the Alps, both finely executed. The work is to run 

 through two hundred and fifty-six weekly numbers. 



— Mr. A. Ainslie Common, well known as the 

 maker of a powerful reflecting-telescope at Ealing, 

 Eng., has been experimenting in the application 

 of photography to the production of stellar maps. 

 A small lens of four inches and a half diameter has 

 been found sufficient to show stars of the ninth 

 magnitude ; and one of the photographs of the region 

 about Altair (a Aquilae) was found to contain eighteen 

 hundred separate stars which had been identified. 



— Messrs. Hachette have just published vol. x. of 

 the ' Nouvelle geographie universelle ' of Elisee Reclus, 

 which shows tbe same amount of care and energy as 

 its predecessors. The maps are as numerous as ever, 

 and the illustrations, near- 

 ly all taken from photo- 

 graphs, are excellent. This 

 volume deals with the 

 basin of the Nile, and thus 

 embraces regions in which 

 the public are just now 

 specially interested. Mr. 

 Reclus furnishes full ac- 

 counts of the physical geog- 

 raphy of the country, and 

 of its inhabitants, but very 

 wisely abstains from dis- 

 cussing the political events 

 of the day. The informa- 

 tion has been well brought 

 down to date, documents 

 published as recently as 

 November, 1884, having 

 been consulted. 



— The Natal Mercantile advertiser gives a lengthy 

 account of the expedition of Dr. Aurel Schulz in the 

 interior. One strange tribe discovered by the party 

 on the Kabengo River, was the Makuba tribe. They 

 are strongly aquatic, taking to the water like fish, 

 splendid fishermen, well built, strapping fellows of 

 Zulu type, expert canoeists, and the corn-growers of 

 the country-side, and, in addition to all this, imbued 

 with a horror of shedding human blood, so much so 

 that a man of the outside blood-shedding tribes is 

 always ' open to back himself to give battle to fifty 

 Makubas any day.' Another interesting matter is 

 the account of the chief Kama, who rules at Soshong, 

 the capital of the northern Bechuana. He governs 

 his people well : his great wish is to have them well 

 armed with guns, and provided with ammunition. 

 Alcohol in any shape is not allowed in his dominions. 

 No kafir beer is brewed. Any white trader selling 

 liquor is fined up to a hundred pounds ; any subject 

 brewing is expelled from the country. All, from the 

 chief downward, are stanch teetotalers. Kama 

 claims dominions up to the Tyobe River, though those 

 portions do not pay tribute. He gives as much as a 

 hundred and eighty pounds for a horse, and is an 

 expert rider himself. His history is romantic, and 

 will be read with interest when it appears. 



THE CREVASSE ON THE ROAD FROM LOJA TO ALHAMA, SPAIN 



(From L' Astronomic) 



— Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson, formerly professor 

 of experimental physics at University college, Bristol, 

 has been made director of the Finsbury technical col 

 lege of London, 



— The Norwegian brig Coulant reports, that on 

 March 21, in latitude 13° 22' north, longitude 45° 

 30' west, the ship was going nine knots under full 

 sail, when she struck something, apparently a sand- 

 bank, and continued striking for half a minute. The 

 vessel's speed was reduced to about five knots. The 

 captain had no time to get a lead over, and could see 

 nothing over the sides. At the time a heavy sea was 

 running. It has been suggested that this might have 

 been a submarine earthquake. 



— The Japan gazette publishes a brief statement 

 from Mr. Gowland, technical adviser to the Imperial 



mint at Osaka, on his ob- 

 servations during a recent 

 journey through a part of 

 Korea. He spent ten days 

 at Soul, the capital, and 

 twenty days on the over- 

 land route between that 

 place and the port of Fasan. 

 He did not observe any in- 

 dication of mineral wealth : 

 there were no signs of 

 mines, and nothing beyond 

 doubtful indications of min- 

 eral veins in one or two 

 places. There are no moun- 

 tains exceeding about four 

 thousand feet in highest 

 elevation, and no char- 

 acteristic volcanic cones. 

 The central range was 

 crossed by a pass twenty-three hundred feet above 

 the sea-level. The forests were of no great extent ; 

 but very extensive tracts of cultivated ground, evi- 

 dently yielding a large surplus production of rice, 

 barley, and beans, were noticeable throughout. There 

 was a marked absence of any manufacturing industry, 

 or of indications that any thing beyond food-products 

 received attention. The traffic on the roads was very 

 limited, — no signs of wealth, no money, and no for- 

 eign trade. 



— Views of the devastation caused by the recent 

 Spanish earthquakes still afford material for the for- 

 eign illustrated papers. The cuts here copied are 

 taken from La Nature and V Astronomie of recent 

 dates; and the first one, at least, gives evidence of 

 being drawn after a photograph, or from a careful 

 sketch. The fracture here represented in part is de- 

 scribed as being about a mile and a half long, and of 

 considerable but undetermined depth. A church has 

 sunk in it, leaving only the top of its tower above 

 ground. The formation of the crevasses was violent, 

 accompanied by an explosive noise ; and, where they 

 traversed villages, escape from ingulfment was by 

 no means easy. A muleteer lost one of his mules in 

 a fracture, and the artists of U Astronomie have not 

 hesitated to commemorate this sad occurrence by a 



