October 9, 1885.] 



SCIENCE, 



311 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



The ItaKan corvette Vettor Pisani, commanded 

 by G. Columbo, recently completed a three years' 

 cu-ciuxmavigation of the globe, with a suitable 

 outfit and instructions for scientific hydrographic 

 and biological work. The vessel left Italy early in 

 1882, provided with the most improved apparatus 

 for sounding with wire. The officers to whom 

 zoological work was entrusted were specially in- 

 sti-ucted at the Naples zoological station in the 

 methods necessary for making satisfactory collec- 

 tions. The regions visited included both coasts of 

 South America, from Pernambuco on the east, 

 south to Magellan Straits, and north to Panama, 

 the Galapagos and Hawaiian Islands, the China, 

 Indian and Red seas, and so home. The results of 

 the voyage are very satisfactory, many deep sea 

 soundings having been taken, numerous charts 

 corrected or resurveyed, general hydrographic 

 information gathered, and a zoological collection 

 accumulated which, for its fine state of preserva- 

 tion and preparation, is beheved to exceed any col- 

 lection ever made under similar circumstances. 



The govern m ent of Chih has published an im- 

 portant work by Al. Bei-ti-and, entitled ' Memoir on 

 the Cordilleras and the Atacama Desert and adja- 

 cent regions,' which gives the result of explora- 

 tions made during the period 1880-84, explains the 

 system adopted, and maps on a large scale the 

 region studied, beside giving numerous profiles. 

 This work must form the foundation for any future 

 discussion or description of the region acquu-ed by 

 Chih in the war recently terminated. 



The last number of the Mittheilungen of the 

 Vienna geographical society contams the annual 

 summary of the president of geographical work 

 (for 1884), beside the usual annual tables and 

 reports. Among contributed articles is a valuable 

 summary by Dr. Rink on the scientific work 

 carried on m Greenland by the Danish government 

 siuce 1876, and letters, nearly a year old, giving 

 data on his last journey hi Tsai-dam by Prjevalski. 

 Breitenstein continues his interesting notes on 

 Borneo, and especially on the Dyaks. 



In the^ Bulletin of the Geographical society of 

 Lisbon for 1883, but just distributed, Coelho has a 

 long article on the chants and songs of Portuguese 

 children, which have been collected by Senors 

 Pires and Sequeira Ferraz. These have not only an 

 ethnic interest for the anthropologist but the longer 

 songs embalm fragments of popular tradition 

 which have been sung by children without essen- 

 tial change from a very dim antiquity. Some of 

 them are known to have existed in their i^resent 

 form as early as the 13th century. Probably the 

 peasant life of the Iberian Peninsula has remauied 



less affected by the progress of civilization than 

 that of any other area of equal extent inliabited by 

 civilized man, and for this reason investigations 

 into such topics are likely to have es^jecial value. 



The numbers of the BuUetiu for 1885 contain 

 articles on African exploration and on the island 

 of Timor. Figueiredo also has an article on 

 mediaeval Portugal, with an excellent and mter- 

 esting reproduction of a panorama of Coimbra as 

 it appeared during the last quarter of the 16th 

 century. 



Some time since {Science No. 110) we referred 

 to a journey by Mr. Richards of the east-central 

 African mission in October, 1884, from Inhambane 

 to the Limpopo River. The chief settlement of a 

 tribe called Amagwaza, the town of Baleni was 

 one of the localities sought, but want of time pre- 

 vented the traveller from reaching it. We learn 

 from the Missionary herald for September that on 

 a second journey by IVIr. Richards, beside visiting a 

 large and hitherto untravelled area, was successful 

 in reaching Baleni. He left Delagoa Bay on foot 

 April 20, attended only by a Zulu convert and 

 three porters. The Komati River, two himdred 

 yards wide and thirty feet deep, was crossed about 

 a day later in a ' dugout ' canoe, and its course 

 was followed for several days through unhealthy 

 marshes swarming with insects. The river 

 abounded with sharks, crocodiles and sea-cows. 

 Leaving the river on the fourth day, a series of 

 thirteen lakes was passed. Though there was no 

 connecting stream at that season, the natives call 

 this string of lakes the Liputa River, but there ai-e 

 often hills and bushy districts between the lakes. 

 The country was hiQy. On the seventh they 

 emerged from the bush close to the Limpopo, and 

 here Baleni was situated. Herds of cattle were 

 visible in every direction, and clusters of small 

 huts were very numerous. Manjobo or Manjova, 

 the ruling chief, has several kraals on the west 

 and one on the east side of the river, wliich here 

 runs through a low flat plain of indui'ated alluvi- 

 um ' as hard as marble.' The river banks are about 

 two yards high, the stream being about fifteen feet 

 deep and two hundred yards wide. Five sea-cows 

 and eight crocodiles were seen at the crossing. 

 Manjobo's kraal on the east side is called Emkon- 

 tweni, the place where the spear is stuck in the 

 ground. The chief is next in authority to L"m- 

 ganu, the son and successor of the celebrated 

 Umzila, is very old, bald, and good natured. 

 and commands the army of Umganu. The Iios- 

 tilities between his people and the Chobbas, or 

 Machappas, have ceased on the latter agreeing to 

 pay tribute. Previously they had been subject to 

 raids which were little more than massacres, only 

 the children being saved ahve to be sold as slaves 



