800 
of the occasion was enhanced by one of those beauti- 
ful days of spring for which Switzerland is so justly 
celebrated. 
Guillaume Henri Dufour (born at Constance in 
1787; died at Geneva the 14th of July, 1875) is the 
most conspicuous figure of Switzerland during the 
nineteenth century. His popularity as a general who 
three times commanded the Swiss army — twice 
under very trying circumstances, such as the civil war 
of the ‘Sonderbund’ in 1847, and the Prussian war- 
pressure of 1855-56 — is well deserved. He will also 
be remembered as the president of the first interna- 
tional congress of the Red cross society. But it is as 
a savant that we shall consider him. The orator of 
the day, Col. Aubert, president of the committee of 
the monument, said, ‘‘ As a topographical engineer, 
he conceived, directed, and executed for the con- 
federation that splendid map of Switzerland which 
leaves far behind it all that had previously been 
done of the same kind, reaching a perfection which 
has been copied, perhaps attained, but never yet sur- 
passed,’’— a just appreciation of so distinguished a 
topographer. 
Dufour’s map, the official ‘ Carte topographique de 
la Suisse,’ in twenty-five sheets (scale 1 : 100,000), is 
a true chef-d’ oeuvre, a veritable model. A reduction 
in four sheets, on the scale of 1-: 250,000, also con- 
structed under his direction, is a still more exquisite 
specimen of topography. We should be glad to see 
our government follow the lead of the Swiss republic, 
and give to its citizens, and to the scientific, agricul- 
tural, industrial, and commercial world, such a boon 
as a topographical atlas of the entire country, on the 
scale of 1 : 100,000, and thus supply an actual need 
of the present time. 
The geodetic triangulation of Switzerland was be- 
gun by Dufour in 1832; and by agreement with the 
Piedmontese and French governments, which had 
undertaken a similar triangulation, the summit of the 
mountain of La Dole, in the Jura, was considered as 
the terminal point of the three surveys. Major Del- 
cros, of the topographical corps of the French engi- 
neers, starting from Havre and Paris as a base, was 
the last to finixh its work: the two other observers 
had taken for the bases of their triangles, one, the 
shores of the Lake of Constance and the valley of 
the Upper Rhine, and the other the plains of the 
River Po; and to their delight, on comparing notes 
with Delcros, a difference of less than three metres 
was found for the elevation of the summit of La 
Déle above the level of the sea, —a very remarkable 
case of exactness, when we consider the time and 
means; for it was long before the electric telegraph, 
the prismatic-light observations, and the very perfect 
instruments now in use. 
— Dr. Dominik Kammel von Hardegger, a wealthy 
Austrian and eager sportsman, proposes to start in 
the ensuing autumn for Harar and the Somal coun- 
try. He will be accompanied by Dr. Philipp Pau- 
litschke, professor of geography at the University of 
Vienna, who bas just published ‘ Die geographische 
erforschung der Adal-lander und Harar’s’ (Leipzig, 
Frohberg), an elaborate essay on the geographical 
SCIENCE. 
hy 
7. 
[Vou. IIL, No. 73. 
exploration of the countries which the expedition i 
likely to visit. 
— We learn from Nature of June 12 that a new 
scheme of a polar expedition has been recently sub- 
mitted by several officers of the Russian navy to the 
minister, Admiral Shestakoff. Starting from the 
idea that it is impossible to reach the north pole by 
sea on account of the archipelagoes that cover the 
circumpolar region, the Russian officers propose to 
Start an expedition on sledges from the New Siberia 
Islands, which are nine hundred nautical miles dis- 
tant from the pole. This space is to be covered by 
sledge-parties, who would make depots of provisions 
on the newly-discovered islands, and thus slowly but 
surely advance towards the north, securing at the 
same time the return journey of the expedition. 
When elaborated, the scheme will be submitted to 
the learned societies, and the necessary money raised 
by subscriptions. 
— The death of Dr. Robert Angus Smith, on May 
12 will be a great loss to science, as well as to a large 
circle of friends to whom his kind heart and sympa- 
thetic nature had endeared him. Dr. Angus Smith 
was born near Glasgow, Feb. 15, 1817. He was edu- 
cated first at Glasgow, then studied chemistry at 
Giessen, under Liebig, from 1839 to 1841. A report 
which he presented to the British association in 1848, 
on the air and water of towns, gave a great impulse 
to the question at that time; and a paper on the air 
of towns, in the Journal of the chemical society of 
1858, first produced data establishing the differences of 
the town and country air, wherever found. His latest 
discovery, by which he tested the amount of injurious 
gas likely to arise from water more or less contami- 
nated with sewage, was noted in Science only a few 
months ago. Dr. Angus Smith was for many years 
government inspector of chemical works, and had 
been a member of the Royal society since 1857. 
— The Milan society for the commercial exploration 
of Africa has organized a circumnavigation of Africa, 
with a view of affording the pupils of the High school 
of commerce, and others, an opportunity of becoming 
acquainted with likely markets for Italian products. 
The steamer will leave Genoa on the 1st of September, 
and the whole voyage will occupy four months. A 
professor is to lecture during the voyage on the com- 
mercial geography of Africa. 
—Stanley’s note-book of his Kongo experiences 
from the 24th of August, 1883, to January, 1884, has 
been published in Brussels. He gives an account of 
the important expedition from Stanley Pool to Stanley 
Fall, which solved a geographical problem. He fol- 
lowed the Kongo to the mouth of the Aronhonimi; 
and his explorations established the identity of that 
stream with the Quené, which was discovered by 
Schweinfurth. The banks are thickly populated, 
but the people not warlike; and the villages are rich 
in ivory and other African products. The style of 
architecture is different from that on the banks of . 
the Kongo. Stanley met with no opposition, though 
he encountered a fleet of above a thousand boats. He 
reports that the condition of the settlement of the 
ae 
