his post at Zanzibar, with functions similar to those of the Residents at the courts of the feudatory States of India); and Major Macdonald will continue as British Consul-General to the Cameroons and act as Her Majesty's Commissioner for the Oil Rivers District and the Niger Territories.

The Navigation of the Niger.-M. Caron concludes, from the conditions affecting the height of the water in this river, that it can be navigated between Say and Nyamina for a fortnight only, or a month at most, from about November 15th to December 15th. Under these circumstances the vessel employed must have a speed of ten miles an hour, to traverse the distance of 970 miles between Say and Nyamina within this space of time, as well as to contend against the currents, which, according to Barth, attain a velocity of six miles per hour. The boat must be strongly built, and draw only twenty-four to thirty inches of water, and be amply provided with fuel to run between Kura and Tinsherifen (a distance of about 250 miles), where no wood can be obtained. With such a vessel M. Caron believes that a voyage to Say and back can be accomplished in the year.-Bull. de la Soc. de Géog. Commerciale du Havre, Nov.-Dec. 1890.

Togo-land. In December 1890 Captain Kling, on returning from the coast, journeyed through Kpandu to Salaga, and thence in a north-easterly direction into unexplored country. After a long day's march from his camp near Salaga through dry and desolate country he reached the village of Chammá. Here the scenery changed, and yams, beans, and ground-nuts grew in extensive fields. In the distance clumps of huge monkey breadfruit trees marked the sites of villages, and numerous herds of cattle enlivened the landscape. The next day Captain Kling arrived at Bimbilla, a town of 3000 huts. Many of these are occupied by Hausa traders on their way to the coast, and therefore the number of permanent inhabitants cannot be put down as more than 8000. After leaving this town, Captain Kling crossed the broad, majestic Oti or Mori, which harbours great numbers of hippopotami and wading birds, and in two days came to Naparri, on the highway between Salaga and Fasugu. Though no larger than Bimbilla, being situated on a long hill it appears to contain three times the number of huts. Fertile fields extend up the slopes, and monkey breadfruit trees, with their grotesque, leafless stems, form a strange contrast to the surrounding foliage. This was the most northern point of the journey, and, on leaving the town, Captain Kling journeyed about east-south-east through country abounding in game, both large and small, to the village of Yerrepá, the largest he had met with. The huts, 4000 to 5000 in number, are picturesquely situated on a long elevation, and from among them rise baobabs, tulip-trees, and oil-palms. Herds of fine, smooth-haired cattle graze on the slopes, where bare rocks of porphyry and gneiss and swamp ironstone occasionally crop out. The natives, as at Naparri, did not impress Captain Kling favourably. Their conduct was prompted by mistrust of the reason of his coming and delight at the expectation of presents. At the next village, Vu, the men, to the number of three or four hundred, turned out to stop his further progress, and after a long palaver Captain Kling ascertained that they demanded that he should return to Yarrepa and send the chief of that village to negotiate. The attitude of the people of Vu was the result of distorted reports of the Kebu war. As this village is only one day's march from Fasugu, so that little remained to explore, and time and presents were running out, Captain Kling did not feel disposed to wait the result of negotiations, and, therefore, returning nearly to Bimbilla, made his way southward, through an almost uninhabited and difficult country, to the route between Salaga and Bismarckburg.-Mitteilungen aus den Deutschen Schutzgebieten, Bd. vii. Heft 3.

VOL. VII.

M

AUSTRALASIA.

British New Guinea.-Our Hon. Corr. Member, Mr. J. P. Thomson, read a paper in December last "On the North-East Coast of British New Guinea, and some of the Adjacent Islands," before the Queensland Branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia. He remarked on the absence of information regarding this coast before the establishment of the British authority in New Guinea, which he accounted for by the fact that this part is less accessible from Australian ports than the south-eastern coast. The mountain ranges,

when viewed from a distance, seemed to rise abruptly from the shore, leaving no margin of cultivable land, and the natives bore the reputation of barbarous cannibals. Moreover, the indentations of the coast, such as Goodenough, Collingwood, Dyke Acland, and Holincote Bays, are too exposed to afford safe anchorage for ships in stormy weather. Sir William Macgregor, therefore, could not fail to bring back a large fund of information from his expedition to this coast in July 1890. The Anglo-German boundary is defined on the coast by Mitre Rock, a mass of conglomerate rising upon, or near to, the eighth parallel of south latitude, to a height of 60 feet above the water, with an opening about 12 feet high and 1 yard broad extending through it from north to south. Within a quarter of a mile of this rock Boundary Cape, so named by Sir Peter Scratchley, projects into the sea, a promontory of low forest-clad hills rising to a height of 400 to 500 feet. No natives were discovered until the expedition had advanced as far south as Caution Point, where a large village on the coast is inhabited by a powerful tribe. The men ornament their chins with false beards extending from ear to ear, and decorate their heads with cassowary feathers, shells and fibres, but tattooing seems not to be in fashion among them. The largest tribe met with inhabits a district of hilly ground and sago swamps lying to the south of Boundary Cape, behind which undulating country extends up to the ridges of the Owen Stanley Range. They are unacquainted with the use of iron, and, though friendly disposed towards white men, could not be persuaded to exchange their spears, adzes of jade and basalt, etc., for hardware or other articles. The border of Dyke Acland Bay is occupied by a group of villages to which Sir W. Macgregor gave the name of Oro, but, as it was derived simply from the words used by the local guide on approaching the shore, there is some doubt whether it is a tribal name or not. These villages are situated amidst the forest and grassland sloping down from the Hydrographer's Range, the spurs of which are inhabited by a population of about 3000. At the eastern extremity of Dyke Acland Bay lies Cape Nelson, remarkable for its numerous indentations, some of which, such as Maclaren Harbour and Port Hennessy, so named by Sir W. Macgregor, are excellent havens of refuge for shipping. Within the perimeter of this cape lie two mountains, Mount Trafalgar rising to a height of some 4000 feet, and, to the south of it, Mount Victory, probably 3500 feet high. The latter is an active volcano, for in the early morning steam was observed rising from its two crests and from a ridge at a lower elevation, and as the day advanced the whole top of the mountain became obscured by dense exhalations. Whereas Mount Trafalgar is clothed to its summit with forest, the volcano is precipitous and crowned with masses of bare rock. Another large inlet, Collingwood Bay, lies between Cape Nelson and the next promontory, which terminates in the two headlands, Kibirisi Point and Cape Sebiribiri, or Vogel. On the western shore dwells the Maisina tribe, in villages of inferior construction. The houses hold only one family each, and their roofs project to about three feet from the ground, thus forming verandahs. These natives also are unacquainted with iron

and tobacco, and adorn themselves with the usual ornaments of feathers, shells, and dog's teeth. The country towards the interior is low, and densely covered with forests, in which the casuarina is conspicuous. Several villages stud the coast between Kibirisi Point and Cape Sebiribiri, and opposite one of them, named Kapikapi, rise two singular masses of coral, probably eighty feet high, on each of which stand about a dozen houses. These, being stocked with spears and approached by wooden ladders, removable when necessary, are probably used as strongholds. After Cape Sebiribiri Goodenough Bay is reached, stretching to East Cape on Ansell's Peninsula, a district that has gained a sad notoriety from the murder of Captain Ansell and the destruction of the Star of Peace in 1888. The head of the bay is interesting from the miniature plateaus, elevated about 800 feet above the sea-level, of which the land is composed, and which have been formed by the soil washed down from the ravines in the background. The climate of this part of New Guinea is probably healthy, but the absence of navigable rivers would prove a great obstacle to the cultivation of suitable lands in the interior, if such should be found. Sir W. Macgregor also visited the Trobriand, Murua (Woodlark), and Nada (Lauchlan) Islands, situated far away to the north and north-east of East Cape, between the parallels of 8° 25′ and 9° 23′ S. lat., and the meridians of 150° 30′ and 153° 40′ E. long. Nada is a group of islets, about nine in number, forming an atoll, with a lagoon seven to twelve fathoms deep, and is inhabited by 169 natives. Murua, to the west of Nada, is about thirty-eight miles long, and possesses a good harbour. The natives have entered the iron age, and have abundance of food, consisting of yams, taro, and sweet potatoes. The Trobriand Islands lie to the north-west of Murua. The whole group is of coral formation, and is densely covered with forest, and the fertility of the soil is indicated by the abundance of cultivated food. The natives also catch large quantities of fish. They were very friendly with Sir W. Macgregor's party, and very eager to trade. These islands are so much more important in extent and population than had been reported, that several weeks might be spent in thoroughly exploring them.

GENERAL.

Lands of the Globe available for European Settlement.-The February number of the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society contains a correction to Mr. Ravenstein's figures which we ourselves reproduced (v. ante, p. 97). The population of Asia should be stated at 830,000,000, which would make the world's population 1,467,600,000.

The Rainfall of the Globe.-Mr. William B. Tripp read a paper with this title before the Royal Meteorological Society in May 1890 (vide Quarterly Journal, Oct. 1890). He had collected records from all parts of the world, which, for the purposes of tabulation, he divided into four quadrants in each of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Thus, Europe and Algeria form the north-west quadrant, and Asia the north-eastern, in the Old World, and similarly divisions are made in the New World and in the Southern Hemisphere. His tables show the wettest and driest years during the time records have been kept at each station, the percentages of the rainfall in these years, the mean at the station being taken as 100, and the lowest and highest percentages, wettest and driest years, in different parts of the world. The magnitude of fall in a single year varied from 1609 inches at the St. Bernard in 1839 to 3 inches at Sandiego in California in 1863. The percentages of the wettest years varied from 291 at Sandiego and 289 at the St. Bernard to 121 at the Cape of Good Hope stations, and 136 in Great Britain, while those of the driest

years ranged from 76 at the Cape to 32 at Sandiego. Mr. Tripp noticed some years that were peculiarly remarkable, such as 1872, when at nearly all the stations from Upsala in Sweden to the south-western extremity of the Spanish peninsula, a range of 2000 miles, a heavy fall was recorded. Mr. Tripp also proposed a method of determining a cycle by calling the ordinary yearly maxima and minima "extremes of the first order," and the culminating points of these "extremes of the second order," and so on. By this method he seems to think that, were records to be obtained for a long succession of years, some connection might be discovered with the sun-spot periods. It is remarkable that the most recent maximum culminations in Europe should occur about 1838-9 and 1872, at an interval of 33 years corresponding to that of the sun-spot maxima of 1837 and 1870, and that the sun-spot minimum of 1856 should nearly coincide with the period of minimum rainfall, these sun-spot culminations being all of the second order.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Ancient Routes across the Pamir are traced out by Dr. Nicolas Severtzow in the Bull, de la Soc. de Géographie, Paris, 3ème Trim., 1890.

The Deutsche Kolonialzeitung, December 27, 1890, states that in May 1890 King Mwanga, at the instigation of Dr. Carl Peters and Père Lourdel, proclaimed the Abolition of Slavery in Uganda.

The Peninsula of Kola, on which a Note was published in the Scottish Geographical Magazine, vol. vi. p. 419, is described in detail by Monsieur Charles Rabot in the Bulletin de la Soc. de Géographie, 2ème et 3ème Trim., 1890.

A Board on Geographic Names has been constituted in the United States, the decisions of which will be binding on all the Executive departments. Lieutenant Glover, the Hydrographer, has been chosen secretary.-Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, vol. xxii. No. 3.

Monsieur J. C. Reichenbach, formerly French Resident, has published in the Bulletin de la Soc. de Géographie, Paris, 3ème Trim., 1890, a treatise on the Kingdom of Assinie, in which he discusses its origin and history, the manners, customs, and religion of its inhabitants, and the fauna and flora of the country.

Mr. Clement L. Wragge, writing to Nature (February 5, 1891), announces that he has founded a first-order Meteorological Station at Numea, New Caledonia, under the auspices of the Queensland Government. He hopes also to establish stations at Aneiteum or Havana in the New Hebrides, at Tahiti, and at other places in the South Pacific.

MM. Catat and Maistre arrived at Fianarantsoa on September 8th, 1890, after a visit to the South of Madagascar, which they explored to Fort Dauphin. They have brought back valuable collections, ethnographical, botanical, and zoological. The country is of remarkable fertility, well-watered, and thickly populated.Revue Française, November 1st, 1890.

In the Deutsche Geog. Blätter, Bd. xiii. Heft 3, Herr W. J. Wallraff gives an account of the geographical distribution, commercial importance, etc. of Alfa, both the Stipa tenacissima, or the Spanish esparto grass, and the allied variety, Lygeum spartum, frequently sold under the same name in England and France, though distinguished in Algeria by the designation of Senrah.

The Annalen der Hydrographie, Heft x., 1890, contains an article by Professor O. Krümmel on the method of ascertaining the Specific Gravity of Sea-water, from which the salinity can be deduced, by means of the hydrometer. The varieties of this instrument are described, and the precautions to be taken in using it on board ship, and formulae of reduction for temperature, etc., are given.

The Report of the Survey Department, New Zealand, for the year 1889-90, has been issued. During the twelve months ending June 30th 1890, 2572 square miles of country were minor triangulated and partly topographically sketched, and a large extent of land was surveyed for selection. From the head office seventyfive land-sale maps have been issued, and twelve district maps, on the mile-to-aninch scale.

In the Bulletin de la Soc. de Géographie, Paris, 3ème Trim., 1890, Monsieur Coudreau sets forth the claims of France and Brazil respecting the disputed territory lying to the south of Guiana. The frontier, as laid down by the French authorities, is formed by the northern branch of the Araguary, the upper course of that river, and a line running at a distance of 124 miles from the Amazons to the Rio Branco, the western boundary.

L'Afrique, November 1890, quoting from the Mémorial Diplomatique, states that terrible anarchy reigns in Kordofan. Abdullah, the successor of the Mahdi, is shut up in Omdurman, and may at any moment be attacked by the Senusi from El-Obeid. No cultivation, and consequently no commerce, is possible, so that famine prevails through the Sudan. Abdullah's lieutenants are seeking to establish small principalities for themselves.

At a meeting in Berlin of the Geographical Society, Chief-Forester Kessler called attention to the aste of Timber in the United States. Not only are large quantities cut down for use, but fires, resulting from carelessness or a desire to clear the land for cultivation, cause great destruction. Herr Kessler made the striking comparison that, while only eleven per cent. of the area of the United States is covered with forests, in Germany twenty-six per cent. is so covered.— Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, vol. xxii. No. 3.

Monsieur Pavie, French Consul at Luang Prabang, has discovered that the Song-ka or Black River is formed by the union of two streams, the Luma on the right bank and the Papien on the left, which unite at a distance of two days' march above Muong-Thé. The latter receives three tributaries on its right bank. Consequently the sources of the Black River lie much farther to the north-west than was formerly supposed, and the products of China may be brought by this channel down to the French territory.-Bulletin de la Soc. de Géographie de l'Est, 3o Trim., 1890.

The Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, vol. xx. No. 2, contains plates of different varieties of Coral, illustrating their comparative growth, accompanied by a note by Professor Agassiz. All the specimens were taken in 1888, from a portion of the cable between Key West and Havana repaired in the summer of 1881; so that the time of growth is about seven years. Orbicella annularis grew to a thickness of two-and-a-half inches in this interval. Manicina areolata also shows a very rapid rate of increase, and Isophyllia dipsacea grew still more quickly.

The Hungarian Society of Geography, Bulletin No. 7, 1890, makes the following appeal to Geographical writers :-"By the thirty-second article of the law of 1872,