intervening range was found at this time of year to be nearly waterless. At Mikolongo in the Upper Moanza valley, where the chief Kavira resides, he had met with M. Foa, an agent of the Central African Company, who claim large tracts of land on the south side of the Shiré. Two neighbouring chiefs, who were proposing to settle a long-standing quarrel by fighting it out, were visited and warned that such practices could no longer be permitted within the British "sphere of influence." Capt. Sclater returned to Blantyre down the Moanza valley. The first collections made by Mr. Alexander Whyte, the naturalist attached to Commissioner Johnston's staff, have arrived in this country, and have been carefully examined by various experts. They are mostly from the high ranges of Zomba and Milanji, and contain many novelties. Dr. Günther's report on the reptiles and that of Mr. Oldfield Thomas on the mammals were read at the Zoological Society's meeting on November 1st last year and will shortly be published in that Society's Proceedings. Among the reptiles are examples of three new species of chameleons, two of which one belonging to the genus Rhampholeon-are remarkable for their extremely short tails. A paper by Capt. Shelley on Mr. Whyte's collection of birds from the Shiré Highlands, appears in The Ibis for the present month. Representatives of twelve new species were in the series, amongst which is a new song-thrush from Mount Milanji (Turdus milanjensis). The plants, which have been examined by the officers of the botanical department of the British Museum, likewise present many features of great interest. The large coniferous tree of Mount Milanji, described by Mr. Whyte as a cypress (see Proceedings, R.G.S. 1892, p. 472), turns out to be a new Widdringtonia, which has been named after its discoverer W. whytei. A complete set of all the collections has been presented to the British Museum.

Dr. Stuhlmann's African Work.-Probably few amongst those who scan the map of Africa or listen to the record of travel in that continent realise the enormous amount of labour involved in filling in the details of only a small corner of unexplored land. The Deutches Kolonialblatt gives a brief summary of the cartographic material accumulated by Dr. Stuhlmann, which effectively illustrates the activity in observing and recording demanded of an explorer who is at the same time a geographer. The list of the material brought back is as follows:— A route-map of 146 octavo sheets, showing the journey from Kafuro to the most northerly point reached in Southern Momfu. The direction of the line of march is noted at intervals of five minutes, and many thousand compass-bearings taken to distant mountains and other conspicuous objects. A series of profiles of hill-slopes, and of the country generally, comprising no less than 105 sections of the country between Kafuro and the west of the Albert Lake. A journal containing a transcript of the geodetic measurements about Bukoba, with numerous

compass bearings, including also observations on the return journey to Muanza, in which many of the islands in the south-western part of the Victoria Nyanza had their position fixed. Two small journals, with original entries of the route to the coast at Bagamoyo. A map of the route from Muanza to Bagamoyo on the scale of one minute of marching to a millimetre. This occupies forty-six sheets, with a total length when put together of 40 feet. It was accompanied by thirteen tables, showing mountain profiles. About twenty-four sketch-maps incorporating some of the facts in a provisional way for special regions, drawn on the spot. A curve showing sixty-five astronomically-determined positions and magnetic observations. Finally, there was a large folio volume, partly filled in by Emin Pasha and continued by Dr. Stuhlmann, giving all the estimates of height, boiling-point readings, and meteorological observations, extending to about 70,000 separate entries. Besides this purely cartographic material, the expedition brought home large collections of specimens in different departments of natural history, voluminous notes on the people met with, and vocabularies of twenty different languages. When it is remembered that careful collation and often laborious calculations are necessary before a correct map can be constructed from the data collected, one cannot be surprised at the fact that years are frequently necessary before a book of true geographical travel can be presented to the public.

Death of Cardinal Lavigerie.-We must record the death at Saint Eugene, near Algiers, on November 26th, of Cardinal Lavigerie, whose active exertions against the African slave trade are so well known. He was seventy-seven years of age, and for the last thirty years has been the most energetic organiser of the French missions. He founded the mission of the "White Fathers" and "White Sisters" in 1868, and in 1888 he convened the great International Anti-Slavery Conference, from which the Belgian Anti-Slavery Society resulted.

Return of Captain Monteil.-Captain Monteil and his companion Badaire, whose arrival at Tejerri from Lake Chad we noticed last month, have reached Paris, where they received a most cordial reception on December 20th.

On a New Route from the Rovuma to Chitesi on Lake Nyasa.-The Very Rev. Archdeacon Maples sends us a map of the routes which he followed in 1886 and 1891 in his journeys from Mponda's, on the Rovuma River to Chitesi's on Lake Nyasa. He writes: "I place Unangu rather differently from where the Rev. W. P. T. Johnson placed it (see Mr. Johnson's map in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, September, 1884), but he inclines to think that my placing is right and his wrong. I give the course of the Losheringo west of his placing. He thinks I am probably right there too. I

notice that many of the places on the coast of Lake Nyasa are marked wrongly (on Mr. Johnson's map), e.g., Morumba and Masanje are one and the same place; but I believe we have a correct map of the coast-line, and for all the rest you had better follow his map, except

when I differ from his original placing of Unangu (mark the spelling) and the Losheringo (or Lucheringo). I send you my torn and tattered map. I made it first in 1886, and used it again in 1891. I thus tested it and believe it to be fairly correct."

Lieutenant C. H. Villiers' Expedition in North-East Africa.-News has been received that the exploring party, consisting of Lieutenant C. H. Villiers, Royal Horse Guards, Sir Henry Tichborne, Dr. Mackenan, Lieut. J. M. Bennett-Stanford, and Mr. Harris, which left England in October last, had been successful in collecting stores and camels at Aden and Berbera, and was on the point of starting down the coast to the mouth of the Juba river, where the stores, etc., would be transhipped to the I. B. E. A. Co.'s stern-wheel steamer Kenia and taken up the river to the head of navigation. Mr. J. W. Gregory, Assistant in the Geological Department of the British Museum, has since left England to join the party as Naturalist, leave of absence, on full pay, having been granted to that gentleman for eleven months. Lieutenant Villiers, the leader of the party, has on a previous occasion visited Somaliland and travelled

from Berbera as far south as Melmil, and both he and Mr. Gregory have received instruction in surveying and practical astronomy at this Society's observatory under Mr. Coles. One of the principal objects of the expedition is to obtain sport; but as portions of the country through which it is proposed to travel are entirely unknown, the necessary instruments for fixing positions and surveying have not been forgotten. The party in this respect is well equipped, and there is every reason to hope that the results obtained will add considerably to our knowledge of the geography, geology, and natural history of this little-known part of Africa. The route Lieutenant Villiers and his companions propose to follow, from the head of navigation of the Juba, is across the unexplored country which lies between this river and Lake Rudolf; thence, if possible, to return N. E. across the country of the Galla tribes and Somaliland to Berbera. A somewhat novel incident has occurred in the matter of providing food for the porters, etc.; it was found that dates and rice could be more easily and cheaply procured in London than at Aden, and, as a consequence, the quantities required of these two articles were purchased in England and shipped out to East Africa.

MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

Measurements of an Arc of the Meridian.-M. L. Bassot summarises in the Comptes Rendus the new geodetic operations which have completed the remeasurement of an arc of the meridian decided on in 1869, and undertaken after the war of 1870. General Perrier, afterwards assisted by Captain Defforges and M. Bassot carried out the work. The operations included (1) the establishment of a complete chain between the Spanish frontier and Dunkirk, bringing it into relation as far as possible with each of the parallel chains of the old survey; (2) the redetermination of the coordinates of the Pantheon, the starting-point of the French triangulations; (3) the measurement of the base lines in terms of the standard metre; and (4) the calculation of the length of the arc and the corrections of previous measurements which directly depended on it. The work is now practically finished, and the French triangulation is connected by actual observation with the surveys of England and of Spain. The recalculation of the main lines of the network of French survey shows complete accordance with the triangulation of England, Italy, and Belgium; but a discrepancy with that of Spain amounting to The total length of the meridian between the extreme points which have been fixed astronomically, a distance of about 8° 17', is only 16.4 feet less than that calculated on the assumptions of Clarke's ellipsoid, which assumes a polar flattening of 9346. This theoretical value is thus confirmed. The new measurement between the extreme point shows the length to be 146.6 feet, or boo greater than was deduced by Delambre when measuring for the value of the metre at the end of last century.

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Observatory on Mont Blanc.-M. Janssen has reported to the Paris Academy of Sciences on the progress made this summer with the work of erecting an observatory on the highest summit in Europe. Two tunnels, 75 feet long, have been driven through the ice, about 40 feet below the summit, horizontally, from different sides, at an angle of 45° to each other but without reaching rock. The possibility of a rock foundation being thus made very doubtful, it was decided to build the house on the snow. To test the conditions of compacted snow, M. Janssen experimented last winter with an artificial snow mound at the Observatory at Meudon. He levelled the surface of this mound, and placed on it discs of lead 14 inches in diameter and weighing about 66 lbs. each. The impression in the snow made by twelve such discs weighing altogether nearly 800 lbs. on an area of about one square foot, was barely one-third of an inch. It is proposed to make the observatory in the form of a truncated pyramid, the whole lower storey being embedded in the snow, thus securing a relatively large base to resist the pressure of the wind on the upper part. The base of the rectangular wooden building would be 33 feet by 16 feet 6 inches, and trap-doors in the floor would permit of the adjustment of screws by which the exact position of the structure could be maintained in spite of slow movements of the ice. The walls, windows, and doors would all be double to secure warmth. An observatory on this plan has been built and conveyed to Chamonix; most of it has been carried in sections to the Grands Mulets, and about one-quarter has been taken to the new hut on Roches Rouges only 980 feet from the summit. Next year should see the work completed, and volunteer observers will not be wanting to study the many interesting questions which the unique position of the new observatory brings within the reach of science.

Time Standards.-M. E. Lullin, a Swiss engineer, publishes a pamphlet on time standards for the world, in which he states the case against the adoption of the hour-zone system. One grave objection on the continent of Europe is, the difficulty of adopting any standard based on the meridian of Greenwich; other and more practical difficulty is the abrupt change of one hour from zone to zone. The plan proposed is that each town should employ its own local time, and for international purposes universal time should be used, a constant correction sufficing in each case to make the change. Universal time should be reckoned from a neutral meridian, and M. Lullin proposes that traversing Bering Strait and the Central Pacific on one side and Central Europe (12° 30' East of Greenwich) on the other, the Pacific meridian would be 0°, the European 180°, but to complete the system all longitudes would be reckoned in their time-equivalents. Thus by making midnight of universal time that of the Pacific meridian, the longitude of any place in hours, minutes, and seconds of time, is the