We are told by newspaper correspondents that to this physical gift Mr. Bishop has added the power of reading and getting pictures of his subjects' thoughts, and now Dr. Carpenter endows him with the power of controlling the wills of his subjects, ormay" teste-with some unnamed power still more mysterious. To Mr. Bishop as the successor of the Westminster whale or of Master Pongo, no one can have the slightest objection. Mr. Bishop as a great scientific phenomenon will, I fear, require better backing than the careful testing of Dr. Carpenter, and letters of introduction from scientific and medical men in Edinburgh who received Mr. Bishop, and in their turn gave him letters of introduction as a clever conjuror who performed by mechanical means feats of strength and agility attributed by spiritualists to their immaterial familiars. THOMSON WHYTE Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh, July 2 upon me. Mind-Reading versus Muscle-Reading SEVERAL years ago I had the opportunity of witnessing in a private circle of friends some experiments on so-called 'thought reading," even more striking than those recently described in your columns and elsewhere. An attentive observation of these experiments led me to question the accuracy of that explanation of the phenomenon with which Dr. Carpenter has made us so familiar, namely, unconscious muscular action on the one side, and unconscious muscular discernment on the other. After making the most extravagant allowances for the existence in some persons of a muscular sense of preternatural acuteness, here still remained a large residuum of facts wholly unaccounted for on any received hypothesis. These facts pointed in the direction of the existence either of a hitherto unrecognised sensory organ, or of the direct action of mind on mind without the intervention of any sense impressions. Such startling conclusions could not be accepted without prolonged and severe examination, and it was solely in the hope of stimulating inquiry among those who had more leisure and more fitness for the pursuit than myself that I published the brief record of my experiments which, some years ago, brought derision and denunciation As no physiologist came forward to give the subject the wide and patient inquiry it demanded, I went on with the investigation, and for five years have let no opportunity slip which would add to the information I possessed. A letter addressed to the Times, asking for communications from those who had witnessed good illustrations of the willing game," brought me in, at the time referred to, a flood of replies from all parts of England, and down to the present time fresh cases are continually coming under my notice. Each case that seemed worthy of inquiry was, if possible, visited and investigated either by myself during the vacation, or by a friend on whom I could rely. It is true that many long journeys have been taken and much time has been spent without a commensurate reward, but this was to be expected. Still, after ca ting out cases which might or might not have been due to musclereading," there remained abundant evidence to confirm my belief in the insufficiency of Dr. Carpenter's explanation. Until this evidence is published, which it will shortly be, and the accessible cases are examined and reported upon by a competent and impartial committee, I simply ask the public to suspend their judgment on this question. And to show that this is not an unreasonable request on my part, I here give a few particulars of a remarkable case which reached me only a few months ago, and was carefully investigated by myself last Easter. A clergyman in Derbyshire has five young children, four girls and one boy, aged from nine to fourteen years, all of whom are able to go through the ordinary performances of the "willing game" rapidly and successfully, without the contact of the hands or of any communication besides the air between the person operating and the subject operated on. More than this, letters and words, or names of places, of persons, and of cards, can be guessed with promptness and accuracy; the failures in any examination not amounting to one in ten consecutive trials. The failures, I am assured by the father-and there is no reason to doubt his veracity-form a far smaller fraction when the children are not embarrassed by the presence of strangers; for example, the parents assured me that their children, before I arrived, told correctly seventeen cards chosen at random from a pack, without a single failure, and after that correctly gave the names of a dozen English towns indiscriminately selected. I will however only ask attention to what came under my own observation, which in brief was as follows: One of the children, Maud, a child of twelve, was taken to an adjoining room, and both the doors between fastened. I then wrote on paper the name of some object not in the room (to prevent unconscious guidance by the eyes of those who knew the thing selected), and handed this paper round to those who were present. Not a word was allowed to be spoken. I myself then recalled the child, placed her with her back to the company, or sometimes blindfolded her before bringing her into the room, and put her in a position where no whisper or other private communication could reach her undetected. In from two to twenty seconds she either named the object I had written down (the paper, of course, being concealed) or fetched it, if she could do so without difficulty. Each child was tried in succession, and all were more or less successful, but some were singularly and almost invariably correct in their divination of what I had written down; what was more curious, the maid-servant was equally sensitive. This led me to try other experiments with those who knew the words chosen: and the father was found to be pre-eminently the best willer, and to be in fact almost as necessary for success as the sensitive "guesser"; further experiments showed that a battery of minds, all intently fixed on the same word, was far more successful than one or two alone. Apparently a nervous induction of the dominant idea in our minds took place on the passive mind of the child, and the experiments recalled the somewhat analogous phenomena of electric and magnetic induction. There seemed to be a veritable exoneural action of the mind. I am quite prepared for the chorus of sceptical laughter which will greet this statement. That there should be disbelief is quite natural; a desire for further inquiry is all I ask for. To those who, with a single eye for truth, even if it be in collision with received opinions, are anxious to know if every possibility of error or deception was removed, permit me to add the following additional experiments. Instead of allowing the child to return to the drawing-room, I told it to fetch the object as soon as it "guessed" what it was, and then return with it to the drawing. room. Having fastened the doors I wrote down the following articles one by one with the results stated: hair-brush, correctly brought; orange, correctly brought; wine-glass, correctly brought; apple, correctly brought; toasting-fork, wrong on the first attempt, right on the second; knife, correctly brought: smoothing-iron, correctly brought; tumbler, correctly brought; cup, correctly brought; saucer, failure. On being told this object the child said, "Saucer came into my head, but I thought you would never ask for that after asking for a cup, so I wasn't sure what it was." Then names of towns were fixed on, the name to be called out by the child outside the closed door of the drawingroom, but guessed when fastened into the adjoining room. In this way Liverpool, Stockport, Lancaster, York, Manchester, Macclesfield were all correctly given; Leicester was said to be Chester; Windsor, Birmingham, and Canterbury were failures. I might give many other similar trials, for I spent three long evenings testing the children; but these results and the attempts made to answer the many questions that at once started to the mind, such as the effect of distance, &c., must be left for the present. Meanwhile, at the suggestion of Mr. Romanes, I have arranged for a small committee of scientific experts to visit the family, and verify or disprove the conclusion to which I have arrived, which is certainly opposed to that drawn by Mr. Romanes from his experiments on Mr. Bishop (NATURE, vol. xxiv. p. 172). Whether Dr. Carpenter will find in this case "a precise confirmation of everything he has said on the subject I cannot W. F. BARRETT July 3 say. A Case of Slow, Sub-Tropical Discharge of EarthElectricity, and the Sun Recognisant thereof IN the course of yesterday afternoon, in the midst of a sky otherwise clear and exquisitely blue, a large cloud of unusual shape and character began to form in the upper regions of the atmosphere vertically over, but very far above, the southern slope and even most elevated mountain tops of Madeira, and remaining there, as it did, most fixedly more than half the day, so contrary to the locomotive habits of ordinary clouds, it soon attracted the attention, and presently the fears, of most of the inhabitants. As seen from this place, between 1h. and 3h. p.m., there was little more than a single dense cloud of peculiarly rounded outline and somewhat elliptical figure, stretching from the western horizon to within 10° or 15° of the zenith; but as time advanced, other and successively smaller clouds were formed directly under the first, having symmetrical and concentric outlines therewith, while the central vertical axis, which might be conceived as passing through the whole series, remained unchanged and fixed in space. This central fixity, too, of them all continued, together with the infinite smoothness of the outlines of all the smaller lower strata of cloud, although the largest and uppermost one visible to us began to put forth a variety of fringes of cirro cumulous character; and, as tested by the spectroscope before sunset, all the lower smooth-rimmed clouds were remarkable for the large quantity of watery vapour they contained, and held fast too, for no rain fell. As sunset approached every one was gazing at the strange phenomenon of a cloud-congeries of most portentous size and absolute fixature above the trade-wind, probably also the anti-trade region; and after sunset the most gorgeous coloured illuminations through all the ranges of scarlet-red, red, crimson-red, ultra-red, and then dun-coloured and grey passed from member to member of the series, distinguishing the various heights of its strata one above the other; while the greatness of the general height was shown, even long after darkness had set in, by a faint lunar-like illumination of the northern outline of the whole. But by ten o'clock that began to fail, and the system of superposed clouds was beginning to contract on its central axis, and faded away, without leaving its place, before morning. In so far we had been witnessing, though without any positive light of its own, a vertical series of disks of cloudy matter, extremely like the lower end of the successive, transverse, discous arrangements seen in a gas vacuum-tube of large dimen. sions, when the electric discharge from a powerful induction-coil is passing through it; and we were inevitably reminded thereby that the cosmical electric theory of M. Gaston Planté (of "secondary batteries or storage" fame) justifies an escape of the earth's interior electricity from time to time into planetary space, and more particularly to the sun. Was there, however, in this case any symptom of the sun exciting, or calling for, any such discharge, and from this part of the earth? The sun was undoubtedly in the Northern Tropic, and the highest northern declination for the year had just been reached; but for a fortnight or more past the solar spot manifestations had generally been weak, almost fading away. This I knew well, having taken a picture of the sun-spots every day (Sundays excepted) since I have been here. However, though the appearances were as poor as they well could be on June 21, 22, and 23, yet on Friday, June 24, there was a little improvement, some new, though small symptoms appearing in either solar tropic. On Saturday, June 25, these new features were confirmed and slightly increased. But what were they on Sunday, June 26, when the extraordinary cloud-arrangement was hanging so long above Madeira? I, who am here merely as a private amateur in a different sub. ject, know not; but on Monday morning, so early as 5h. 30m. a.m., I was astonished and delighted at the solar scene then presented. The spots first caught sight of on Friday were now well advanced and much developed; a new group with extensive double ramifications had also appeared in the same tropic nearer the equator; while finally, near the middle of the sun's disk in the south tropic, were two large spots, with connections extending over 60,000 miles in length of solar surface, and indicating more solar energy to have been thereby rapidly, if not suddenly, manifested within the last forty hours, than anything which I, at least, have witnessed for a very long time past. PIAZZI SMYTH, Astronomer-Royal for Scotland Jones's Hotel, Quinka do Corvalho, P.S.-The grand, and now circumpolar, comet was not neglected here on the same night.-P. S. Carbonic Acid Gas not Free in Sea Water IN a short paragraph in NATURE, vol. xxiv. p. 176, it is stated that Torno, in the Norwegian Deep-Sea Expedition, had found "carbonic acid both in a gaseous and basic form.' For some time past I have doubted whether there was any free carbonic acid gas in the deep water where pressure should make its presence felt. Lately, in a paper to the Royal Microscopical Society, I have demonstrated that if there is any carbonic acid in the sea water at great depths, its dissolving action is not equal in rapidity and intensity to that exercised by a microscopic Thallophyte which bores into an bis s'ves sponge spicules from within. Moreover amongst dech sea deposits I find perfect organisms which have long been end, which have been penetrated by parasites and covered lee and there by foraminifera, and yet in exposed parts, the ornamentation is perfect. There is no evidence of erosion. Now on carefully examining into Torno's essay come to a different conclusion to the writer in NATURE, and I end that the able Scandinavian denies the existence of free carbonic acid in the sea. The following notes, which I made in abstracting Torno's "Chemi" of the Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition, Part II., may be interesting : : The carbonic acid gas, driven off by the process of boiling sea water, when collected, varied in a most marked manner; it was always appreciable, and the quantity was sometimes large. The pressure was that of the atmosphere. Under different conditions, and when the gases were boiled out in a vacuum created by steam, and of course at a lower temperature, the quantity of carbonic acid gas was often immeasurably small. Moreover the quantity varied. Jacobsen, by distillation, succeeded in expelling the whole amount of carbonic acid contained in a quarter litre of sea water, and found that North Sea water contained 100 mgr. per litre. The neutral carbonates in the re-iduary deposit contained about 10 mgr. per litre. Hence a very small proportion of the carbonic acid driven off by distillation, could have been present in bicarbonates. Vierthaler had asserted that the carbonic acid in sea water was got out of the bicarbonates by boiling. If the carbonic acid is free and ab orbed by the sea water in a free gaseous form, it is remarkable that it should not be more readily got. Jacobsen supposed that sea water has a peculiar property of retaining its carbonic acid, owing to the presence of the chloride of magnesia. Buchanan was led to believe that most of the salts were in some degree distinguished by the property of determining the retention of carbonic acid in the sea. He especially insisted on the importance of the sulphates, and asserted the mean amount of carbonic acid present in the waters of the Southern Seas to be 43.25 mgr. per litre. Torno, following Jacobsen, found the amount of carbonic acid gas present in the water of the track of the northern cruise of 1877 to be about 100 mgr. a litre, but got 12 mgr. per litre as a variation in the amount. He was struck with the improbability that sea water should possess so remarkable a power of retaining mechanically one gas and exert no corresponding influence on others, and then he found that sea water had an alkaline reaction. He began to believe that some of the neutral carbonates had been decomposed during the boiling, and had evolved much of the carbonic acid gas. He then proved by experiment that the saline mixture in sea water, on the temperature being raised to the boiling point, decomposed neutral carbonates, and that all previous experiments with the object of measuring the carbonic acid in the sea water had been faulty. He was influenced by some experiments on the determination of carbonic acid gas in mineral water, and applied the method to sea water. He found the total amount of carbonic acid gas in a specimen to be 97 mgr. per litre, and the proportion forming neutral carbonates to average about 53 mgr. The difference, 44 mgr., cannot occur free as gas, but will unite with the carbonates to form bicarbonates. Hence Jacobsen's experiments could be explained on the assumption that sea water contains no trace of free carbonic acid, but as much as 53 mgr. per litre forming carbonates, and only 44 mgr. forming bicarbonates. On page 35 he states: If we bear in mind that sea water is an alkaline fluid which does not contain the smallest trace of free carbonic acid." What a comfort this must be to globigerina and coral reefs ! Symbolical Logic I AM afraid I share the proverbial obtuseness of my country. men in the matter of jokes. I really did not at first see the point of Mr. Venn's humorous suggestion that "an attitude of slight social repression" should be observed towards troublesome authors of new proposals. Now however that Mr. Venn has kindly pointed it out to me (see NATURE, vol. xxiv. p. 140), I see the joke perfectly and can laugh at it heartily. I As for the little parenthesis which offended me, I am sorry noticed it, a d hope Mr. Venn will forgive the passing irritation which it produced. What he means by the words "I knew that he was very anxious that the fact should be known," I do not quite understand; but the matter is too unimportant for further comment. With regard to the "crowning triumph" quotation or misquotation, I can only congratulate Mr. Venn on the adroitness with which he eluded the dilemma in which I quite thought I should place him. In my simplicity I expected that he would answer Yes or No to my question; but Mr. Venn was not thus to be caught. It is but fair to own that the critical remarks which I made on Mr. Venn's book in my last letter, though perfectly just as far as they go, are somewhat one-sided. As I only spoke of points on which he and I differ in opinion it could not well be otherwise. His book contains much other matter which I did not touch upon at all, and of which I entertain a very high opinion. His diagrammatic method especially is most ingenious, and his exposition of it is lucid and attractive. The limits of its application in actual practice are, as he himself points out, rather narrow; but within those limits, and for purposes of illustration and verification, it is undoubtedly an important contribution to the science of logic. HUGH MCCOLL Boulogne-sur-Mer, July 2 How to Prevent Drowning THOSE who have followed the correspondence commenced in NATURE by Dr. MacCormac may be interested in the following extract from an essay, 66 Pourquoi les Bêtes nagent naturellement," which occurs oddly enough in a book entitled "Observations sur les plantes et leur Analogie avec les Insectes," published at Strasburg in 1741 by Guido Augustin Bazin, a physician of that place : Lorsqu'un homme qui n'a point appris à nager tombe dans l'eau, il n'y a point de doute que s'il pouvoit tenir son corps dans une position verticale et fixe, et porter ses jambes en avant, comme il fait lorsqu'il marche sur la terre, il ne pût nager naturellement aussi bien que, les bêtes, les habiles nageurs le font souvent pour leur plaisir. Nous connoissons un peuple entier qui ne nage pas autrement, ce sont les Hottentots; voici ce qu'en dit Mr. Kolbe, dans une bonne description qu'il nous a donnée du Cap de bonne Espérance :-" Aussi faut-il avouer qu'ils (les Hottentots) sont les meilleurs et les plus hardis nageurs que j'aye jamais vû. Leur manière de nager a même quelque chose de frappant, et je ne sçache pas qu'aucune nation s'y prenne de la même façon. Ils nagent tout droits; leur col est entièrement hors de l'eau, aussi bien que leurs bras, qu'ils étendent en haut ; ils se servent des pieds pour avancer, et pour se mettre en équilibre, mais je n'ai jamais pu sçavoir comment ils les font jouer. Tout ce qu'il y'a de sûr, c'est qu'ils avancent très vite. Ils regardent en bas, et ont presque la mê ne attitude que s'ils marchoient sur terre ferme.' Mais cette attitude est impossible à un homme qui ne s'est pas point exercé à la prendre, parce que les mouvements de l'eau, et l'incertitude de son corps, toujours vacillant dans un liquide, le tirent à tout moment de la direction verticale, et l'entraînent malgré lui en avant ou en arrière" (pp. 44, 45). W. T. THISELTON DYER Resonance of the Mouth Cavity I HAVE not tried Mr. Naylor's experiment, but from the account which he gave of it I could not see that any novel fact was involved, nor do I now see that the fact of "the different rates of vibration being already in the air" alters materially the conditions of the case. Whether the sounds are produced by the clatter of wheels, the impact of the thumb-nail upon the teeth, or by the vibrating tongue of a jew's-harp, the part played by the mouth-cavity in selecting the notes of a tune is substantially the same. GEORGE J. ROMANES Storage of Energy LIKE many others, I have given much thought to the accumulation of force, and have felt much astonished at the account of Faure's battery, if it is to be so called, although of course such a development was to be expected from the time that Planté made his. I see that men immediately rush to waterfalls, rivers, and tides to obtain the power for accu nulation when they leave coal and wood; my ideas are rather in the direction of wind; and I have often pictured our country covered, like that around Zaandam, with windmills. The wind is not constant, but more so than most of our efficient stream, and it is found at every spot. The power is quite unlimited, and we can moderate the action of the machinery whenever we obtain the requisite force. Storage has hitherto been required. I have imagined our windmills pumping up water to great reservoirs, but we have not yet learned to make reservoirs for water except at an enormous expense and in unprotected valleys; other imaginings have come into many minds, but if we have a really true and safe storage, such as described, the wind will become our fire to warm us, our steam to drive us, our gas to light us, and our universal servant. The wind will drive our mills, too (except when a fog comes, lasting so long that our stores of power fail), with sufficient storage, inconstancy will cease to trouble us, whilst every valley may have its lights and every mountain-top its beacon, and darkness will scarcely trouble mankind in this new-coming world of light. We have heard of the golden servants of Vulcan and the mechanical slaves of the great Khan. What will be the result when every man has the wind at his command and the lightning at his service by friction, like Aladdin? It seems to me that the wind is the great power that we shall next use, and that Prince-the power of the air-shall be bound to serve us for at least a thousand years. The Dutch have long made windmills, but when over in Hol land a few years ago examining a little, I was unable to find the books wanted on the subject. The fact that coal can be carried will not affect the question if wind is used. Wind carries itself. We shall seek our power from the heavens instead of the infernal pits, and a race of healthy, ruddy faces will take the place of the blackened and degraded countenances from mines. I wish to show that we have excess of power in the wind. Will this new accumulator, of which I know nothing from personal experience, serve us to keep it? To keep it a few hours is a great point. Coal becomes secondary if we accumulate the force of the wind, and Niagara itself will be no longer wanted. Of course we need machines to use the wind-power. At present coals are cheaper with us; not so in all parts of Holland, and not so in many other places. However, here we have problems enough to solve; do not let us throw cold water on the discoveries of others, or show, as scientific men so often do, our own opinion to be dear beyond the truth among others. R. A. S. IN his paper on "Paltostoma torrentium, eine Mücke mit zweigestaltigen Weibchen" (Kosmos, vol. viii. pp. 37-42), my brother Fritz Müller supposes that this species of Blepharoceridæ originally was blood-sucking, but in later times changed its habits and became fond of flower-nectar. In the males, who need only little food, this change of habits and the corresponding change of the mouth-parts was accomplished, my brother supposes, more rapidly and perfectly than in the females, who, maturing eggs and passing the winter, stand in need of more albuminous food than the males do. Whilst therefore in some females of Paltostoma torrentium the same change of habits and mouth-parts has taken place as in the males, other females have still more or less continued their original blood-sucking habits and preserved their original blood-sucking instruments. This explanation given by my brother is not yet proved by any direct observation of Paltostoma's habits. He mentions, as an indirect argument for his opinion, that in several Diptera the females have been stated to be blood-sucking, whilst the males take nectar of flowers. It may therefore be worth publishing, that in Empis punctata really just the same takes place as my brother's explanation of the female dimorphism in Paltostoma torrentium requires to be supposed: males who exclusively feed on flower nectar, besides females, both enjoying flower-honey and attacking living animals and sucking their blood. Several weeks ago (May 26) a great many males as well as females of Empis punctata roved on the flowers of hawthorn (Cratagus cxyacantha). The males were exclusively occupied with sucking nectar. Of the females some did the same, whilst others attacked, murdered, and consumed the most clever visitor of flowers among all our Syrphide, Rhingia rostrata. HERMANN MÜLLER ACROSS AFRICA1 то cross Africa has almost ceased to be an extraordinary feat. Indeed it seems evident, the more we know of the Portuguese native traders, that even before Livingstone's memorable first journey, it was no uncommon thing for the Pombeiros to do in the ordinary way of business. Of course some routes are more dangerous than others, and that by which Stanley made his famous march was perhaps the most difficult and dangerous that could be selected. Still the journey performed by Major Serpa Pinto was in many ways remarkable, and perhaps not its least remarkable feature is the characteristic manner in which he tells his story. The Major's narrative is in every respect a contrast to the quiet and sober narrative of Dr. Holub, recently reviewed in these pages. The Major is all excitement and enthusiasm, and his frequent digression to unbosom himself of his feelings under his frequently trying circumstances, though they do not convey much information, are pleasant reading. The expedition of which he was leader was fitted out very handsomely by the Portuguese Government, its object being to cross the continent from the Portuguese settlements in the west to those on the east coast. He was accompanied by MM. Ivens and Capello, but these soon parted from him, and conducted an exploration on their own account, the full narrative of which has yet to be published. Much time was wasted at the outset before the expedition could leave Benguella, collecting carriers and making other arrangements, so that it was January, 1878, before the Major fairly started for the interior. Although much of the ground he traversed had been gone over before, coinciding partly with the route of Livingstone, still he was able to open up a considerable stretch of new country, and most of all to clear up to a great extent the complicated hydrography of the region lying between the West Coast and the Zambesi. While the Major has many interesting notes on the natural history of the country he traversed, and while he seems to have been able to bring to light some new animals and not a few new plants, the main value of his narrative lies in the full details he gives on the geography and ethnology of Western South Africa. He was unable to carry out the original programme of the expedition, having been compelled to turn southwards on reaching the Central Zambesi, reaching the East Coast at Natal. On leaving Benguella the Major proceeded in a south-easterly direction towards the Cunene, before reaching which he turned north-eastwards, proceeding by Caconda to Bihé. After staying here for some time he again turned south-eastwards across the Cuando to the Zambesi, a little below its junction with the Liba, which seems to have more right to be considered the main stream than that which comes from the east. Proceeding down the Zambesi, passing numerous cataracts, he got into trouble among the Barotse, a new king having succeeded to the deposed Sepopo, whom Dr. Holub found ruling the Marutse-Mabunda kingdom at Sesheke. Escaping with bare life, he fell in with the French missionary family Coillard, who gave him all possible succour, visited and attempted to survey the Victoria Falls, and proceeded southwards and eastwards in a leisurely way into country pretty well known, but of which and of its various native states he is able to give us some interesting details. Between the West Coast and the Zambesi the expedition must have crossed hundreds of rivers, many of which Major Pinto has laid down with approximate accuracy in his maps. For he deserves the highest praise for the persistency with which he took his observations under the most trying circumstances, so that to the cartographer his work is of the greatest value. It is no easy matter to discriminate the 1 "How I Crossed Africa, from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean," &c. By Major Serpa Pinto. Translated from the Author's manuscript by Alfred Elwes. Two vols. Maps and Illustrations. (London: Sampson Low and Co., 1881) various watersheds here, and indeed the observations of Major Pinto, combined with those of previous travellers, shows that many of the rivers which flow north to the Congo, south-west to the Atlantic, south by Cubango to Lake Ngami, and south-east to the Zambesi, rise quite close together on what is really a table-land; and in the rainy season it will often be difficult for them to make up their minds which direction they shall take. Major Pinto's numerous maps tend greatly to clear up the complicated hydrography of this region. The country through which he passed to reach the Zambesi is varied in its aspect and productiveness, though most of it is luxuriantly fertile, and capable of great development. Much of it is however swampy, and even cultivated fertile districts are depopulated, mainly through wars and slave-hunting. Major Pinto tells us much that is interesting on the metal-working, which is common along the first part of his route. There seems to be really a large store of iron in this region, and the natives show considerable ingenuity in working it. There are several chief centres for these operations, and the metal is fashioned into all sorts of implements and weapons. "During the coldest months, that is to say June and July, the Gonzellos miners leave their homes and take up their abode in extensive encampments near the ironmines, which are abundant in the country. In order to extract the ore they dig circular holes or shafts of about ten to thirteen feet in diameter, but not more than six or seven feet deep; this arises most probably from their want of means to raise the ore to a greater elevation. I examined several of these shafts in the neighbourhood of the Cubango, and found them all of a similar character. As soon as they have extracted sufficient ore for the done in holes of no great depth, the ore being mixed with work of the year they begin separating the iron. This is charcoal, and the temperature being raised by means of primitive bellows, consisting of two wooden cylinders about a foot in diameter, hollowed out to a depth of four inches, and covered with two tanned goat-skins, to which are fixed two handles, twenty inches long and half an inch thick. By a rapid movement of these handles a current of air is produced which plays upon the charcoal through two bollow wooden tubes attached to the cylinders, and furnished with clay muzzles. By incessant labour, kept up night and day, the whole of the metal becomes transformed, by ordinary processes, into spades, axes, war-hatchets, arrow-heads, assegais, nails, knives, and bullets for fire-arms, and even occasionally fire-arms themselves, the iron being tempered with ox-grease and salt. I have seen a good many of these guns carry as well as the best pieces made of cast steel." The book contains several illustrations of the methods adopted, and the double-bellows used for the furnace is very curious. His observations on the animals met with along his route are valuable, and he has carefully indicated on his map where the principal animals are found. Elephants seem to be abundant enough south-east of Bihé, and lions were met with in considerable numbers as the Zambesi was approached. He also met with the huge and dangerous buffaloes familiar to readers of Livingstone's First Journey. One of our illustrations gives a good idea of an antelope which was met with in the Cuchibi, which the Major thus describes : "At one of the turns of the river I perceived three antelopes of an unknown species, at least to me; but just as I was in the act of letting fly at them they leaped into the water and disappeared beneath its surface. The circumstance caused me immense surprise, which was increased as I went further on, as I occasionally came across several of these creatures, swim. ming, and then rapidly diving, keeping their heads under water, so that only the tips of their horns were visible. This strange animal, which I afterwards found an opportunity of shooting on the Cuchibi, and of whose habits I had by that time acquired some knowledge, is of sufficient interest to induce me for a moment to suspend my narrative to say a few words concerning it. It bears among the Bihenos the name of Quichobo, and among the Ambuellas that of Buzi. Its size, when full grown, is that of a one-year-old steer. The colour of the hair is dark grey, from one quarter to half an inch long, and extremely smooth; the hair is shorter on the head, and a white stripe crosses the top of the nostrils. The length of the horns is about two feet, the section at the base being semicircular, with an almost rectilinear chord. This section is retained up to about three-fourths of their height, after which they become almost circular to the tips. The mean axis of the horns is straight, and they form a slight angle between them. They are twisted around the axis without losing their rectilinear shape, and terminate in a broad spiral. The feet are furnished with long hoofs similar to those of a sheep, and are curved at the points. This arrangement of its feet and its sedentary habits render this remarkable ruminant unfitted for running. Its life is therefore in a great measure passed in the water, it never straying far from the river banks, on to which it crawls for pasture, and then chiefly in the night-time. It sleeps and reposes in the water. Its diving-powers are equal, if not superior, to those of the hippopotamus. During sleep it comes near to the surface of the water, so as to show half its horns above it. It is very timid by nature, and plunges to the bottom of the river at the slightest symptom of danger. It can easily be captured and killed, so that the natives hunt it successfully, turning to account its magnificent skin and feeding off its carcase, which is however but poor meat. Upon leaving the water for pasture its little skill in running allows the natives to take it alive; and it is not dangerous, even at bay, like most of the antelope tribe. The female, as well as the male, is furnished with horns. There are many points of contact between the life of this strange ruminant and that of the hippopotamus, its near neighbour. The rivers Cubangui, Cuchibi, and the upper Cuando offer a refuge to thousands of Quichobos, whilst they do not appear either in the lower Cuando or the Zambesi. I explain this fact by the greater ferocity of the crocodiles in the Zambesi and lower Cuando, which would make short work of so defenceless an animal if it ventured to show itself in their waters." Major Pinto's account of the powerful kingdom of Bihé is full of interest. It is evident from his narrative and those of Dr. Holub and Mr. Joseph Thomson that these African states are in a constant state of unstable equilibrium. Not only are the chiefs and dynasties frequently changed, but an entire population may be removed or reduced to slavery, and its dominant place taken by a conquering people. The Bihenos are probably the most extensive travellers in Africa. "Where travelling is concerned as connected with trade, nothing comes amiss to the Bihenos, who seem ready for anything. If they only had the power of telling where they had been and describing what they had seen, the geographers of Europe would not have occasion to leave blank great part of the map of South Central Africa. The Biheno quits his home with the utmost indifference, and bearing a load of sixty-six pounds of goods, will start for the interior, where he will remain two, three, and four years; and on his return, after that lapse of time, will be received just as though he had been on a journey of as many days. Silva Porto, whilst engaged in doing business with the Zambesi, was despatching his negroes in other directions, and was trading at the same time in the Mucusso country and in the Lunda and Luapula territories. The fame of the Bihenos has travelled far and wide, and when Graça attempted his journey to the Matianvo he first proceeded to the Bihé to procure carriers. These people have a certain emulation among one another as travellers, and I met with many who prided themselves on having gone where no others had ever been, and which they called discovering new lands. They are brought up to wandering from their very infancy, and all caravans carry innumerable children, who, with loads proportionate to their strength, accompany their parents or relatives on the longest journeys ; hence it is no uncommon thing to find a young fellow of five-and-twenty who has travelled in the Matianvo, Niangué, Luapula, Zambesi, and Mucusso districts, having commenced his perigrinations at the age of nine years." Major Pinto has a good deal to tell us of the various kinds of ants he met with on his journey, though the value of his observations is much decreased from his want of a knowledge of entomology. Here is his account of one terrible insect: "When the work of cutting down the wood for our encampment commenced I saw a sudden commotion among my blacks, who then took to their heels in every direction. Not understanding the cause of their panic, I immediately proceeded to the spot to make inquiries. On the very place which I had selected for my camp appeared issuing from the earth millions of that terrible ant called by the Bihenos quissonde, and it was the sight of these formidable creatures which scattered my men. The quissonde ant is one of the most redoubtable wild beasts of the African continent. The natives say it will even attack and kill an elephant, by swarming into his trunk and ears. It is an enemy which, from its countless numbers, it is quite vain to attack, and the only safety is to be found in flight. The length of the quissonde is about the eighth of an inch; its colour is a light chestnut, which glistens in the sun. The mandibles of this fierce hymenopter are of great strength, and utterly disproportioned to the size of the trunk. It bites severely, and little streams of blood issue from the wounds it makes. chiefs of these terrible warriors lead their compact phalanxes to great distances and attack any animal they find upon the way. On more than one occasion during my journey I had to flee from the presence of these dreadful insects. Occasionally upon my road I have seen hundreds of them, apparently crushed beneath the foot, get up and continue their march, at first somewhat slowly, The |