pedition, Dr. Pogge and Herr Eduard Mohr are engaged in exploring the Angola coast, while Dr. Lenz has been obliged to abandon his expedition up the Ogowe, and return to Europe, exhausted by fatigue and sickness; not, however, without having concluded an arrangement with the inhabitants of the Osheba lands, who have hitherto denied passage through their country. Dr. Pogge visited Quizemena, the great camp of the Muata Yamvo, remaining from December 9, 1875, to April 17th of this year. He was not allowed to make an excursion to the north, but he took a month's journey toward the southeast as far as Inshibaraka, which is only six days' distance from the capital, and three days' from the Lubilash. Constant rains rendered traveling difficult. Dr. Pogge obtained a great deal of information concerning the country between the Kassai and the Quango, and collected numerous specimens of botany and natural history, and some skulls of Cassanda men.

G. A. Haggenmacher's journey into the Somali country, in Eastern Africa, was the first one made into this region, except Burton's excursion in Harar in 1854. He departed with a convoy of natives and fifteen camels, and reached a point 150 miles inland, and, though attacked and plundered by the jealous and pugnacious native tribes, he gathered a curious store of information concerning the geography, ethnography, manners, and pursuits, of the country and the peoples visited.

Drs. Schweinfurth and Güssfeldt made a trip from the Nile to the Red Sea, visiting the Coptic monasteries of St. Anthony and St. Paul. Some twenty geodetical positions were determined, and many unlooked - for plants were found in the desert.

Dr. Ascherson, in a visit to Wah-el-Barieh, or Little Oasis, made a complete sketch-survey of the route, and was able, from his friendly reception by the inhabitants, to observe their daily habits. He reports a custom, not practised in other parts of the valley of the Nile, of striking fire by rubbing together pieces of the date-palm leaf.

Mr. E. Young has navigated Lake Nyassa in a steam-launch, starting from the mission-station of Livingstonia, coasting along the eastern side, which was only seen from a long distance by Livingstone. He made the singular discovery that the lake extends at least 100 miles more to the northward than Livingstone supposed, and surveyed it to latitude 9° 20' south, that is, within a short distance of the southern extremity of Lake Tanganyika, which is 2° or 3° to the westward. He speaks of a river called Rovuma, flowing from the northern end of the lake, but the existence of such a second outlet would demand strong confirmation.

One of the most important exploratory exploits of the year has been the circumnavigation of Lake Albert N'yanza by Signor Gessi, of Colonel Gordon's staff. The lake is found to have the length of about 140 miles, and the

width of 50 miles. Its shores are covered with a thick growth of trees. Its southern extremity is very shallow, containing a forest of the ambatch-plant, which only flourishes in a couple of feet of water. The results confirm Speke's account of the size of the lake. Storms of considerable turbulence stir the waters of the lake in certain seasons. Colonel Gordon suspects that a chain of lakes connects it with Tanganyika; this is not impossible, as a break in the mountains is seen in the direction of the latter lake. From Signor Gessi's sketch-map of the branch of the Nile flowing out of the Albert Lake, it appears that a branch stream forks out not far from the outlet, and flows toward the Jaie, which runs parallel to the Nile for several hundred miles, rejoining it at the point where the Giraffe River commences. Colonel Gordon expects that this arm will prove more navigable than the White Nile; however, it must descend from the same elevation, and probably contains rapids not less formidable than the Fola Cataract, and, besides, it was crossed by Petherick in 1862, and found to be not more than waist-deep.

Signor Gessi made the voyage in two iron life-boats, rigged as cutters, and manned with eighteen sailors and twelve soldiers. He left Dufli March 7th, arriving at the outlet of the lake on the 18th. The distance is 164 miles, and for the whole distance the river is broad, deep, and entirely navigable. The country is rich, producing millet, sesame, honey, tobacco, beans, bananas, and cattle, in abundance. The natives clothe themselves in antelope and goat skins. Starting out on the lake toward Magungo on the 20th of March, they were beaten back by a heavy wind after sailing about two-thirds of the way across, and escaped with great difficulty being driven ashore where a party of natives of the disbanded army of Kaba Rega were waiting to attack them. In the night the storm was so high that one of the boats dragged its anchor, and was driven on shore, and filled with water and sand; the greater part of their provisions and the instruments were thus destroyed. Landing and constructing a barricade, and setting up two howitzers, they waited for the storm to go down. Repairing the boat, they succeeded in reaching Magungo on the 30th of March, but, owing to the hostility of the natives, were not able to land, proceeding up the Victoria Nile and waiting until reenforcements came from Aufina. On the 12th of April they set out, passing some sandy isles six or seven miles from shore, which were full of natives, who took refuge there from the troops. The shores were low and sandy; the interior was covered with timber and luxuriant vegetation. They passed three cataracts at the mouth of a large river called the Tisa, which never runs dry; it is probably the Kaiigiri, described by Baker. They stopped in a snug harbor named by Gessi Port Schubra, which probably is the Vacovia of Sir Samuel Baker. Detained here by a storm for a day or two,

they sailed fifty miles to a river, which they ascended seven miles, where they were stopped by the matted growth of papyri and other water-plants, and saw beyond a magnificent waterfall; the natives informed them that this came from the waters which accumulate in the mountains, forming a river during the wet season, but drying up in the dry season. They informed Signor Gessi, also, that he had already reached the end of the lake, that there was no river or cataract beyond, and that the water where the ambatch grew was only knee-deep. The country here is called Quando, and the natives are suspected of cannibalism. They crossed the lake here along the edge of the ambatch-field, a distance of forty miles from east to west. A view from the mast-head disclosed a wide expanse grown over with ambatch, beyond which a valley covered with low vegetation reaches to the foot of the mountains. On the other side of the lake they were unable to communicate with the inhabitants of a village, who fled, arousing the whole country, and sought the next day to lead them treacherously into an ambuscade. Coming to another large village, Gessi succeeded, with some difficulty, in holding a conversation with an old man, who informed him, as the natives on the opposite shore already had, that he could not penetrate the forest of ambatch, and that there was no river or waterfall beyond; that there were three waterfalls farther up the lake, which dry up in the dry season, and that the waters of the lake never rise or fall. The mountains descend directly to the lake beyond Vacovia on both sides, and are here devoid of large timber. On the return-voyage they were beaten forty miles out of their course by a violent storm. The whole voyage occupied nine days. The greatest width of the lake is reported by Signor Gessi as 60 miles, and its length 141 miles.

Dr. Emil Holub, a German physician, has made interesting journeys into the interior of South Africa. He started in March, 1875, from Dutoitspan, and, after examining the geological character of the salt-basins between Christiana and Mamusa, he passed up the river Limpopo, and then across by way of Shosheng, northward to the Zambesi, intending to explore that stream to its source. He describes the valley of the Marico, one of the sources of the Limpopo, as the richest portion of the Transvaal Republic, containing lands of the greatest fertility, an extraordinary abundance of animals, and mineral resources of the highest value. He observed that the salt-pans or lagoons which are connected with the Suga outlet of Lake Ngami, when at certain seasons they are filled by the rising of the Suga, find an outlet by the Shasha tributary of the Limpopo, thus showing that Lake Ngami and its tributaries far to the west belong to the drainage system of the Limpopo.

M. V. Largeau made an important and dangerous expedition into the desert of Sahara from Biskra, in Algiers, over a before untrav

eled route, through the oasis of Tuggurt, to Ghadames, and back to El-Wad, his returnroute being about the same as that taken by Duveyrier in 1860.

An important Italian exploring expedition to Eastern Equatorial Africa, sent for the purpose of exploring the country between Shoa and Lake N'yanza, and of deciding the question of the identity of the Godjeb and Juba Rivers, started at the beginning of the year, and have now entered upon their investigations under favorable auspices. The King of Shoa, in an embassage to Italy, in 1872, invited Italian explorers to use his capital as a base of operations, and it was in consequence of this proposal that this expedition was dispatched. The party is headed by the Marchese Antonari, the well-known African traveler, accompanied by Captain Sebastiano Martini and the engineer Chiarini. When last heard from, the travelers had reached Shoa with good fortune, where they were hospitably received.

An important journey into the Nyassa country of Eastern Africa has been accomplished by Bishop Steere. The object of the expedition was to establish a permanent mission at Mataka's capital in the Wahiao country, east of Lake Nyassa. The party, consisting of the bishop, the Rev. C. A. James, and Messrs. Bellville and Beardall, accompanied by Chuma and Susi, Livingstone's attendants, leading twenty Zanzibar porters, set out from Zanzibar toward the end of August, 1875, and landed at Lindy Bay, between Kilwa and the mouth of the Rovuma River. They were delayed until November by the opposition of the coast tribes, and suffered from malaria; at length, successfully passing through the coast settlements, which only extended some twelve miles inland from Lindy Bay, they passed through thick forests and discovered Lake Lutamba, a small lakelet, inclosed by wooded hills, and passed thence for nine days through the settlements of the Wa-Mwera, villages finely situated along the foot of a range of hills; and then, traversing an uninhabited forest and a barren, hilly region, they came to the town of the chief Makochero of the Makao tribe on the Rovuma River. Livingstone visited this chief in 1866, when he was settled at a point beyond the river. These people are subject to attacks from the Gwangwaras and Mavitis. They passed thence beyond the Luatize to their destination, Mataka's village of Mwembe, through a country of more irregular aspect, rising into long ranges of round-topped hills, varied with sharp, rocky ridges; the trees, too, were of different character from those of the Mwera country. Mwembe, estimated by Livingstone at 1,000 houses, lies near a conspicuous mountain called Saninga; the elevation of the town, from Bishop Steere's barometrical readings, is considerably higher than Livingstone's estimate, 2,700 feet. After remaining here a fortnight, Bishop Steere returned by a different route. The country traversed was in great

part entirely new. The barometer indicated a rise from the coast to the ridge of the Mwera Hills, which was about 2,000 feet above the level of the sea, then a decline to the bottom of the low-lying Rovuma Valley, and then another still higher ascent as far as Mataka's town.

Stanley, in June, 1875, had returned to his camp at Kagenyi, and, after having paid a visit to Ukerewe Island, returned to the north, striking out for the Albert N'yanza from Mtesa's town. He traversed the cold, high country of Gambaragura, which he found inhabited by a light-skinned race, and the district of Unyoro coming out to the lake at Unyampaka, a point considerably farther to the south probably than Baker reached. He explored the Kagere and Karagne Rivers upon his return, and then set out again for the south. He had completed the examination of the Victoria Lake, and intended next to explore the country between the lakes Tanganyika and Albert N'yanza. In the highlands between lakes Victoria and Albert N'yanza he came upon a gigantic extinct volcano, many of which have been found in Eastern Africa. The Albert N'yanza extends probably beyond the equator, and is connected with the Tanganyika by a valley between two mountain-chains. Stanley observed that all the mountain-ranges in this region run in a southwest direction. He ascended the Kagere eighty miles beyond Speke's farthest, and describes it as the most important of the tributaries of the Victoria N'yanza. He visited it in the rainy season, when it had the form of a shallow lagoon, four to fourteen miles in breadth.

Captain J. S. Hay read before the British Association an account of the district of Akem in Western Africa, which he had visited while at Accra. This district lies between parallels 6° and 7° north latitude. It consists almost entirely of mountain-ranges thickly covered with ancient forests; four principal rivers water the country, the Berem, the Densu, the Bompong, and the Pompong, all of them rendered unnavigable by numerous shoals and waterfalls. Gold is found in great abundance, small nuggets and dust being taken from circular holes dug at hap-hazard by the natives, and also from the beds of the streams. The forests contain valuable woods. The soil is a tenacious red clay, through which numerous quartz strata crop up; it is so fertile that cotton, rice, ginger, and tobacco, can be grown abundantly. The climate is moist throughout the year. A strange physical deformity is universal among the men of this country: the cheek-bones are unnaturally enlarged, looking like two horns under the eyes. This malformation commences in childhood. They worship a great variety of deities, and have one superior god, whom they call Anyankopong.

Count Pietro Savergnan di Brazza, accompanied by Marche, the naturalist, and Bellay, a physician, a French navy quartermaster, and

a party of Senegal natives, entered upon an exploration in Western Africa, steaming up the Ogowe as far as the village of Ilimba Reni in December, 1875, and starting out from there for the Okanda.

SOUTH AMERICA.-A boundary commission have been engaged in measuring the boundary between Bolivia and Brazil, which has been heretofore very vaguely determined. They commenced their task in the autumn of 1874, but were not able to accomplish anything before the summer of the following year, owing to the incessant rains. Since that time they have gone over a good part of the ground, and expect to have their work finished by the end of 1877. The work of surveying the frontier along the chain of lakes bordering the Upper Paraguay was interrupted twice by the periodical floods, which are so high that the country between Bolivia and Curumbá, Villa Maria, or Cuyabá, in Matto Grosso, can only be crossed in boats, while in the dry season it is passable on horseback or in wagons. The lakes, especially Mendioré, twelve leagues in circumference, are described as navigable and very beautiful, except Caceres, which is only a swamp teeming with reptiles and mosquitos. The lake of Gayhiba, which was so stormy that they had difficulty in surveying it, communicates with Lake Uberaba by a natural canal five leagues in length. Uberaba Lake, the largest of all, is so wide that the opposite shores are not visible from each other. Alfred Simson read before the British Association an account of a voyage in a Brazilian government steamer up the Putumayo or Içá River, a branch of the Amazon, which has never been adequately explored, and which the Brazilian Government suspected to be navigable to within a short distance of populated portions of New Granada, and destined to become the commercial outlet for the provinces of Popayan and Pasto. Mr. Simson found the river navigable for 1,050 miles; its length is 1,200 miles. Its average current is not more than three miles an hour. Its course lies through a rich alluvial plain.

UNITED STATES.-The geological, and geographical survey of the Territories commenced the labors of this year very late, not doing any field-work before the month of August. They were deterred by the warlike manifestations of the northern tribes of Indians from commencing on a new division, and therefore confined their attention to the completion of the map of Colorado. They ended the survey of the mountainous portion of Colorado, and explored a strip fifteen miles broad in Northern New Mexico, and a strip twenty-five miles in width in Eastern Utah. The point of departure this season was Cheyenne, in Wyoming Territory. Two of the parties were conveyed to Rawlins Springs, whence they proceeded southward; the other two were taken southward from Cheyenne, one to Trinidad and one to Cañon City. The primary

triangulation party, under the direction of A. D. Wilson, started from Trinidad on the 18th of August, and made its first station on Fisher's Peak. Thence they passed through the valley of the Purgatoire, and across the Sangre de Cristo range over the Costilla pass, and skirted the range northward as far as Fort Garland, making another station on Culebra Peak. About six miles north of Fort Garland they explored one of the highest and most difficult summits of the Rocky Mountains, Blanca Peak, the highest point in the Sierra Blanca group. They reached the timber-line, 12,000 feet above the ocean, without difficulty, and, leaving their animals here, picked their way up the crumbling, rocky slope to a projecting point only 600 feet lower than the chief summit, and two miles distant. From this they made their way along an arduous and dangerous zigzag ridge to the base of the summit, which they soon mounted. This point is the highest in Colorado as far as is yet known, and the view from it embraces the greater portion of Colorado and New Mexico. Its elevation was determined by barometric readings, the mean of eight being taken, compared with synchronous readings made at Fort Garland: a verification by trigonometry from the angles of elevation and depression, fore and back, showed a discrepancy of only two feet. The elevation is 14,464 feet (Mount Harvard is 14,384 feet above the sea-level; Gray's Peak, 14,341 feet; Mount Lincoln, 14,296 feet; Mount Wilson, 14,280 feet; Long's Peak, 14,271 feet; Uncompalgre Peak, 14,236 feet; Pike's Peak, 14,146 feet; there are as many as fifty peaks in Colorado exceeding 14,000 feet in elevation). From here the party advanced westward across the San Luis Valley, and followed up the Rio Grande to its source, making a station near the mountain-summits and another on the Rio Grande Pyramid. Leaving the source of the Rio Grande, they crossed the Great Divide, and, passing through the Animas Park by trail, reached Parrott City. They made a primary station on La Plata Peak, and, crossing the irregular table-lands west of the Dolores, completed a survey which they had not finished the season before on account of the hostilities of the Ute Indians. They made a station on the highest of the Abajo Mountains, and then turned their course eastward, making a station on Lone Cone, and, crossing the Grand and Gunnison Rivers, reached the volcanic table-land at the source of White River. The Wilson party mapped out 1,000 square miles of territory during the season, and established eleven primary positions, covering by primary triangles all of Southern and Western Colorado. Accompanying the triangulation party, Mr. Holmes made a geological journey which took in Colorado and portions of Utah and New Mexico, obtaining a general survey of the great plain-belts on both sides of the chain of the Rocky Mountains; he observed a remarkable uniformity in the disposition of the strata everywhere,

there being scarcely an interruption in the cretaceous formation, particularly, from the northern part of New Mexico to Southwest Wyoming. In one group of rocks, however, there is a remarkable disparity between the outcrops on the eastern and western sides of the divide: the upper cretaceous rocks, including numbers four and five, on the west side, comprise over 2,000 feet of coal-bearing strata, chiefly sandstone, forming the tops of the Mesa Verde and Dolores plateaus, and in the Grand River Valley, where it forms the enormous Hogback, attaining a thickness of 3,500 feet; but on the eastern side this group of rocks is only represented by a few hundred feet of shale and laminated sandstone. The Abajo group Mr. Holmes found to consist of trachyte, which had been forced up through fissures in the stratified rocks, like the four other isolated groups in the same region. He places the northern limit of the cliff-habitations of Colorado and Eastern Utah at not above 37° 45′ north latitude. The Grand River division was directed by Henry Gannett, as topographer, accompanied by A. C. Peale, geologist, and by James Stevenson, the general manager of the survey, who went along to deal with the Indians, fearing that they might again disturb the survey as they did last year. Their first task for this season was to survey about 1,000 square miles, lying mostly north of the Grand River and south of the parallel 39° 30' north, and between the meridians 108° and 109° 30' west. They reached the field from Cañon City about the middle of August, and, going to the district south of the Sierra la Sal, after securing the services of several Indians at the Ute agency of Uncompahgre, they completed the survey of this country, which is an irregular plateau with some curious features, in eleven days. The Grand River, between the débouchures of the Gunnison and Dolores, flows through a valley of twelve miles average breadth, which was skirted on one side by the perpendicular cliffs, called the Roan or Book cliffs, rising in a succession of terraces to a height of 4,000 feet, and forming the termination of a broad plateau; the course of the river here is northwest for twenty-five miles, then southwest, and then south for about seventy-five miles. This plateau, which declines very gradually on the other side to the north-northeast, extends from the Wasatch Mountains on the west to the lower elevations of the Park range on the east, and is cut through by the Green River, which flows in the contrary direction to the dip. South of the plateau are broken cliffs, and to the north of it is the White Cañon. After leaving the Uncompahgre agency the party went over to the Grand River, following it down to the Dolores, latitude 38° 50' north, longitude 109° 17' west. From there they passed northward to the top of the Book Plateau, following the crest eastward for 100 miles, and then descended to the Grand and followed its course up to longitude

107° 35', and thence came by way of the White River agency to Rawlins, arriving there October 23d. They finished in all about 3,500 square miles of topography, and determined about sixty primary positions. Dr. Peale followed the expedition as geologist. The region first surveyed consisted of a plateau intersected by deep gorges, which disclosed sedimentary rocks ranging from the Dakota sandstones to the commencement of the Red Beds. The San Miguel in its lower course flows through lower cretaceous, Jurassic, and triassic outcrops. North of the Grand the exposed strata range from the white tertiary rocks which top the Book Cliffs to the Red Beds at the bottom of the river. The White River division was directed by G. B. Chittenden, with F. M. Endlich for geologist. They surveyed between White River on the north and latitude 39° 38' north on the south, and from the meridian 107° 30' to a point thirty miles west of the Utah boundary, an area of some 3,800 miles, establishing forty-one geodetical stations and sixteen auxiliary positions. It was a before unexplored region, rising gradually from White River up to the steep Book Cliffs which form the divide between the White and Grand Rivers. The deep cañons which intersect the plateau are full of cedars and piñons, and the upper plains are covered with rich grass. The country is inhabitable, but poorly watered and destitute of timber, and seems well adapted to its present purpose of an Indian reservation. The geology is simple: two-thirds of the country contains beds of tertiary rocks, and other parts showed older formations, as far down as the triassic; marks of erosion were frequently visible. The Yampah division, under G. R. Bechler, accompanied by Dr. C. A. White, geologist, surveyed the portion of Northeastern Colorado lying between the Yampah and White Rivers and the Green River, and the lower range west of the Park Mountains. There are table-lands be

tween Rawlins Springs and Snake River, and beyond to the Yampah a more undulating surface covered with sage-bush. Between the Yampah and White Rivers is a mountainous district, rising to elevations of 8,000 and 9,000 feet. The Yampah and White Rivers both flow through plateau countries: the bottom-lands sometimes widen into broad, grassy valleys, and sometimes contract into steep cañons. The territory surveyed was about 3,000 square miles, and the number of stations made was forty. The geological formations extended all the way from the latest tertiary to the Uintah quartzite which underlies the carboniferous. Interesting orographical facts were developed in the geological survey. The fossils found at the base of the tertiary series in the Yampah Valley were found to be identical with those of the valley of Bitter Creek in Wyoming Territory. The latter locality was revisited, and at Black Buttes Station three new species of Unio were discovered, making six species

taken from a single stratum, all closely related to living species now existing in American fresh waters. Six sheets of the physical atlas are nearly ready for issue at Washington, covering 70,000 square miles. Each sheet contains an area of 11,500 square miles, on a scale of four miles to the inch, with contours of 200 feet, containing representations of the geological characteristics and agricultural and metallurgical resources of the country. An illustrated account of the geological survey by Dr. F. V. Hayden, with fifteen chromo-lithographs from the drawings of Mr. Moran, is in preparation by Prang & Co., and will be issued in three languages simultaneously.

GEORGIA. The condition of affairs in the State of Georgia during the year has been peaceful and encouraging. Governor Smith, in his parting address to the Legislature of 1877, says:

The public credit, as indicated by the daily quotations at the centres of trade and commerce, is equal to that of any State in the Union. Our public securities, rated at the time I entered the Executive I found a recognized floating debt of more than one office at thirty per cent. discount, are now above par. and a quarter million dollars. The whole of this, amounting in exact figures to $1,277,788.25, or to an average sum of over $250,000 per annum, has been entirely paid. The State has been relieved of a fraudulently contracted debt of $6,500,000, while there has been no addition to the amount of the bonded debt of the State contracted on her own account. Any apparent increase of our public debt is the result of liabilities created by railroad charters granthave been accomplished without a material addition ed under former administrations. These results to the public burdens.

Throughout the State the stream of justice has moved with a smooth and steady flow. The law has been impartially administered, and not a breath of suspicion has soiled the ermine. Life, liberty, and property, have been faithfully guarded, and not a single human being, of any color or condition, can justly complain of oppression. The great and manifest improvement of our condition-social, educational, and industrial-is due to the home-bred common-sense, the desire for progress, and the love of

justice, which characterize the people of Georgia.

The public debt of the State on the 1st of January, 1877, was $8,447,500, not including the bonds of the Macon & Brunswick Railroad and of the North & South Railroad, which are indorsed by the State. Under an act of February 24, 1876, 542 bonds of $1,000 each, bearing interest at seven per cent., were executed for the purpose of funding the accrued interest on the bonds of the Macon & Brunswick and North & South Railroads. At the beginning of the year there was a cash balance in the State Treasury of $511,785.21, and the receipts of the year amounted to $2,332,933.38. The disbursements of the year were $2,280,435.26, leaving a balance at the close of $564,283.33.

There has been very gratifying progress during the last three years in the educational interests of the State. At the close of 1871 there was due on account of public schools in the several counties upward of $300,000, and the