covery of volcanic regions. On December 22, 1889, they observed on the plateau they were crossing a coulée of lava; and, looking towards the horizon, they saw in the west an isolated volcano, to which they gave the name of Mount Reclus, in honor of the well-known geographer. Further

which they saw great blocks of lava, which at a distance they took for yaks. One small chain reminded them of the mountains of Auvergne.

trying to discover the way the caravan had taken. On December 31, at a height of more than five thousand metres, a terrible storm caused them to lose sight of the marks by which they had been guided; whereupon they journeyed along the ninetieth degree of longitude. They found great chains of mountains, vast lakes, ex-on, they came to other volcanoes, near tinct volcanoes, geysers, and a pass at an altitude of six thousand metres. Below five thousand metres they met with herds of wild yaks, antelopes, and other animals. Birds had wholly disappeared, and there In the great chain of Dupleix they found was no vegetation. The only water they fossils (bivalves), belonging to tertiary could obtain was melted ice, and cooking strata, at a height of five thousand eight was impossible. Two men died, and the hundred metres. In the same region they animals perished one after another. At discovered various minerals, especially last the traces of the route were discovered, iron and lead. At the foot of the Dupleix and the expedition arrived at Lake Ten'- chain, among rocks, they met with grey gri-Nor, where they met certain Tibetan monkeys, with rather long hair and short authorities, who were accompanied by tails. These creatures appeared to be numerous horsemen. They had great isolated, as they had not been seen before, difficulty in proving that they were French- and were not seen afterwards. men, but after forty-five days of negotiation, at Dam, near Lhassa, the Tibetans provided them with the means of continuing their journey, as they had lost all their own means of transport.

The travellers followed what is called "the little route" from Tibet to China a route still unexplored. They crossed the territory of independent tribes, who, in accordance with the wishes of the Llama, furnished them with yaks and horses. They were now in a region of valleys, and of wooded grounds well supplied with game and with large wild animals. In the course of three days they saw twentytwo bears. Some of the valleys are cultivated and occupied by villages. The expedition followed the upper courses of the Salouen and the Mékong, and that of the Yang-tse-kiang, the sources of which they thought they recognized on the southern side of a colossal chain of mountains which they called Monts Dupleix.

At Batang, which they reached on June 7, 1890, they met with Chinamen. They rested for a month at Ta-Tsien-Lou, on the Chinese frontier, where they received a cordial welcome from French missionaries; and on July 29, they started for Tonkin, arriving at Yunnan on September 5, where they found a letter from Europe, dated September 5, 1889. Reaching Manghao, on the Red River, they hired Chinese junks, and entered Tonkin at LaoKaï. Soon afterwards they were at Hanoï. Altogether, they had traversed twenty-five hundred kilometres on an unknown route. Among the more important of the geographical results of the journey is the dis

At a recent meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, Mr. E. G. Ravenstein gave some account of the British East Africa Company's Expedition, under Mr. F. J. Jackson, from Mombassa to Uganda. The route up to Machako's, about two hundred and fifty miles north-west of Mombassa, is already pretty well known from the narratives of Mr. Joseph Thomson and others. The portion between Machako's and Uganda had also been traversed to some extent by Mr. Thomson, as well as by Count Teleki and the late Dr. Fischer. Captain Lugard found that the plateau, which rises to about six thousand feet at Machako's, is much broken up by ravines, while there are numerous waterless stretches, where, however, water can generally be found by digging. There are numerous valleys and glades, with abundant vegetation; many patches of forest, mostly of soft-wood trees, and even several perennial streams. Iron and copper are abundant in some places, and indications of gold were found by Captain Lugard. From Machako's, Mr. Jackson's caravan had to make its way up the steep face of the Kinangop escarpment, nine thousand feet in altitude, below which, in the valley between that and the equally steep and high Mau escarpment lay Lake Naiwasha, and several other lakes, all without outlets, and yet all fresh. A descent of some three thousand feet has to be made to the lakes. These two escarpments, which may be said to extend more or less continuously from Abyssinia to Ugogo, are, Mr. Ravenstein pointed out, two of the most remark

From The Graphic.

MODERN GOTHS.

able physical phenomena on any continent. | Africa. In the Mount Elgon region types
The plateau between Machako's and Lake are found similar to those of Abyssinia
Victoria Nyanza is even more broken up on the one hand and the Cape on the other;
by deep ravines than that between Ma- and Mr. Sharpe stated that the region
chako's and the coast, so that travelling most resembling that of Elgon is that of
becomes of the most trying character. the Cameroons Mountains in west Africa;
While the country here is to a large ex- but this is based mainly on the ornithology
tent of a steppe character, still there are of the two regions, the entomology leading
some districts of the highest fertility. In to somewhat different conclusions. On
some cases the forest has been cleared the whole, the geographical and natural
away, and the country cultivated by the history results of the expedition are of
natives, some tribes being great cattle- high importance, and credit is due to the
rearers. Many of the gorges are still British East Africa Company for encour-
densely clad with forests, and beyond the aging work of this kind.
Mau escarpment is a perfect network of
rivers. Game was plentiful and buffaloes
were seen in large herds. The north-east
corner of Lake Victoria Nyanza has been
laid down more accurately than on existing
maps, and the contour given to it by Mr.
Stanley is in all essential respects con-
BY THE REV. H. R. HAWEIS.
firmed. Usogo, where the expedition re- WHEN Artemus Ward selected a soli-
ceived a cordial welcome, is evidently one tary rock in the Atlantic Ocean upon which
of the richest countries in Africa; a no man ever landed, and which very few
marked contrast to Uganda, which, owing ships even sighted, and placarded his
to the strife which has prevailed since the show there in big letters, the world
death of Mtesa, has been converted into a laughed, and owed him no grudge. Time
wilderness. Before entering Usogo, Mr. has long since effaced the letters and the
Jackson made a detour to the north-east rock is no worse. The quacks who plaster
of Mount Elgon, but did not succeed in the precipices of Niagara with their nos-
reaching Lake Rudolph, visited by Count trums are hardly able to mar the imposing
Teleki. The country in this direction is effect of the big cataract - well, we may
of a barren steppe character, sparsely cov- deprecate but pardon the vandalism of
ered with bush, and with a few heights trade, for its effects are transitory; but
rising above the general level. On his the vandalism of the tourist is frequently
way back, Mr. Jackson and his caravan irreparable. Who are the people who
travelled right across the summit of Mount chip the Pyramids, and gouge out the mo-
Elgon, one of the most remarkable moun- saics of St. Mark's, and scribble on the
tains in Africa. It is an extinct volcano, frescoes of Lucca Signorelli at Pisa? No
the crater of which is eight miles in diam-doubt they belong to the class of imbe-
eter, its appearance reminding one of the ciles who slash railway cushions at home,
great craters seen in lunar photographs. and strike out the S" in "To Seat
This mountain is over fourteen thousand Five." Would they might be locked up
feet high, and, taken in combination with forever in third-class railway carriages,
Kilimanjaro, Kenia, and Ruwenzori, seems without return tickets, or even tickets-of-
to indicate that at one period this must leave, and only let out to be locked up in
have been a region of intense volcanic ac- Bedlam. Phrenologists tell us that there
tivity. High up on the face of this moun- is a bump of destruction in every human
tain Mr. Jackson came upon the caves of head - just behind the ear, we believe -
which Mr. Thomson told us. These he and no doubt the biggest bumps are be-
found to be entirely natural, and not the hind the longest ears. History seems to
work of man. One is so large that on its show that there is a certain strain of Van-
floor has been built a village of huts; for dalism, a senseless love of demolition, in
the caves are inhabited by natives who most races -even civilized ones. What
have been compelled to take refuge here monsters the French were in China!
from their enemies in the plains. Mr. What a shameful page in European his.
Jackson's natural history collections are tory is the sack of the summer palace at
very extensive; very many new species Pekin! How bitterly and wickedly the
of birds and insects have been sent home. same atrocious instinct hid its degraded
Mr. Bowdler Sharpe stated that these col- lust of ruin under the cloak of religion at
lections have revolutionized existing no- the Reformation, and wrecked the art
tions as to the zoological geography of miracles of the Middle Ages in every

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cathedral throughout England, just as the it might rot at last in the remote nine

barbarians and Turks smashed and burnt for a time the statues of Phidias and Praxiteles centuries before. "That's so," -as our American friends say well, but whilst we denounce the Vandalism of the past what is to be done with those new Vandals, Tom, Dick, and Harry, who purchase Cook's "Circulars" and swoop down, with hammer, clasp-knife, and pencil, upon the Spain and Italy of to-day? That Tom was born in 1863 need not be recorded in the palaces of the Cæsars, that Dick was born a few years later, and has, unhappily for the race, survived to cut the announcement on the last excavated room in Pompeii, is a lamentable fact; and that 'Arry bet on a horse last Derby Day which did not happen to win, may be interesting to Harry's friends who got his money, but he has no business to register it on the delicate stone net-work of Strassburg Cathedral spire. The stupid mutilations which seem now. going on, chiefly at the hands of our own appreciative and ingenious countrymen, at the Alhambra may be the latest recorded outrages of the kind; but even more serious because more constant and apparently unchecked, is the havoc and ruin wrought in Egypt under British "protection protection, certainly not of Egyptian monuments. In so far as England has any power in the land of the Pharaohs she ought to remember that she holds that land with its priceless treasures in trust for the world. Happily the desert sands which protected for centuries at least one side of Cleopatra's Needle in order that

teenth century on the banks of the foggy Thames, happily, I say, those sands still veil and cherish untold relics of inestimable value; may they long continue to do so until a generation arises which knows how to conserve them above ground better than the blind and apathetic rulers of to-day. Meanwhile, can nothing be done to rouse some public opinion? Could no question be asked in Parliament about the alleged facts of wanton depredation practised by English Goths and others, at least in Egypt-to which such pathetic attention has lately been called by Mr. Loftie and other literary antiquarians? Surely under a decent administration such as we now boast of having given to Egypt, something like reliable inspectors of excavations, summary chastisement of Goths, native and foreign, and effective discouragement of wholesale robbery of tombs and temples might be expected! The French, with all their faults and their reckless demolitions in battle, crisis, and revolutions, have shown themselves, both at Rome and at Cairo, fifty times better con. servators of art and antiquity than the British. The fact is, we are neither an artistic nor a musical people; we have not got the art passions and instincts in the blood; but the scandal has become at length a little too great even for John Bull to give it the usual blunt go-by; and John Bull must either reform his ways and open his eyes to the delinquencies of his gross boys or come under the well-merited contempt and reprobation of the rest of the civilized world.

which belong to no particular sect and which members of all creeds honor wherever they find them. From this point of view Mrs. Booth is entitled to a tribute from every denomination in the country. Jewish World.

A JEWISH ESTIMATE OF THE SALVATION | ARMY. However one may differ from the theology of the Salvation Army, there can be no question of the great value of its work among the poor, and of the enormous success which has attended its operations. In the organization of this vast humanitarian enterprise the late Mrs. Booth was a leading spirit. Her faith, her enthusiasm, her modesty, and her devotion, formed the standard of conduct for the whole army. There can THE saltest piece of water upon earth is, be no doubt that in Mrs. Booth a very re- according to Consul General Stewart, the markable woman has gone to rest. Those of Lake of Urumia, in Persia, situated more us in the Jewish community who, in the effort than four thousand feet above the sea level. to relieve and reclaim Jewish poverty and It is much salter than the Dead Sea, the water vice, are frequently brought into contact with being found on analysis to contain nearly the many miseries of the East End, will not twenty-two per cent. of salt. The lake is need to be told how practically beneficial has eighty-four miles long and twenty-four miles been the work she inspired. The Salvation broad, and its northern coasts are encrusted Army has proved a real civilizing force among with a border of salt glittering white in the a section of the population where civilizing sun. It is said that no living thing can sur work was most required. Enthusiasm, self- vive in it, except a very small species of jelly denial, and practical philanthropy are qualities | fish. It is very shallow.

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