Sayfadaki görseller
PDF
ePub

trade between the British and German possessions and protectorates in the Western Pacific, with the most favoured nation treatment, while both Governments engage not to establish penal settlements, or transport convicts to any spot in this region.

Massacres of Explorers on the Abyssinian Frontier.— Official news, which reached Cairo on April 25, 1886, announces the massacre by the Emir of Harrar of the members of an expedition sent out by the Geographical Society of Milan, contrary to the advice of the Italian Government, and despite the energetic remonstrances of the English authorities at Aden. The party, consisting of Counts Porro and Montiglio. Professor Sicata, Dr. Gethardi, Signori Romagnoli, Janni, Bianchi, and two servants, left Zeila on March 27, and having been treacherously persuaded to pack up their arms, were attacked and massacred by a party of 200 soldiers, between Geldessa and Artow in the Somali country. The Emir, a native of Harrar, and a descendant of the old Emirs, was restored to power on the Egyptian evacuation of the country. After the massacre, he proceeded to occupy Geldessa, disarming fifteen Anglo-Indian soldiers who formed its garrison.

A letter from Aden to the Journal des Débats, gives details of the second massacre, that of a French party, attacked by the Danakils on the frontier of Shoa. The caravan, including M. Barral and his wife, M. Savoure, and Dimitri Righas, an interpreter, started from Obock to explore and establish commercial relations with Abyssinia, carrying 3,000 muskets and a large supply of ammunition. Within two days' march after leaving Harrar, M. and Madame Barral, with a brother of the Sultan of Loitah, and nineteen well-armed Abyssinians, separated from the main body to go in search of water, and had gone a little more than a mile, when a number of native Assaimaras emerged from the brushwood, evidently meditating an attack. With the hope of intimidating them, M. Barral desired his Abyssinians to fire into the air, and as they were reloading the natives fell upon them with their spears, overpowering and massacring the whole party. They then attacked the rest of the caravan, but the camel-drivers cut the belts binding the loads of the camels, and made for Harrar. Another caravan arriving two days later on the spot, finding 2,000 muskets on the ground, and boxes rifled and broken open, gave the alarm, and Mgr. Louis de Gonzague, Vicar-Apostolic of Shoa, sought for the remains of M. and Mme. Barral, and gave Christian burial to all that had been left by the hyenas and jackals.

A French View of the Rocky Mountains.-The Far West from a Parisian point of view is somewhat of a novelty in literature, and M. de Mandat-Grancey's volume* is certainly not the least entertaining contribution to our knowledge of this region. Many of the strange incongruities of its social aspect, due to the semi

"Dans les Montagnes Rocheuses." Par le Baron A. de Mandat-Grancey Paris: E. Plon, Nourrit et Cie. 1884.

relapse into savagery of the white man on this border-land of civilization, are sketched by the author's incisive French wit with a vividness that makes the facts seem new. His experiences were principally in the rich mineral district of the Black Hills, an isolated mountain group in advance of the great Rocky chain. This auriferous region is situated in the newly admitted State of Dakota, the thirtyninth and youngest member of the American Union, interesting fact, recalled by the author, that the mineral riches of Dakota were known to P. de Smet, the great Jesuit apostle of the Sioux, as was proved by the papers found after his death, but that he concealed his discovery, from his foreknowledge of the misfortunes it would bring upon his Indian disciples.

It is an

But the mining industry of Dakota is only one of many of its growing sources of wealth, and cattle-breeding is making rapid strides among the Black Hills. In 1878, two years after their cession by the Indians, 100,000 head of cattle were grazing these mountains and the plains at their foot, while in 1882 this number had risen to 500,000, and in 1883 to 800,000. One settler kills from 200 to 250 animals a day, sends every day a refrigerator waggon laden with meat to New York, a distance of nearly 2,000 miles, and makes on every carcase a net profit of five dollars. The humbler emigrants, however, live wretchedly enough, and Dakota is said to be "not a poor man's country."

New Russian Port on the Caspian.-The shallowness of the harbour of Michaelovsk at the head of Krasnovodsk Bay, the western terminus of the Trans-Caspian Railway, has hitherto been a formidable obstacle to traffic with Central Asia, compelling the transhipment of goods and passengers from steamers into barges before nearing the shore. The construction of a further section of eighty miles of railway to Krasnovodsk, a good harbour at the mouth of the bay, had been heretofore recognized as a necessity, but an easier solution of the difficulty has been found in General Annenkoff's discovery at Urzambada, only a few miles to the south-west of Michaelovsk, of a new harbour which a little dredging has rendered fit for vessels drawing ten feet of water. As most of the Caspian steamers are of light draught, to enable them to pass the Nine Foot Soundings at the mouth of the Volga, this depth is sufficient for the ordinary traffic, and obviates the break in steam transit previously existing. It thus rivets the last link in Russia's rapidly extending line of communications with Central Asia, already nearly complete from the Caspian to the Oxus.

A New Oasis in Central Asia.-Nor will the revolution in progress under the guidance of her engineers be confined to the increase of facilities for traffic, as they contemplate transforming the face of the steppe itself, and largely increasing its cultivable area. A project is in contemplation for the creation of a new oasis like that of Merv, by the diversion of a portion of the waters of the Oxus or Amu Darya, from a point near Chardjui through the neighbouring desert, where ancient channels can be traced for a

distance of seventy miles. The task of reconducting the waters through these would be a comparatively easy one, and the elaboration of a complete canal system might then be left to the natives, who are adepts in the science of artificial irrigation. Water alone is required to convert the Central Asian desert into a garden, and the creation of a second fertile tract like Merv in the heart of the Kara Kum, or "Black Sands," that girdle Khiva, would be of incalculable benefit to Russia in her future military and administrative designs. Artesian Wells.-Meantime an attempt is being made to supply the parched Trans-Caspian region with water by means of artesian wells, and a successful series of borings, beginning about forty miles inland from the port of Michaelovsk, has been made by Herr Grote, the constructor of the railway to Merv. Water was reached in many places at seventy feet, and the continuance of the experiments seems to establish the possibility of obtaining it in sufficient quantity, not only for the railway but for irrigation.

The same system is being adopted to increase the water-supply of London, and artesian tube wells are being fixed by Messrs. Isler & Co., of Southwark, for the supply of the flats and offices of the Albert Hall Mansions, South Kensington, and the Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street. The borings will have to be carried to a depth of over 400 feet, through layers of London clay and Woolwich and Reading beds, before the water is reached, and as the tubing will be absolutely impermeable to contamination by the upper polluted springs, the supply will be free from all impurities.—Engineering, April 23.

New Cotton Plant.-After a series of experiments extending over a number of years, Mr. A. A. Suber of Macon, Georgia, has succeeded in hybridizing the cotton-plant that grows wild in Florida with the common okra. The result is a shrub, combining the okra stalk and the foliage of the cotton-plant, but with a fruit and flower totally dissimilar from both. A single magnificent blossom, reseinbling the great magnolia in size and fragrance, is the product of each bush, which grows about two feet high. At first white, it changes after a few days, like the flower of the cotton-plant, to a pale pink, thence deepening into red, when it drops, disclosing a large boll, resembling then the ordinary cotton-pod. After a few days, however, it begins to increase rapidly in size, until it attains the magnitude of a large cocoa-nut, when the snowy filaments begin to burst out, but are kept in place by the okra like thorns or points that line their envelope. Two pounds of very long-stapled cotton, said to be superior to that of Sea Island, are thus produced, and as the seeds to the number of four or six, resembling persimmon-seeds, remain in the bottom of the boll, and do not adhere to the lint, the latter requires no ginning, while the saving of labour in gathering it is so great, that the most clumsy hand can pick 800 lbs. a day, and the expert ones proportionably more. Should its cultivation prove a success, the cotton industries of the Southern States would receive an enormous impulse.-Iron, January 1, 1886.

Rheea Fibre.-A large tract of land has been acquired in the territory of Johore (Malay Peninsula) by a recently formed company (Rheea Manufacturing Company), with a view to the cultivation of the plant producing this fibre. It is of the nettle family (Urtica nivea), and the fibre is contained in the bark. The Sultan of Johore has given a firman and promises every facility to the company, who are also making arrangements for establishing plantations in India and Southern China. Burma is likewise said to afford the necessary conditions of soil and climate, and the plant is already grown in Egypt and in Southern Europe. The difficulties attending its utilization have been surmounted by recent discoveries, principally due to the experiments of M. Frémy, Member of the Institute of France, and Director of the Encyclopédie Chimique, Paris; the Frémy-Urbain process, as it is called, consisting of decorticating the stems by the application of steam. Two of the directors of the English company, with a party of experts, have visited Louviers, where there is a factory capable of converting a ton of "ribbons" of bark a day into filasse, and thence into slivers and yarn. It is said that the use of the staple in every fabric for which flax, wool, and even silk are used, will be only limited by the supply of the raw material, and the factory it is proposed to establish in England will be capable of turning out two tons of "ribbons" a day.-Iron, January 15, 1886.

Journey through Western Persia.-Mr. Rees, Under-Secretary to the Government of Madras, in his "Notes of a Journey from Kasvin to Hamadan" (Madras, 1885), describes a portion of Persia little visited by ordinary travellers. His observations lead him to believe that considerable regions of this country are both more fertile and more populous than is generally believed, and that the districts lying west of the beaten track of travel differ widely from those traversed by the latter. Fertile and well-watered plains, covered with vineyards, cornfields, and orchards, extend right up to the Elburz range, while even on the hills wheat may be grown without irrigation. His route covered 120 miles from point to point, but included many lateral deviations, and as he travelled without any official status, associating freely with the people, he gathered a more intimate knowledge of their habits than is acquired on more expeditious journeys. The villages, inhabited by a hardy and prosperous race, he found pretty thickly scattered over the plains, among fruitgardens and cornfields, and he infers that the official estimate of the population of Persia at 7,500,000, is much too low, and might probably be raised to 10,000,000. The country traversed was undulating and hilly, the highest level attained being 9,700 feet, at a point about eighty miles south-west of Kasvin. On the higher slopes many familiar flowers, such as iris, buttercup, dandelion, bluebell, forget-me-not, and mallow were seen, with many others unknown in England. Animal life was scanty, and none of the larger species were encountered.

The geography of Western Europe is very imperfectly understood by the natives, and Inglestan and Francestan, with London, believed

to be the capital of the first of these countries, or vice versa, are the only names associated with the Occidental world, while the Russians, called Ooroos, have a better defined identity. A glimmering of English politics has penetrated here, and "Vigs" and "Toarees" are recognized as the names of opposite factions, believed to be constantly engaged in actual hostility; the country of the Ooroos being regarded as better governed by a Shah, who allows no civil war in his dominions. The town of Hamadan, though so little known to European commerce, is a flourishing community with 30,000 inhabitants, and the impression made by the entire region is one of greater comfort and prosperity than are generally associated with the dominions of the Shah.

Notes on Nobels.

Mostly Fools. A Romance of Civilization. By Mr. RANDOLPH. In three vols. London: S. Low & Co. 1886.

T

\HERE is an abruptness, a "jumpiness" (if the word be allowed) about Mr. Randolph's novel which will perhaps make it more difficult for his readers to give him the attention he deserves. 66 Mostly Fools" is a bad title, associated as it is with a cynical saying of Carlyle's which may surely at this time of day be left to its rest. Mr. Randolph's cover is a startling motley of crimson and white; and he dedicates his book (in three words) "to my adversaries." To have arrived at the importance of having "adversaries" is enough to secure the sale of one's book, and it may be hoped, in Mr. Randolph's interest, that his adversaries are real and not imaginary. He certainly writes as if he had a "cause," and had many opponents whose bitterness was only equalled by their fatuity. A novel which is written for a cause" is heavily handicapped; for the disquisitions with which the author (through his wiser characters) is obliged to favour a frivolous world are very, very apt to swamp whatever interest there is in the story. There are three aspects under which these volumes may be consideredfirst, as a novel; secondly, as a novel "of civilization ;" and, lastly, as the novel of a Catholic writer. As a novel, judged by the ordinary laws of art, it is disjointed, scrappy and without any dramatic power; but it is at the same time always clever, generally lively, and even brilliant, and in many passages noble and pathetic. The writer cannot draw a character; perhaps he does not care to draw any except his own. The hero, Roland Tudor, is sketched at school, in London, in the country, and in several outlandish foreign countries; he is an Admirable Crichton, with a tremendous

« ÖncekiDevam »