from Dikoa and seemed to be advancing on Koussri. On the 14th of April M. Gentil met M. Foureau at Mainchaffa. Seven days later he arrived at Koussri.

Rabah was posted 6 km. from Koussri. In concert with Commandant Lamy, who assumed command of the troops of all three missions, it was decided to attack on the morrow. The action began at ten in the morning of the 22nd of April, and was terminated by ten minutes past twelve. The Saharan troops, commanded by Captain Reibell, received orders to execute a turning movement on the left; the Central Africa Mission sustained the attack of the enemy during almost an hour. The Chari troops, commanded by Captain Robillot, were held in reserve till the turning movement had been effected, and then led to the attack by the Commandant Lamy. The enemy could not sustain it; the tata was assailed and taken; and Rabah saw the day was lost, but made a supreme effort to regain the tata. It was in meeting this movement that Commandant Lamy was killed, but ere he expired he learned that Rabah was killed, and that he had gained a decisive victory. The Chari Mission had 10 killed or mortally wounded, and 27 wounded; the Central Africa Mission had 7 killed and 13 wounded, and the Sahara Mission 2 killed and 11 wounded. The enemy left more than 1000 dead on the field, all his standards, and the three cannons taken from Bretonnet. Many were made prisoners, and a detachment of cavalry, some 150 strong, twice overtook the enemy in their flight, and made about 8000 prisoners. Such was the end of

Rabah and his empire.

M. Gentil decided on founding the post of Bousso, which he called Fort Bretonnet; that of Maincheffa or Fort de Cointet; and that of Fort Lamy opposite Koussri or Koussouri.

M. Gentil gives some account of the organisation of these territories. The whole land is divided into two regions: the one civil, administered exclusively by civil functionaries under the direction of M. Bruel as administrator; the other military, under the command of Captain Robillot. M. Bruel has made reconnaissances of the territory in his charge. He has been able to group the natives under the command of chiefs, and is proceeding to enumerate the population. He has noted no fewer than 378 villages within a region relatively small, and has estimated the density at 7 to 10 per sq. km. The civil region comprises exclusively the heathen tribes which constitute the three principal ethnical groups: the Banda, the Mandjia, and a part of the Sara. The Banda are much the most intelligent and the best fighting men. Mandjia are the best workers. Several reconnaissances in the civil region have ascertained the basins of the Kemo, the Nana, the Gribingui, and the Mpoko. The reconnaissance of MM. Bernard and Huot has identified the Bahr Sahara or Sara with the Ouam, the upper course of which had been traversed by M. Perdrizet. One of the affluents of the Ouam, the Fafa, which is navigable for pirogues, will probably afford a new route to the basin of the Chari. Geographically viewed, the civil region is almost entirely known. The density of population will soon be ascertained, and will be the basis of levying a tax which has been

The

already taken in hand. There will soon be two routes in place of the one track hitherto used, and the day is at hand when human porterage will be superseded by convoys of wagons.

The military region, which begins at the 10° N.L., comprises above all the Muslim population, although there is south of this parallel a great many pagan tribes, such as the Sara and the Gaberi. The itineraries of Captains Cointet, Lamothe, and Galland, have made these peoples fairly well known, and the geographical results of these reconnaissances will be published in a map which is in preparation.

After the battle of Koussri M. Gentil made a new voyage on the Chad with the Léon Blot. As the waters were still very low, he believes he may affirm without fear of being mistaken that the great lake is navigable at all seasons on condition of keeping from 3 to 5 km. from the shore. At that distance the depths are more than 3 m., increasing considerably inwards. On the east side there are many sandbanks and on the west great depths. He remained eighteen days on the Chad and explored all the arms of the delta of the Chari. But he had no time to visit the islands inhabited by the Bouddouma. Pirates and robbers, they showed little desire to enter into relations with the French. They are rich, have many cattle which they graze on shore and take off to their islands in their boats on occasion of alarm. Lieutenant Kieffer, setting out from Mainfa, descended the Chari to 10° N.L., and then ascended the Logone up to Laï. Most of the chief positions have been determined astronomically.

The French protectorate over Baguirmi was established in 1897 and has been strengthened by the intervention on behalf of the Sultan against Rabah. The Sultan of Baguirmi has been granted almost complete autonomy, but is bound to contribute towards the cost of founding and maintaining military posts. The French have received the right, however, to administer directly the delta of the Chari, which is inhabited by Arab pastoral and agricultural tribes. It is well known that the Muslim population has already its own native organisation, which is relatively superior and is a kind of feudal system.

Regarding the territories of the Chad, M. Gentil says that it is a region rich in cattle and all kinds of grain. Besides, its numerous population produces leather and stuffs, and consumes a great deal of European commodities. A market may be there developed for French goods, but it will be necessary to respect the organisation of the local trade. The commerce of these parts is wholly in the hands of Tripolitans, and there would be great danger in any attempt to supplant them. Entrepôts and other facilities may be provided, but no attempt must be made to compete with them or interfere with their transactions.

For several years past all who have followed the several enterprises of the French in their efforts to penetrate the Sudan have been kept well informed regarding them by many geographical organs of the Press. This account of the Central Africa Mission and of the Chari Mission has been derived from the communications of M. Joalland and M. Gentil on the occasion of their reception by the Geographical Society of Paris

on the 14th of May 1901. These appear in La Géographie, the Bulletin of the Geographical Society for the 15th of May. In this recognition we desire to acknowledge also the work of the Bulletin du Comité de l'Afrique Française, which, ardently political as well as geographical, has month by month been devoted to the aims and concerns of French affairs in Africa. Both societies may well be congratulated on the success which has now attended their efforts in promoting the penetration by France of the Central Sudan.

race.

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES.

EUROPE.

Russian Anthropology.-M. Zaborowski has made a study of the skulls collected in different parts of Russia and Siberia by M. le Baron de Baye, and he has been able in consequence to clear up several obscure points in the history of the human He has pronounced against the old theory that the earth was peopled from the north, and that the cradle of the race was in Siberia; he has demonstrated that the central regions were already inhabited when Siberia was still one enormous glacier. M. Zaborowski has also proved that the Finns from the north colonised Russia, though so lately and so slowly that the Caucasus is still almost entirely peopled by Turks or Mongolians.

M. Zaborowski points out that one skull which is curiously covered with red powder has the same characteristics as other very old ones found in caves at Mentone and other places, which leads one to conclude that at some far distant time one race inhabited the whole of central Europe. M. Zaborowski is inclined to think that this unknown race must have been related to the one to which the Cro-magnon skull belongs.

The Italian Emigration Law has been passed because of the frauds committed by emigration agents. Thousands of poor Italians have been shipped to all parts of the world with assurances of work and prosperity, to find themselves in foreign lands in starvation and greater misery than they had left in Italy. They have been induced to go, not for any advantage to themselves, but entirely for the benefit of unscrupulous agents. This has been felt to be a national disgrace, and the new law is designed to prevent its recurrence. It provides as central authorities an Emigration Commission, under the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and an Emigration Council; the latter is composed of the head of the Commission, representatives from the Home, Treasury, Naval, Educational, and Agricultural Departments, a geographer, a statistician and an economist, and one member chosen by the co-operative societies and another by the principal benefit societies. The Commission is in correspondence with the authorities at home, Italian consuls abroad, foreign emigration offices, and all institutions at home and abroad for the benefit of emigrants. Besides these central authorities, inspectors have been appointed at the principal Italian ports, committees chosen in the districts which furnish most emigrants, and emigration offices established abroad, where Italians may apply for advice and work. In addition, there are to be emigration inspectors travelling abroad.

The law enacts that no one may sell a ticket to an emigrant without a licence from the Commission, and that the cost of the ticket is to be approved. These licensed agents are forbidden to "incite to emigration," and they are not allowed to receive anything beyond passage money; further, the emigrant may recover his

passage money if he is prevented by illness from going. The agent has to provide food and lodging if the emigrant is delayed by quarantine or shipwreck, and to give him compensation if he is rejected at his destination. The Italian emigrant will now be safeguarded from the moment he leaves his native village until he is fairly established in his new home. Emigration is of importance to Italy as an outlet for her surplus population, and as a means of extending her influence abroad. Hitherto it has been shadowed by the miserable fate of many reckless and inexperienced Italians; but it is expected that under the influence of these new provisions it will prove an increasingly valuable element in the national life.Questions diplomatiques et Coloniales.

ASIA.

The Yun-nan Railway.-On July 5th the arrangements made for the construction of this railway by M. Dourner, the Governor-General of Indo-China, were confirmed by the French Chamber. A company, with a capital of 12,500,000 francs, is to be formed within three months to float the line from Haï-phong to Lao-kay, to be made by the Indo-Chinese Government, and to construct and float the railway from Lao-kay to Yun-nan-sen. The company will receive from the colony a subsidy of 12,500,000 francs and also a guarantee of 3,000,000 francs for interest for seventy-five years. This guarantee will enable the company to issue 76,000,000 francs in bonds at 3 per cent., and will give them altogether command of 101,000,000 francs. To the Chinese frontier the line, 400 kilometres long, consists of three sections: Haï-phong to Hanoi, Hanoï to Viétri, and Viétri to Lao-kay. The first section is to be handed over to the company before 1st April 1903, and the other two before 1st April 1905. No date has been fixed for the completion of the line from Lao-kay to Yun-nan-sen.

The government has long had in view the construction of this railway, and surveys were begun some years ago, but were interrupted by the Chinese rebellion. The line from Lao-kay to Yun-nan-sen will be 468 kilometres. M. Dourner is strongly of opinion that it should be continued from Yun-nan-sen to Sion-fu on the Yang-tse-kiang, from where it would draw the produce of Central China to Tonquin.

This railway will be of great political and commercial value to France. It will be a protection to her Indo-Chinese possessions, and it will compete with our Burmese railway, which starts from Rangoon and is to run to Kun-long on the Chinese frontier, and may possibly be constructed by way of Tali-fu to Yun-nan. The sunny province of Yun-nan is a sanatorium for Tonquin. The population is mostly Mongolian, and it is not dense, so that there is an opening for European colonisation. The soil is rich and fertile, and the country has great mineral resources.-Revue de Géographie, August 1901.

AMERICA.

Irrigation in the United States is the subject of a recent article by Mr. Albert Perry Brigham, who contends that somewhat more than one-third of the entire territory of the United States, exclusive of Alaska, must depend on artificial watering for its agriculture. Except in a limited degree, for grazing, these lands have no value without water; with water, on the other hand, they are unsurpassed in fruitfulness. Experts believe that about one-tenth of the total body of arid land can be brought under the plough, if all the water is used to the best advantage. Thus, not land, but water, is the great problem of the West. It is said that if Colorado made the water now used supply twice the present area, the wealth of

the state would be increased by £4,000,000. Cheap and abundant food in full variety is essential to the full development of the resources of the West. From the simple point of view of taxable wealth, therefore, all Americans, both of the east and the west, have an interest in irrigation. This is the phase of the subject which is beginning to command popular and legislative attention in Washington and throughout the country. The importance also of artificial watering, in dry seasons, for fruit, hay, and other crops is now realised; 100,000 acres of sugar-land are under irrigation in Louisiana; rice fields are irrigated in the Carolinas; and irrigation is on trial in the raising of tea in South Carolina.

The study of irrigation has now been introduced into universities and technical schools, and great attention is being given by Government departments to the many problems connected with it. The Department of Agriculture deals chiefly with the equitable distribution and profitable use of water; and the Geological Survey is charged with the study of the water supply, and, since 1890, has published many reports on the progress of the Irrigation Survey. Many problems arise in connection with this work. First the selection of the soil, both as to location and quality. Probable accessibility to markets and relation to grazing lands must also be taken into account. The construction of canals involves questions of engineering. The amount of effective work to be done by a given supply of water depends on the nature of the soil, climate, proposed crop, and many other conditions. Further questions concern the modes of distribution and of application to various crops. The choice of crops raises a question of great interest, namely, the introduction to dry regions of plants which, by a long process of acclimatisation, have in other lands become adapted to arid conditions. Not only will the national wealth be enhanced by irrigation, but farming will be more thorough and exact.-Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 1901.

GENERAL.

The Departure of the British Antarctic Expedition. -On August 6th, the Discovery sailed from Cowes on that scientific enterprise which has been advocated by British geographers for the last eight years. The following particulars of the staff and of the proposed voyage are given by the Geographical Journal of the current month.

"The Discovery, which since her arrival from Dundee had been lying in the East India Dock, cast off her moorings at 1 P.M. on Wednesday, July 31, and after being turned in the dock by the tug, proceeded down the Thames under steam, en route for Spithead, from which the final start was to be made. On board, in addition to the officers, scientific staff, and crew, were Sir Clements and Lady Markham, Sir George Goldie, and other representatives of the Royal Geographical Society, as well as a limited number of scientific men and others, who thus testified their interest in the undertaking, and their cordial wishes for its success. During the passage down the river the expedition received an enthusiastic send-off from the various craft in the river, as well as from groups of onlookers from the banks, who had assembled to bid a final adieu to the ship. Greetings were sent from all sides by means of signals, steam-whistles, etc., and were returned by the dipping of the blue ensign which the vessel was flying. At Greenhithe, which was reached at 3 P.M., boats were in readiness to take on shore the visitors, the Discovery then holding on her course with her own complement, minus one or two members of the staff who joined the ship subsequently. Sir Clements Markham remained on board and made the voyage to Spithead, where the King was to inspect the ship before the final sailing.

"On Monday, August 5, the Discovery proceeded at 9 A.M. from Stokes Bay to