LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. No notice is taken of anonymous communications. [The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great that it is impossible otherwise to insure the appearance even of communications containing interesting and novel facts.] Mr. Romanes on Physiological Selection I HAVE just seen Mr. Romanes's article in the Nineteenth Century, and his letter specially replying to myself in your issue of January 13 (p. 247). I do not propose to continue the discussion, but ask leave to make a few observations on features of his reply in both the article and the letter. some On the question of the "inutility of specific characters," he appeals to authority against me, and especially to Darwin's very cautious remarks, which seem to me to support my view much more than they do those of Mr. Romanes; but in any case this is a matter in which I decline to accept authority as an infallible guide. The impossibility of proving a negative is proverbial, but my opponent declares that his negative-the uselessness of specific characters—wants no proving, but must be accepted till in every case the affirmative is proved. Here, again, is a canon of criticism the validity of which I wholly deny. As to the swamping effects of intercrossing, there is again an appeal to authority, and Mr. Romanes now explains away (in the Nineteenth Century, what he had said about simultaneous variations," by asking me to show such variations as the occurrence of an incipient spur on a duck's foot or horn on the head of a racehorse, in the belief, apparently, that these are the class of characters which are distinctive of closely-allied species! Such a demand, seriously made, appears to me so preposterous as to render further discussion of the matter with such an adversary out of the question. two, and this is a character to be found extensively distributed throughout the syllabic and alphabetic systems. If a symbol for man and fish, it will not be related to sun ime diately. The theory of Mr. Haliburton and others, and mythological conformity, give the cross or Tau as naturally derived from the Pleiades, and not from the sun. The cross is also a symbol o the nose in prehistoric sculpture. HYDE CLARKL 32 St. George's Square, S. W., February 12 Life-Energy, or the Dynamics of Health and Disease SINCE it is admitted that matter is indestructible, it is obvi that life can be only the manifestation of that energy which u set free by the reduction of compounds embodying more energy to states of combination which embody less energy. Life therefore is the result of the continuous interchange of partners between the compound molecules constituting chemical and organic compounds. "In any transformation which takes place without the appl cation, or the giving out, of work, the heat developed is the equivalent of the excess of the original over the final potentia energy due to the chemical affinities involved; the final ta e every combination is that in which the potential energy of chemica affinity is a minimum" (Tait). If these words formulate the law which governs those cott binations of elementary substances known as inorganic compan how much more must they refer to the combinations of the same elementary substances which go to form organic compounds Life thus becomes an expression for the sum of the differenc between the original potential energy of the food and the firs potential energy of the excretions. All change in the config tion of matter, whether physical or chemical, must be acc panied by either the evolution of, or the absorption of, energy. Energy, as far as is known, has but one source, the sun. Whether that energy act by direct impingement of solar tal fatal sunstroke, or whether it be second-hand, from the decor The question is really not worth further disposition of vegetable matter, or third-hand, from the decomp sine of animal substances which obtained it from vegetable sube'ances its origin is still the same. The argument to show that the supposed physiological varia-producing the ascending scale of effects from genial war ath tions would be perpetuated, seems to me as weak and unsatisfactory as ever. cussion till the required variations are proved to exist in the requisite abundance and possessing the peculiar relations to each other and to the rest of the species which would alone give them any chance of survival. I now leave the question, as between myself and Mr. Romanes, to the consideration of those naturalists who may be able to bestow upon it the requisite time and attention. Washington, U.S.A., January 30 ALFRED R. WALLACE Instantaneous Shutters IN reference to the interesting paper by Mr. Mallock in NATURE (February 3, p. 325), I quite agree with him in his condemnation of a drop-shutter of any form. found of the greatest value-one, namely, working horizontally But I would point out a form of shutter that I have myself across the lens. It has the very great advantage in landscape work that it can carry an aperture of this form or any modification thereof, the advantage gained thereby being that the sky receives a far shorter exposure than the foreground, a point of much importance in landscape photography. The piece is loose, and any shape cut out of black cardboard or paper can be inserted. Of this power I have frequently availed myself when photographing snow-clad mountains. The shutter can be made to pass across the lens at any speed, from the most instantaneous flash to slower motions, and it has the further advantage of working immediately behind the lens the proper place, I think, for a shutter. H. STUARI-WORTLEY South Kensington Museum, February 4 Svastika Cross and Sun Is there any evidence that the sa tika represents the sun? and is it not a simple co jecture? (NATURE, February 10, p. 345 Assuming then the universality of this energy, which show itself in all the intangible forms of life, and growth, and organic change, it will be the effort of the writer to adduce ev dence to prove that much which is still mysterious in both heala and disease is due to its subtle action too. The vibrations of direct solar energy which fall upon the nerve give rise to those molecular disturbances which produce the subjective sensation of light. Physical change is thus originated by an immaterial a Work is done, and cannot continue to be performed wills renewal of the material acted on. But when the vibrations of direct solar energy fall upon tissues of a growing plant, energy is incorporated into the the carbon and hydrogen atoms present in the forms of cartes tissues. This energy so attunes the atomic vibrations in plant molecules as to bring them into combining harmony wi acid and water. within itself the energy which made it starch. Each molecule of starch maintains its individuality as stat only so long as it retains within itself that solar energy under energy is lost the starch is degraded to its original conditi influence of which it became starch; as soon as part of th carbonic acid and water. While it is thus evident that the vegetable kingdom lives! average man in the form of carbonic acid. Carbon and t 4500 grains of plant carbon are daily excreted by en It decomposes into independently embody a greater sum of original energy th The evastika is a complex emblem, and there is a possible origin which has not been investigated. found in the compound formed by their union; therefore the result of their combining together must be a loss of energy: the value of this energy is estimated by the heat evolved. The heat recognisable on the combination of 4500 grains of carbon with the required equivalent of oxygen amounts to 118 units, and represents in foot-pounds the raising of 40 tons one foot high. Such, then, is the enormous supply of solar energy obtained by a man when he compels the elementary atoms of carbon and oxygen to enter into a combination of greater stability and less energy, and to surrender their surplus energy that he may live. But the converse of this is also true, viz. that when a plant proceeds to utilise this carbonic acid for the reproduction of 4500 grains of carbon, it can do so only by obtaining from some external source energy equivalent to the raising of 40 tons one foot high and adding this to the rates of vibration already existing in the carbonic acid. Thus the condition of energy of the carbonic acid is altered till finally the oxygen and carbon atoms are compelled to dissociate themselves and to resume their elementary forms of less stability and greater energy. They then become available for plant assimilation, and fix in its tissues the energy which forced them apart. If, then, the union of oxygen and carbon in the human body sacrifices such energy that man can live thereby, is it not obvious that under whatever circumstances that union takes place the same energy must appear? If that be so, the question must arise whether in estimating the effect of vegetable decomposition upon the health of man too much notice has not heretofore been taken of the carbonic acid and kindred stable products given out, and too little attention paid to the energy evolved,-in fact, whether from the surface of every seething swamp there be not poured forth streams of that powerful energy which originally fed the growing plants, and which when eliminated within the body of man is known by the name of Life. To assume that such energy is powerless is to assert that the mother's heat is not the force that hatches out the egg. That the theory which attributed all noxious influence to the gaseous resultants of decomposition did not satisfy the requirements of science is shown by the greedy acceptance of the germ theory which now prevails. But this, after all, is but coming one step nearer to the action of that universal energy which is the inseparable concomitant of all material interchange. For has not Dr. Burdon Sanderson well said, "Bacterial life is a middle term between chemical antecedents and consequents"? They reduce all unstable compounds in the world to final stable products, and live with vigour or in apathy in proportion to the effect upon themselves of the energy evolved from the medium they destroy. Thus, too, is produced much of that form of secondary energy recognised as heat of decomposition, and while this heat is known to possess marvellous influence over vegetable germination it has up to the present been credited with but little action on the life of man. The gaseous consequents and the bacterial agents have borne the blame of every human ill, while that energy which ruled the universe before the first vegetable cell had varied towards animal functions is allowed to go unchallenged. If, then, suspicion can be legitimately directed towards this heat as a factor in physiological change hitherto overlooked, it becomes necessary to pursue the subject of heat in all its latest developments. Dr. Doherty, in his "Organic Philosophy," says: "Light is nothing but the velocity of a force which in slow motion is called heat." From the facts that are known in relation to light it may be possible to deduce by analogy much that is yet unproven with regard to heat. It has been shown that light consists of certain colours which, when taken together, produce the sensation of light; each of these colours acts upon certain specialised molecules of the optic nerve and not upon the remainder, just as Professor Tyndall has shown that the invisible heat rays, 'powerful as they are, and sufficient to fuse many metals, can be permitted to enter the eye and to break upon the retina without producing the least luminous impression," May it not therefore be inferred that heat consists of a series of velocities of force which when taken together produce the sensation of heat, yet each of which is capable of acting upon certain specialised molecules of the nerves of sensation, while being unperceived by the remainder? Light has been proved by Captain Abney to be the visible velocities of wave-lengths from 38,000 to the inch to 60,000, and within this range from 38,000 to 60,000 to the inch all the varied sensations of colour are produced; nevertheless, by the higher velocities, from 60,000 to 120,000 wave-lengths to the inch, the great chemical actions of the world are performed. Is it not evident, then, that if the recognition of wave-lengths from 38,000 to the inch and upwards depended solely upon the subjective sensation of light all appreciation of them must cease at the 60,000 wave-lengths, and that the great powers of the ultra-violet wave-lengths must have remained in darkness for ever? But Captain Abney has also shown that there are measurable wave-lengths extending downwards from 38,000 to 10,000 to the inch; if, therefore, these are credited with such action only as is recognisable by the subjective sensation of heat, is it not equally possible that powerful influences which change for good or ill the configuration of the molecules of the nerves of sensation may be left unregistered? It is therefore allowable to infer from this analogy that in the dark region descending from the fading red to the cold of zero there may be many rates of velocity, some of which, harmonising with some phase of life, produce the most potent physiological effects without at the same time exciting the molecular resistance which corresponds to the sensation of heat. In other words, is it not probable that in estimating the actions of the forces of Nature upon the animal system some most subtle influences have been overlooked because unrecorded by the index of the thermometer? Professor Tait says: "The energy of vibrational radiations is a transformation of the heat of a hot body, and can be again frittered down into heat, but in the interval of its passage through space devoid of tangible matter, or even while passing unabsorbed through tangible matter, it is not necessarily heat.' And Mr. Pattison Muir in his work on "Thermal Chemistry" asks: "Must all energy which is lost by a changing chemical system during a definite operation make its appearance in the form of heat? Energy appears in chemical operations in forms other than that of heat, electrical energy for instance; we must distinguish in chemical processes between that part of chemical energy which is freely changeable into other forms, and that which can leave the system only in the form of heat." The most recent researches thus point to the probability that while the bacterium carries on through Nature its never-ending work of reducing chemical antecedents to chemical consequents it must as continuously set free energy in forms other than that of heat. One of the most pregnant discoveries made of late is that which demonstrates that, even in the case of the powerful friction requisite for boring iron, heat ceases to be recognisable as heat when the iron operated on is strongly magnetised; that is, that heat developed by friction in a magnetic field disappears in some form other than heat. By this the idea is suggested that heat energy impinging upon the sentient extremity of a nerve in action may be taken up and carried in a form other than heat to the central brain, just as sound is conveyed in a form other than sound across the interval between the telephone and the receiver; and if the multiple wave-lengths which produce the subjective sensation of heat can be thus transferred from the surface to the centre, why not fractions of that multiple which when taken together make the whole? Since, then, science cannot specify the difference between the energy contained in dead carbonic acid and that of the living hydrocarbon, neither can it draw a line more definite than the equator between those series of decompositions which on the one side are termed life, and on the other are designated death. In each and all the compound descends from instability towards stability, and in every degradation is energy evolved. Yet that energy, no matter in what companionship it may be found, or through how many existences it may have transmigrated, has still but one original source, and consequently it is impossible to conceive a condition in which that energy, primarily possessed of such " phenomenal modes of action," can be regarded as absolutely inert. So far, then, it is claimed that grounds have been established Again, while it is at present impossible to isolate the fractions "Dr. Goldscheider at a meeting on April 9 of the Physiological Society of Berlin discussed the action of menthol on the sensory nerves; he therefore concluded that the sensations in some places of cold and in other places of heat, produced by menthol, were purely subjective, and consequent on the direct stimulation of the special nerves of temperature, those usually cognisant of cold being far more sensitive to its influence than were those adapted to receive impressions of higher temperatures."Brit. Med. Journ., August 21, 1886. Here, then, is strong evidence that the sentient nerve-endings over the surface of the body are graduated to respond to the various rates of energy that may impinge thereon; and if so, how can it be admitted that the varieties of energy by which these nerve-endings are stimulated must be limited to those already identified? That some such idea has shaped itself in the minds of observers may be gathered from the independent opinions expressed by several of the members of the Cholera Commission of 1885. Prof. Aitken sums up his valuable contribution in these words : "Some influence (as yet unknown, and therefore so far mysterious) seems to create in cholera times and places an epidemic activity. It is probable that this may be due rather to some meteorological condition -some peculiar state of the atmosphere, electrical or other-combined with unwholesome conditions of surroundings, and conditions of life; a co-existence of physical phenomena rather than anything in the individual, It is well known that electrical conditions such as prevail in a thunderstorm will cause milk to become sour, the formation of the acid being associated with, or due to, the formation of the bacterium lactis, and thus confined to very definite areas." In the last paragraph lies the key to some of the foregoing mystery. The mode in which to use it can be learned from the marvellous researches of Pasteur. It is obvious that if the cause of sourness be the bacterium, the cause of greater sourness will be the bacterium still, and that the reason for the increased reduction by the bacterium of chemical antecedents to chemical consequents, which produces the additional sourness, must lie in some condition affecting the life of the bacterium too. Pasteur has shown that a fundamental difference exists in the mode of action of the beer and grape ferments when "the introduction of the free oxygen of the atmosphere is permitted and when such introduction is prevented." When free oxygen is admitted, "the ferment shows an activity even more extraordinary than it did in the deep vats; the life of the ferment is singularly enhanced, but the proportion of the weight of the decomposed sugar to that of the yeast formed is absolutely different in the two cases: while, for example, in the deep vats a kilogramme of ferment sometimes decomposes 70, 80, 100, or even 150 kilogrammes of sugar; in the shallow troughs 1 kilogramme of the ferment will be found to correspond to only 5 or 6 kilogrammes of decomposed sugar. In other words, the more free oxygen the yeast ferment consumes the less is its power as a ferment; the more, on the contrary, the life of the ferment is carried on without the presence of free oxygen the greater is its power of decomposing and of fermenting the saccharine matter." Here, then, is the clue to the cause of the increased sourness of milk during electrical conditions such as prevail in a thunderstorm. The bacterium lactis evidently finds itself in a situation in which the free oxygen of the atmosphere has, owing to some atomic disturbance in its molecules, become less available as an energy-provider. The organism is consequently compelled to revert to the condition of the ferment in the deep vats, and to find in the increased decomposition of the constituents of the milk that energy which is necessary for its existence. Further, it is known that electricity does affect the condition of oxygen, that the conversion of its molecules from the di-atomic to the tri-atomic state can be brought about by its influence, and that this latter state has been recognised as ozone. If, then, it can be thus proved that the presence or absence of oxygen so materially alters the mode of existence of microscopic organisms, is it not reasonable to accept changes in the lives of the organisms as evidence of the altered condition of oxygen? and since certain conditions of free energy are thus found to interfere with the mode of nutrition of the minutest forms of life, can it be doubted that similar forces may exercise a material influence upon the most complex being, who, after all, is but a larger maltiple of the original protoplasmic element? Thus it becomes possible that energy existing in forms other than those of light or heat exerts a power which has up to the present been ignored. By this reasoning too, based on the altered mode of nutrition of the bacterium lactis during a thunderstorm, much that has been hitherto obscure in the history of the diseases, or blights, of the vegetable world becomes intelligible. When it is found that all the bacteria lactis over a considerable area at the same moment change their mode of existence, and, from leading a comparatively sluggish life in the milk substance, suddenly break up almost the whole of that substance at a time when electrical disturbances are present, it is easily conceivable that in the case of potato-blight, which is almost invariably accompanied by obvious atmospheric changes, like conditions may arise; in fact, that the universally present bacteria, which, unter ordinary circumstances, continue to exist without apparent injury to the tuber and leaves with which they are in contact, may, when driven by the stress of altered atmospheric conditions, turn upon the tissues of the plant for nutrition as the bacterium lactis upon the milk. If, then, these effects of certain unrecognised forms of energy be established, it will go far to help the elucidation of the mysterious subject of cholera. Dr. Bryden, from prolonged study of the cholera statistics a India, arrived at the following conclusions: "That the disea was endemic in the Soonderbunds, and that its cause was enti born and air-borne;"-to repeat the words of Prof. Aitken "due rather to some meteorological condition, some pecalis state of the atmosphere, to a co-existence of physical phenomena, and Deputy-Surgeon-General Marston has added: "Chale | spreads along rivers, but against their current in Bengal I invariably advances from Bengal proper to the Himalayas, never the reverse." Here, then, are the conclusions arrived at by some of the ma skilled observers on this subject. It is thus admitted that cholera is endemic in the Soonderb and that its track from thence lies in a north-westerly dire that is, that its home is a surface of 12,000 square miles decomposing tropical vegetation, and its direction that fr whence the Ganges and its tributaries flow. From this it may be inferred that its cause is such that t be carried atmospherically, and that its course is the line of t least resistance. Were the cause of cholera solid or liquid, it would doables long ere this have been demonstrated. Were it gaseous must follow the law of the diffusion of gases. What, the remains to be sought for over the surface of the Soond:st Naught but some form of that universal energy which feil sunbeam upon the growing plant, but which, when filtere through its substance, is evolved in a less vivid but still a p form from its decaying structure. That such returned energy has the power of incora a itself with water, till it passes upward as a vapour, every deas ing dung-heap shows; and in what prodigious force it again eliminated may be understood from the calculation Prof. Haughton. that the condensation of vapour sto to afford one gallon of rainfall gives out sufficient heat l 45 pounds of cast iron. From this may be estimated the enormous output of be heat which must day and night pass from a decomposing of 12,000 square miles to the vapour-carrying air above To comprehend the distance to which this energy may transported before doing visible work it is only necessar consider the Gulf Stream, which is described by Prd. It as a vast convection current whereby the solar heat of tropics is carried into the North Atlantic;" and to mea!? » work done thereby it needs but to weigh the luxuriant v tion of the United Kingdom against the frigid barrennes Labrador. If, then, such vast stores of force can be transported fr tropics to England, it cannot be irrational to assert that fron surface of the Soonderbunds, and like places, much of the s of decomposition must ascend with the rising vapour. that whether drawn landward by the heated earth surfac pushed inward before the advancing monsoon, this vapour follow the line of least resistance along the course of the ** beds. Again, when it is remembere1 the nerves of the animal body of the chemical affinity evolved as electricity from a few square inches of decomposing zinc, it may well be contended that the energy of chemical affinity evolved from so great an area of decomposing organic substances cannot be innocuous, and that the fact of its action not being acknowledged by the subjective sense of feeling is no proof that it is non-existent. Thus it becomes conceivable how the energy evolved in the Soonderbunds may, when vapour-borne across the interval, affect the inhabitants of Oude, and so alter the individual condition as to admit of local causes producing foreign effects. Many of the most careful observers have asserted that malarious fevers arose from chill; yet, while this did not solve the question, it at least established one fact, that malarious fevers arose under circumstances which necessitated vapour condensation, one gallon of which would set free energy sufficient to melt 45 pounds of cast iron. Familiarity with malaria will furnish many arguments in support of the contention that fever infection is at least coincident with vapour condensati ›n. A boat's crew ashore at night on a West African station will often be affected, while those but a few miles seaward will remain exempt. In the deep valleys of Zululand leading from the St. Lucia swamp, fever is contracted at a distance of many miles inland, while high ground much nearer to the swamp may be occupied with impunity. In the Terai, at the foot of the Himalayas, a night's sojourn brings to the unseasoned traveller certain fever, while a day journey is almost free from risk. Since, then, the search for a material cause of cholera and of malaria has been as unsuccessful as if one sought a material cause for sunstroke, it may legitimately be suggested that, as the more rapidly fatal affection is the result of the action of direct solar energy upon the sentient nerve-endings, so the less rapid maladies may result from subordinate rates of the same energy acting upon subdivisions of the nerve-endings, which, as Dr. Goldscheider has shown, are specialised to respond to lower velocities of that force, and that the chill to which so many attribute the origin of fever is really the acknowledgment, by what Dr. Goldscheider terms "the special nerves of temperature usually cognisant of cold," of that obscure energy hitherto unregarded as a factor in the production of disease, but which the investigations of thermo-electricity may one day bring within the ken of man. NATHL. ALCOCK Military Prison, Dublin THE CRUISE OF THE “MARCHESA " THIS HIS is one of the most interesting books of trave that it has been our good fortune to meet with for several years. Apart from its excellent maps and wealth of illustration, it commends itself by a charm of style not usually to be met with in works of this nature, and by the judgment shown in the narrative. Many countries were visited which lie in the well-beaten track of every tourist round the world, but these have not even been alluded to. The attention is riveted to the details of discoveries among little-known scenes, and sometimes in quite unexplored regions. The Marchesa, an auxiliary screw schooner of 420 tons, Mr. C. T. Kettlewell, captain and owner, was commissioned in the Clyde in November 1881, and left Cowes on the 8th of the January following. She reached Colombo on April 24, having touched at Socotra and Oolegaum Island, one of the Maldive group, on her way from Aden. From Ceylon she proceeded via Singapore to Formosa; and, coasting along the south-eastern side of Formosa, she visited the small Island of Samasana. While she was running nearer to the coast at Chock-e-day, the stupendous cliffs of this part of Formosa were seen rising, to a height of some 5000 feet, upright from the water's edge. The little-known islands of the Liu-Kiu group were next visited. These lie some 250 miles to the east-north-east of Formosa; they are partially volcanic, and lie just north of the tropic. The account of the short sojourn at Napha, "The Cruise of the Marchesa to Kamschatka and New Guinea; with Notices of Formosa, Liu-Kiu, and various Islands of the Malay Archipelago." By F. H. H. Guillemard. M.A. M.D. (Cantab.), &c. With Maps and munerous Illustrations. Two Volumes (London: John Murray, 1886.) and of the wonderfully successful visit to Shiuri, the capital, where are the ancient palaces of the Liu-Kiu kings, will be found in Chapters II. and III. Some time was spent at Japan, then the yacht's head was turned northwards for Kamschatka, and on the morning of August 13, when the fog lifted, the sharp peak of Vilutchinska Volcano enabled them to steer for Avatcha Bay, within which lies the once well-known little harbour of Petropaulovsky. Avatcha Bay is one of the finest harbours in the world, if not actually the finest. Rio and Sydney have no mean claims for this position of honour, but those of us who had seen both were unanimous in awarding the palm to their Kamschatkan rival. A nearly circular basin of some nine miles in diameter, and within a narrow entrance opening to the south-south-east, it is roomy enough to accommodate the navies of the world. It is entirely free from dangers, has an even depth of ten or twelve fathoms, and owing to its affording excellent holding ground and being well protected from all winds it is perfectly safe in all weathers. But the ordinary traveller will be struck not so much with its nautical excellences as with the superb scenery with which it is surrounded. To the south rises the Vilutchinska Volcano, now quiescent, a graceful cone of about 7000 feet; and a little farther eastwards a huge flat-topped mass exceeding it in height by a thousand feet or more obtrudes itself, as a rare exception to the rule of cone-shaped mountains which seems to obtain throughout the country. It is nameless in the charts, for we are in the land of volcanoes and it is only 8000 feet in height! On either hand on entering are the two secondary harbours, Rakova and Tareinska-the latter nearly five miles in length-and within them again are others on a still smaller scale. Nature here at least has treated the mariner right royally. The iron-bound coast without may be as bad a lee shore as any skipper need wish to see, and the Pacific Ocean may too often belie its name, but here he can rest quietly, and sleep sur les deux oreilles, until such time as he weighs anchor for the homeward voyage" (vol. i. p. 67). In spite of its imposing name, it did not take the explorers long to see all the sights of Petropaulovsky, and a plan was soon formed to make an expedition into the interior. Travelling northwards from Avatcha Bay, they soon struck the head waters of the great Kamschatka River, on which they floated down to the sea. The well-known naturalist Dr. Dybowski gave them great assistance in their undertaking. The yacht was to remain in harbour for some six weeks, and then to proceed, as it did, to the mouth of the river to await their arrival. Of this delightful river journey our space will permit us to give no details. As far as Narchiki, where they met the river, they journeyed on ponies, and then they floated down its stream, sometimes in boats, sometimes on rafts, until, after many an adventure, and, indeed, many a trial, they reached Ust Kamschatka in safety. In places, the river swarmed with salmon ; bears were in abundance; the weather, though not always of the best, was generally bright and clear; but the natives were very difficult to deal with-always exorbitar in their charges, and often placing the travellers in saa dilemmas; and constant rows took place about the hire of the canoes. One morning, after a harder fight than usual with the Mashura men, with much time and some temper lost, they came in sight of the magnificent range of volcanoes on the lower reach of the great river. The five already-known volcanoes have elevations of from 11,700 to nearly 19,000 feet, and there were two much lower cones, now first described, which they called after Gordon and Herbert Stewart. The account of the travellers' first view of these mighty peaks must be told in their own words. "We floated silently down stream for a couple of hours or more, thinking over the discussions that we knew only too well would be renewed at the earliest opportunity, |