The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-05-09
SOME NEW BOOKS.
HuntinG Fossils In the victoria
Nyansa Country.

torid NydHId ne passed the lslanO or
Rusinga without discovering the cham
mel which II masks and the great
kavirondo Gulf which lies behind 1t.
1t would seem as though the brown.
muddy waters Of the comparatively
shallow gulf discharging into the blue
HOOD Of the deep inland sea must dis
color the waters of the larger body
noticeably enough and extensively
enough to have drawn the explorers
attention. Dr. FELIX OSWALD went. In
the winter of 1911 and 1912. from
Nairobi through the gulf and the lake
to karungu. on the east coast OF Vic
toria Nyanza, to investigate for the
British Museum some miocene de-
posts reported from that neighbour
hood. In the Quarterly journal Of the
British Geological Society for June,
1914, he described the scientific results
Of his expedition: now in Alone IN the
Sleeping Sickness Country (kegan
Paul. Trench, Trucbner and Company.
Iondon) he tells the personal side
OF his adventure. The negroes and
the rocks of British East Africa under
his keen analytic observation and APP
preciative but unadorned report. as
sumo graphic reality not always
attained in travellers tales: and in
easy parenthesis note Is made of
administrative conditions. business
possibilities and transportation. so
that the reader who journeys with DIR.
Oswald through the equatorial colony
will emerge with an accurate under
standing Of just what its place in the
word is. Alone in the sleeping sick
Ia,
mer and chisel displays the finest quail
ity of the explorers heroism. The
credit which he is too modest to claim
must he conferred by the sympathetic
audience. The heat facilitating
fevers. the hardships and perils of
white man alone of his kind in black
land he reports with strict objectivity.
II II not sufficiently indicative OF the
discomforts of the venture to mention,
alone of many. the ''cool sound" q.
running waters that carry the SUBJ
merged mercury to so degrees. when
the air is at 10 degrees or so?
In the gulf. where depths range
from fifteen to thirty feet. boat is
Likely enough at any moment to be
Jared by a hippo coming up to
breathe. or even To have its planking
torn by the angry monsters tusks.
The water swarms with crocodies
Sir Clement Hill reported having
caught glimpse of its sea serpent. a
mysterious creature Of which the ma
tives have many weird tales. sup
posed;y a huge water python; but it
has thus far eluded the gun of the
sportsman. Bird life abounds: black
harnny Wit Lot noe
black and white ibis. crested cranes
cormorants. gulls and other fish eat
ers and divers
The lake itself along the east coast
II deep close inshore. Islands. rising
steep. are the peaks Of an ancient
land long since drowned Of bisaltic
lava, isolated outposts of vast vol
Canic plateau. built up by successive
outfows of lava. as in the west of
Scotland and the Is.e OF skye" The
central peak. Cwasi. overtops the lake
leve. by 1900 feet. Noyagers. think
ing they see water spouts forming.
are looking at moving masses If
kungu, gnats that pass the larval
stage sfioat ard. hitching simultane-
Ously in hordcs. hover in clouds until
carried ashore by the lake winds.
On near approach they are perceived
to give forth buZzing hum that
deepens Ia the low, diapason note OF
full organ" The aspect of the lake
changes swiftly: at one moment the
waters are calm. CLASSY. and at the
next a squat lashes them TO fury.
Thunder storms are tremendous. and
the equatorial sunsets over the placid
aHn Snastnnla nf ~ hplIIfN
At night the crickets and frogs along
the shore produce a deafening din.
The swarming prodigality of creation
in the creeping and crawling lower
orders of life must he a prime factor
in the impressions of the northerner
who dares the equatorial world.
Only few years ago the karunsi
district WAS populous with fishing VII
lagos OF the kavirondo; but the sleep
ing sickness came, and before the adj
vance of the deadly tsetse fly the ma
tives retreated from the swampy
shores back to the hillsdes. the
town karungu remains. with COL
ony of Indian traders, a port OF call
for lake steamers. The sleeping sick
ness came into the Victoria Nyanza
from the west coast over trade routes
traversing the Congo basin. The nd
tlves succumbed by thousands. The
islanders of the Sesse archipelago ~
particular, who formerly furnished a
navy" for the King OF Uganda
dwindled swiftly from thousands to
hundreds, and were saved from COM
plete humiliation only by the British
Governments action in sending the
remnant of the population inland.
The trypanosome that carries the
disease spreads rapidly and almost
universally. Destruction of the wild
game has been advocated. but would
he sacrifice without adequate recon-
pensc. for domestic animals also carr y
the germs, and even the swarming
smaller creatures, birds snakes. frogs
Caterpi.lars. are bitten by the tsetse
There Is no certain cure, though the
arsenical compound atoXyl, admin
stered in conjunction with a salt OF
mercury, ameliorates the disease and
retards its progress; and a salt OF n
timony, sodium antimonyl tartrate
has recently been found still more eff
feCtiye. DR.. Oswald outlines "a hope
full line Of effecting a cure: first, IL
discover an antitoXin to be injected
IN the initial stages of the disease
tnen 10 senn doctors through the LAND
to inoculate the population of every
newly threatened area, and finally tC