1875. After examining several beautiful bays and inlets, which did
not afford the necessary shelter for the vessel, Mr Young's party
resolved to settle, at anyrate temporarily, at Cape Maclear, whither,
accordingly, they transported all their stores. On November 19th Mr
Young set off on a voyage round the lake, in the course of which he
discovered a large extension of its waters, hitherto unknown. Making
his way northwards, he came in sight of the grand range which towers
over Chiloweela; in places the mountains run sheer down into the lake,
and no bottom could be got at one hundred fathoms. After weathering a
furious gale which raged for thirteen hours, the _Ilala_ pursued her
northward voyage, passing the islands of Likomo and Chusamoolo. On his
right, Mr Young reports an iron-bound coast stretching everywhere,
excepting only when some ravine came down to the shore. In one spot,
there were evident signs of a dreadful massacre having taken place--the
result of a slave-raid. Mr Young's account of what he saw here is
curious and interesting. Hardly any wood, he says, was to be procured,
in consequence of the forests being cleared, and the only remnant of a
large population was now to be found on rocky patches jutting up from
the water of the lake, and on singular 'pile villages.' It was found
that the poor creatures had conveyed earth in their canoes to these
rocks, and wherever a crevice afforded a hold, there would a little
patch of cassava or corn appear, grown with infinite labour.
The platform villages reached by Mr Young were exceedingly interesting;
for the most part they are built three or four hundred yards from the
shore, and in from eight to twelve feet of water. Poles are driven down
in rows, and on the top of them a wooden platform is constructed,
forming the foundation or floor of the village. To give some idea of
the extent of these, it may be mentioned that one of them consisted
of about one hundred huts. With an abundance of fish round them, the
islanders hold their own against starvation. Shortly after leaving
these strange villages, Mr Young met with some scenery, the description
of which is worth quoting. 'We were now abreast,' he says, 'of some
mountains that amongst the parallel ranges which virtually make a
mountain-basin of Lake Nyassa, exceed them all in stupendous grandeur.
In no part of the world have I seen anything to equal their peculiar
magnificence. With peaks apparently from ten to twelve thousand feet
high, they run perpendicularly down into the lake. The rain was pouring
upon them, and numberless waterfalls hung like threads of white
floss-silk from crevices which ran out upon their sides far up among
the clouds. Baffled by the raids of the Ma Viti in 1866, Livingstone
could not induce his men to go with him to the north end of Nyassa,
and thus he missed seeing that which would have struck him as the most
beautiful feature of "his old home," as he called the lake. There was
but one name to give to these mountains. At its northern end they stand
like portals to the lake, faced by the opposite mountains; and as
future travellers look upon the "Livingstone Range," it may aid them to
remember the man who during his life, more than any other, added to our
knowledge of the hitherto unknown beauties of the earth.'
A violent storm, more like what might be expected on the Atlantic than
on an inland sea, prevented Mr Young from doing much in the way of
exploring the unknown region at the end of the lake; but he saw there
what he believed to be the mouth of a wide river; and this opinion
was confirmed by what he learned from the natives when he next landed
after the storm referred to. They averred that a River Rovuma or Röoma
flows out at the extreme north; and he inclines to believe this to be
the case for the following reasons: In the first place, Dr Livingstone
heard the same story twenty years ago, when he discovered the lake,
and in quite a different quarter. It will be remembered by many how
sanguine he was that the Rovuma River, which debouches on the east
coast, was identical with the Nyassa River, and that it would prove to
be a second outlet. It may yet prove to be so; but the discovery can be
of little use, for the Rovuma ceases to be navigable a short distance
from the coast. The second reason for believing the native report is,
that in the stormy time, when Mr Young was there, it was very easy to
see where rivers ran into the lake. A long current of muddy water would
trail out on the dark-blue surface; in this case, however, there was
nothing of the kind; and it is consequently tolerably clear that no
inflow exists.
Cruising southwards along the western shore of the lake, Mr Young
observed, instead of the iron-bound coast on the opposite side,
exquisite park-like glades between the mountains and the water's edge;
the herds of game merely looked up as the steamer passed, just as sheep
raise their heads to gaze at a train, and then went on browsing. In one
place a remarkable detached perpendicular rock stands four thousand
feet high. The top is flat, and the sides give it the appearance of a
pyramid from which a large slice of the top has been removed in order
to place in position a perfectly square block of a greenish colour.
Beneath this singular summit there is a deep horizontal band of white
stone or quartz, succeeded by another of clay apparently; and then
comes one of intense black, possibly coal, for this mineral is known to
all the natives.
Mr Young's story of his cruise furnishes undeniable evidence of the
justness of the name Dr Livingstone gave to Nyassa, namely the Lake
of Storms, for he has constantly to record meeting with them--one
more terrible than the other. The last he mentions must have been
fearfully and awfully grand in its wildness. 'At one time,' he says,
'in the middle of a thunder-storm of great fury, no fewer than twelve
waterspouts appeared around us, and we had literally to steer hither
and thither to avoid them, for had one overtaken us, it would have sent
us to the bottom without a doubt.'
Such are the salient features in Mr Young's brief account of the first
trip made by a steamer on the stormy bosom of Lake Nyassa. It did not
come within the scope of his paper to describe the daily life of the
missionary party at Cape Maclear, the insight they got into the native
life, the intrigues of the slave-traders, nor the marvellous effect
which the presence of Europeans produced on all sides, more especially
in attracting to them from the four winds the scattered remnants of
villages swept away by slave-raids; but it will be interesting to our
readers to state in conclusion, that he hopes to preserve these details
for the public in another form, which we feel sure will meet with the
welcome it cannot fail to deserve, as the record of the establishment
of the first British colony on Lake Nyassa.
CURIOUS PICK-UPS.
The pick-ups, the findings, from underground or under-sea, or in
hidden places above ground, comprise a strange medley of the odd and
the choice, appealing to the tastes or the pockets of persons filling
widely diverse positions in society.
The drains and sewers, for instance: can a more lowly and uncomfortable
treasure-house than these be found? Rat-killing by dogs, in an inclosed
space surrounded by the roughest of roughs, is a savage exhibition
unfortunately not yet quite died out from amongst us. The exhibiters
purchase the live rats at so much per dozen from men who grope along
the filthy sewers in search of them; and in Paris especially, dead
rats are brought up from the same unseemly regions, and placed in the
hands of skinners and tanners, who manage to get out of them strong and
good-looking pieces of leather suitable for the manufacture of gloves.
The great changes made in recent years in London by the extensive
Main Drainage Works have deprived the sewer-grubbers of much of their
chance; but in the old sewers the pick-ups were often strange enough.
Dead infants, a dead seal, cats and dogs both alive and dead, spoons,
tobacco-boxes, children's playthings, bad half-crowns and shillings,
sets of false teeth, washing-bowls, mops, human heads and limbs which
had been thus disposed of by body-snatchers or by anatomical and
medical students--all were met with by the sewer-flushers. One party of
these strangely employed men came on a certain occasion to a spot where
the brickwork between the sewer and a beer-cellar had broken through.
What did they do? They helped themselves.
On a former occasion, we presented a few illustrations of the curious
operation of the law concerning _Treasure-trove_, the rights and the
wrongs of ownership connected with property picked up from the ground
or from a small depth below the surface. Among the examples cited was
one relating to the finding of treasure near Stanmore in Middlesex, and
another connected with the locality of Mountfield in Sussex. Let us
present a few jottings of similar pick-ups in more recent years.
A labourer, digging a drain in a farm on the estate of the late Lord
Palmerston, found a golden torque or torgue, an ancient British
necklace. It was ascertained that the original grant of the estate gave
to the grantee, as lord of the manor, a right to all treasure-trove
found therein; the veteran statesman established his claim, but took
care that the finder should not go unrewarded. A ploughman, working
near Horndean in Hants, found more than a hundred old silver coins in
an earthen jar under the surface of the ground; the lord of the manor
gave to the finder the intrinsic value of the coins as mere silver, and
then had to fight a battle with the Crown as to who ought to possess
the coins themselves. One find near Highgate was very remarkable, on
account of the strange manner in which the veritable owner made his
appearance. Labourers, grubbing up a tree in a field, found two jars
containing nearly four hundred sovereigns; they divided the money
amongst themselves, and were then taken aback by the lord of the manor
claiming it. Before this claim could be investigated, a tradesman came
forward and stated that one night, under a temporary delusion, he
had gone out and buried the money; when he awoke, and for some time
afterwards, he tried in vain to recollect the locality he had selected,
and only obtained a clue when he heard a rumour of the finding of four
hundred sovereigns. He was able to bring forward sufficient evidence in
support of his singular story; and his claim was admitted.
On different occasions in 1864 the Crown put in claims for
treasure-trove--a gold coin found at Long Crendon in Buckinghamshire;
sixty-two gold coins found in an earthen jar in a field at Stockerston,
Leicestershire; no less than six thousand silver pennies of the time
of Henry III. found at Eccles near Manchester; and seven hundred and
sixty silver coins earthed up near Newark. The next following year gave
the Crown a claim to a hundred and eighty silver coins of the reigns
of Mary, Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I., found at Grantham; and
to a gold cross and chain brought to light at Castle Bailey, Clare, in
Suffolk. The years 1866 and 1867 were marked, among other instances,
by the finding of nearly seven thousand small gold and silver coins at
Highbury, near London; eighty guineas concealed in the wall of an old
house at East Parley, near Christchurch, Hants; and two hundred and
sixty old silver coins in a house at Lichfield. In other years there
were nine hundred silver coins found at Cumberford in Staffordshire;
and eleven rose nobles found in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.
These several instances of treasure-trove were settled in various ways.
Some of the findings were returned by the Crown to the finders; some
were sold to the British Museum, in a manner to place an honorarium
in the finder's pocket; some were presented to museums, and the
money value given to the finders; some are retained by the Crown,
as antiquarian curiosities; while one has been handed over to the
descendants of a former owner.
Seven or eight years ago two labouring men found a very ancient gold
chain, which they sold to a dealer who knew the value better than they
did; the unlucky-lucky men fared badly in this instance, seeing that
they were punished for selling the 'find' without giving notice to the
authorities--rather hard lines for rustics, who are not likely to know
much about the law of treasure-trove. In another case a poor man found
a pair of ancient Irish silver bracelets; he sold them as old silver
to a silversmith, who melted them down at once--to the great regret
of an antiquary, who would have given much more than their intrinsic
value for such relics of former days. During the multifarious diggings
which have been going on for some years in and near Cannon Street and
its neighbourhood for the formation of new streets and the construction
of large commercial buildings, the workmen lighted upon twenty-nine
guineas and twenty shillings nearly two centuries old; the men got
into trouble because they did not voluntarily give them up. On one
occasion when the fusty and musty contents of a rag-dealer's heap were
being overhauled, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Houndsditch, a
diamond ring was espied. A contest arose as to who should possess it:
a woman engaged in sorting the rags claimed it because she had found
it; the rag-dealer disputed her claim; a pawnbroker who said he had
advanced money on the ring insisted on his prior right; a dealer in old
clothes who had sold a garment for that money, and one or two other
persons of somewhat doubtful antecedents--all came forward to shew
that, for some reason or other, the diamond ring ought to be considered
theirs. Whether the crown waived its claim, we are not certain; but a
magistrate eventually gave a decision in favour of the rag-sorter.
Bank-notes, as well as coins, jewellery, and articles in the precious
metals, sometimes make their appearance among the findings. A bundle
of notes was one day picked up outside the counter of a retail shop:
the finder claimed them because he _was_ the finder; while the
shopkeeper claimed them because it was on his premises that the notes
had been dropped. The real owner, whoever he may have been, did not
come forward, and the law decided in favour of the finder. But a
much more remarkable case occurred two or three years ago. A packet
containing no less than ten thousand pounds' worth of bank-notes
was picked up from the pavement in one of the busy streets near the
Bank of England; ten notes of one thousand pounds each. A young City
clerk picked up and pocketed the treasure. A friend advised him,
on consultation, to keep the notes until the following day, when a
handsome reward would possibly be offered by the luckless person who
had inadvertently dropped the notes. A firm of solicitors, in the names
of the real owners, speedily offered one hundred pounds to the finder.
The judicious friend overshot the mark here; he stipulated that he
should have nearly half the sum of one hundred pounds as his reward
for the advice given; and at the same time coaxed sixty pounds out of
the owners by a fabricated story concerning himself, the finder, and
the finding. A sheriff court had to decide the matter, and ordered the
'friend' to return part, at anyrate, of the money he had received.
A queer story has lately found its way into the newspapers, not exactly
touching on the discovery of treasure, but on a concealment which
might possibly lead to discovery if this or that were to occur. One
Adolfo de Garcilano (so runs the story), a prisoner in Madrid, and
lately a colonel in the Carlist army, was instructed by Don Carlos to
take six million pesetas (about one franc each) in English securities
and Spanish notes to London, inclosed in an iron box. This treasure
he was to bury in the earth in a particular locality, make a sketch
of the exact spot, and return to Spain. He was next captured by the
Alfonsists, thrust into prison, and told that he would not be set
free except on the payment of a large sum of money by way of ransom.
Thereupon he wrote to some one in England or Scotland, asking for the
transmission of a sufficient sum of money; this done, the secret of the
buried treasure would be communicated to the liberal ransomer, who was
to retain one-third of it as a grateful reward. If there had been only
one such letter, some person might possibly have been victimised; but
there were more than one, to different quarters, each requesting the
money to be sent to a third party at an address named. We may hereby
form a tolerably true estimate of Don Adolfo de Garcilano.
Undoubtedly the most interesting recent discoveries of small but
valuable works in the precious metals are those due to Dr Schliemann.
Archæologists have long recognised the probability that buried
beneath some of the ancient cities of the world, there are not only
architectural and sculptured fragments of much historical importance
still remaining to be discovered, but also jewels and other treasures
which have not seen the light for decades of centuries. Nineveh,
Babylon, Jerusalem, the more ancient parts of Rome, Pompeii,
Herculaneum, Egypt, Cyprus, the site of the famous Troy, and those
of the once important cities of Asia Minor--all may perchance have
something to shew which the present age would be prepared to welcome
and appreciate. Concerning Jerusalem, a conjecture has been brought
forward of a remarkable kind. After the rebuilding of the second
Temple, there were five occasions on which precious metals, treasures,
and artistic ornaments might have been concealed by the priests or
servitors of the sacred edifice--namely, during the abstraction and
sale of the temple furniture by the apostate high-priest Menelaus;
at the plunder and defilement of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes;
during the plunder by Crassus; during that by Sabinus; and at the
total destruction by the Romans. On one or more of these occasions,
supposing the Jewish priests and servitors should have placed valuables
in the Temple, the place of concealment may not have been made known
to others, and the secret may have been carried with the priests to
the grave. Various facts have been adduced in support of this surmise,
sufficient to whet the curiosity of men who would value such treasures,
not for their intrinsic worth as precious metals or precious stones,
but for their historical and ecclesiastical connection with momentous
events nearly two thousand years ago.
Dr Schliemann, whose name we have just mentioned, when making
researches among mounds and heaps of rubbish at or near the supposed
site of Troy in Asia Minor, has lighted upon the foundations of cities
which he supposes to have been more ancient even than the Iliad.
But the discoveries more immediately connected with our present
subject are those which Dr Schliemann has since made in Greece. With
the permission of the king he made excavations near Mycenæ, on the
site of what is believed to be one of the most ancient cities in that
classic land--far more ancient than the renowned Athens. In treasuries
and tombs, which had not seen the light for an untold number of
centuries, he has disinterred beautifully painted vases, whole or in
fragments; terra-cotta statuettes and busts of Juno, horses' heads,
lions, rams, elephants; knives and keys of iron and bronze; fragments
of lyres, flutes, and crystal vases. But most striking of all is the
large quantity of gold vessels and ornaments, undoubtedly of precious
metal, and in many instances artistically wrought. Sceptres, bracelets,
girdles, necklaces, rings, vases, caps, &c. in plenty. One of the
Doctor's greatest triumphs was the unearthing of two vases of solid
gold, fourteen centimètres (about six inches) high, richly ornamented.
Many of these relics, as well as many inscriptions and bas-reliefs
on extremely ancient blocks of masonry, have excited the curiosity
of classical archæologists in a high degree. Their thoughts go back
to the epics and dramas which treat of Agamemnon king of Mycenæ; of
the expedition to Troy; of Clytemnestra, Electra, Ægisthus, Orestes;
of the stories of some of the Greek plays by Euripides, Sophocles,
and Æschylus. They think of these personages and these events;
and they lean strongly to the belief that the disinterred ancient
city near Mycenæ, and some of the treasures brought to light by Dr
Schliemann, may be veritable tokens of the days of Agamemnon. Some of
the articles found were in triangular cells, which he thinks may have
been treasuries or depositories for treasure and valuables. But his
principal 'finds' of wrought gold were in chambers which were probably
the tombs of Agamemnon, Cassandra, and Eurymedon. The vases, the cups,
the diadems, the signet rings, were mostly found in these tombs (if
tombs they were); as likewise were the bones of a man and a woman
covered with ornaments of pure gold. In short, the discoveries have
been of a most unusual, interesting, and valuable kind, well calculated
to attract the attention of the learned in Europe, whether learned in
classical history or in artistic archæology.
Of discovering or recovering of treasures lying beneath the waves of
the ocean, we do not intend to treat here. The reader will find some
curious notices on the subject in the article already referred to; also
in 'Submarine Treasure Ventures' (May 1, 1869); and in 'The Story of La
Lutine' (July 8, 1876).
RUSTY IRON.
If no difficulty, as yet unforeseen, bars the way, Mr Barff's plan
for rendering iron impenetrable by rust promises to be of the highest
practical importance. Iron is by far the most useful of metals, but
it has an unfortunate propensity when exposed to water or moist air
for attracting oxygen, and this oxygen eats into its substance, and
forms the familiar compound known as rust. The consequence is that
iron when exposed to the air, especially in so damp a climate as ours,
has to be coated with paint, varnish, or tin. But even this coating
does not afford entire protection; the slightest flaw in the armour
lets in the enemy oxygen, who often does his work all the more surely
because concealed from view. A vessel made of iron and coated with some
other substance, may look sound to the eye, and yet be a mere mass of
crumbling rust. Mr Barff's remedy for this state of things seems to be
after the doctrine of the homœopathists, that like is cured by like.
If a small degree of moisture affects iron with two distinct species
of oxide or rust, what will exposure to a very excessive degree of
moisture do? Well, it appears that if iron is placed in a hot chamber
and exposed to the action of superheated steam, a new kind of oxide,
called the magnetic or black oxide, forms on its surface. Not only does
this benevolent species of black rust refuse to penetrate any further
into the metal, but it forms an impervious coating against all other
influences; and articles thus prepared have been exposed out of doors
for weeks this winter without a particle of rust appearing on them. If
careful experiments shew that iron is lessened neither in strength nor
in durability by this process, its use will be greatly increased, as
for several purposes it will take the place of other and more costly
metals.--_The Graphic._
ON A PET DOVE KILLED BY A DOG.
A GAELIC ELEGY.
The following touching verses (as nearly as possible a literal
translation from the Gaelic) appeared in the _Scotsman_ of May
17, and were accompanied by a note, which we have abridged,
from the translator Mr Alexander Stewart of Nether Lochaber.
He says: 'I beg to send you a translation of a Gaelic Elegy
by Alastair MacDonald the celebrated Ardnamurchan bard, on a
pet dove of his that was killed by a terrier dog. It is, in my
judgment, a composition of singular tenderness, pathos, and
beauty. Its quaint conceits and abrupt transitions, which the
reader cannot fail to notice, though they may seem odd and out
of place at first sight, form, in my estimation, no small part
of its merit. My translation is about as literal as I could
well make it, and I have endeavoured to imitate, with what
success let others judge, the manner and measure, the rhyme and
rhythm of the original. The pet dove was a female, and at the
time of her death had under her care, as the poet fails not
to notice with an exquisite touch of tenderness in the fourth
line, the dove's usual brood of downy twins. The reference in
the poem to the bird's habitat in a wild state shews that it
was of the species known as the blue or rock pigeon, thousands
of which inhabit the vast caves and precipitous crags of
Ardnamurchan and Moidart.'