R.S."
The "Geology," by Mr. Charles Konig, of the British Museum, is
based upon very scanty materials. The folio must not be severely
criticized; had the writers lived, they might have worked up
their unfinished logs into interesting and instructive matter.
But evidently they had not prepared themselves for the work; no
one knew the periods of rain at the equator; there was no
linguist to avoid mistakes in the vocabulary; moreover, Professor
Smith's notes, being kept in small and ill-formed Danish
characters, caused such misprints as "poppies" for papaws. Some
few of the mistakes should be noticed for the benefit of
students. The expedition appears to have confused Sao Salvador,
the capital, with St. Antonio placed seven days from the river
mouth (p. 277). It calls Santo Antao (Cape Verds) "San Antonio;"
the Ilha das Rolas (of turtle doves) Rolle's Island; "morfil"
bristles of the elephant's tail, and manafili ivory, both being
from the Portuguese marfim; moudela for mondele or mondelle, a
white man; malava, "presents," for mulavu (s. s. as msamba, not
maluvi, Douville), palm wine, which in the form mulavu m'putu
(Portuguese) applies to wine and spirits.
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