The meeting of the British Association has been, on the
whole, a lively one, and the discussions on geographical dis- covery and the various native races of South Africa have been unusually interesting. A very curious account was given by Commander Cameron,—who is, however, a little too apt to try to be funny about the disgusting details of cannibalism,—of the system of telegraphs in use in Urea, a large native State between Lake Tanganyika on the east, and Ulundi on the West :—" They had a call on the drum for everybody's name, and could ask questions and convey intelligence over hundreds of miles, and receive answers almost immediately. In war, messages were constantly sent enormous distances, to bring up reinforcements, or to stop them coming." This is very remark- able testimony to the organising power of a race cut off 'from all connection with the great body of civilisation. It appears from Commander Cameron's account that lake-dwellings on piles, like the old lake-dwellings of Switzerland, are known in Urns., but that, for the most part, the villages are,built on dry laud.
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