A. W. Rücker, H. Wilde, and many | poles; and as the earth's diameters others have lately taken great pains are the basis of all measurements in in reconstructing anew, for the whole astronomy, they spare no efforts to of the earth's surface, or for large por- measure accurately these irregularities. tions of it, the magnetic maps which Precise methods were lately elaborated had been constructed by Gauss in 1839. for utilizing pendulum swingings as a However, all these investigations meet rapid and sufficiently exact means for with one hitherto insuperable obstacle. measuring the local deviations in the We know well the elements of terres- earth's surface from the ideal shape. trial magnetism for the northern hemi- But all efforts stumble against the sphere, as also for the southern absence of data from the southern hemisphere as far as the fortieth de- hemisphere. Seven pendulum measgree of latitude; but beyond this line urements are all that we have beyond we have an immense gap thirty-five the fiftieth degree of southern latitude, hundred miles each way from the and none was ever made within the South Pole - which can be filled by no antarctic circle. Three or four penduamount of mathematical speculation. | lum observations in Graham and VicMore than fifty years ago Ross made a toria Land would therefore be of a magnetic survey of the antarctic seas; much greater value for geodesy than but his data are no longer available, ten times as many observations elsebecause it is now known that the varia- where. Besides, we know that the tion in terrestrial magnetism, which takes place from year to year, proceeds very irregularly in many localities; we know that changes have taken place in the magnetic elements south of the fortieth degree of latitude, but there is no means of ascertaining with any accuracy the extent of these changes.2 It is evident that nothing short of a new magnetic survey of the antarctic regions can remedy this evil, or give the necessary data for revising the current theory of revolution of the magnetic poles, which badly needs revision. To use Dr. Neumayer's words, without such a survey "it is an utterly hopeless case to strive with prospects of success at the advancement of the theory of the earth's magnetism." The same is true as regards the modern investigations into the exact shape of the earth. Formerly we could be satisfied with representing the earth as a ball slightly flattened at its poles the flattening being supposed to follow the curve of an ellipse. But now geodesists discover that the earthball has considerable irregularities of shape, both local and general, towards the 1 See Professor Rücker's excellent presidential address before the British Association in 1894, on the subject of magnetic variations. earth's crust is not quite rigid, and there are good reasons to suppose that it yields to a certain extent under great accumulations of alluvial deposits, as well as of ice and snow, such sinkings being possible causes of submergence of large continental areas. But, again, the only means of ascertaining in how far these views are correct is to make a series of pendulum observations in different parts of the antarctic continent. And, finally, there is the immense question as to the origin of the present floras and faunas and their relations with the distribution of plants and animals during the tertiary age, which now excites naturalists, and again can only be solved by an exploration of the antarctic continent. This latter question is so important in itself that it cannot be treated here incidentally, and may best be discussed separately on some future occasion. Its substance, however, and its bearing upon antarctic problems can be indicated in a few words. It is well known that the present floras of different portions of the earth offer such peculiarities, both in the plants which they possess in com 3 See W. MacGee in American Journal of Science, 1892, third series, vol. xliv., p. 177 sq.; and * Report of the Royal Society's Committee, pp. Drygalski in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erd 1, 2 kunde zu Berlin, 1887, Bd. xxii, mon and in those which they differ in, | we now learn from Borchgrevink that that, after having paid a tribute to the discovery of one single lichen on different hypotheses, naturalists came Cape Adare already filled his heart to look for the origin of the present with joy. However, on the other floras of Europe, America, and Asia in extremity of the antarctic continent, the rich vegetation which covered the Graham Land seems not always to have arctic and sub-arctic zone during the had the same barren aspects as it has tertiary period. The thousands of speci- now. No sooner had Captain Larsen mens of tertiary vegetation which have set his foot on Seymour Island (at the been unearthed from the peat bogs of northern extremity of Graham Land) Greenland, Spitzbergen, New Siberia, than he was struck with the amount of and so on, leave not the slightest doubt petrified wood which was scattered about the north polar archipelagoes about; and it appears from the specihaving been covered during the mio-mens of fossil coniferous wood and cene period with trees and herbaceous shells he has brought home, that both plants, which must be considered as probably belong to the lower tertiary the ancestors of the plants now cover-period. This discovery alone is suffiing Europe, America, and Asia. We cient to raise the best hopes as to the find the flowers and the fruits of these possibility of finding the cue to the trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants in floras of the southern hemisphere in the peat bogs of the far north, and we the icy deserts of the antarctic contiunearth the very insects which fertil-nent; and if such discovery is really ized the flowers. From this flora, made, it will settle at once a grave which was repulsed to the warmer problem which naturalists might diszones during the glacial period, and cuss for years without coming to any afterwards partially reconquered its definite solution. former abodes after glaciation was We thus have three important probover, all our present floras of the north-lems, in geodesy, earth magnetism, ern hemisphere originate. So much may be taken as granted. But a series of recent researches have brought naturalists to inquire whether there was not, during the tertiary age, an expansion of land in the antarctic zone as well; whether what is now a dreary desert of ice, amidst which high volcanoes only give sign of life, did not also enjoy a warm climate, and was not the land where from the present vegetation of the southern extremities of our continents has originated. This very difficult question, which Darwin was inclined to answer in the affirmative, is now the subject of an animated controversy among naturalists; but it is evident that it will receive no definite solution so long as we remain completely in the dark as to what the antarctic continent was during the tertiary age. Some time ago the prospects of finding traces of tree vegetation in these frozen regions were extremely small. Hooker saw no traces of vegetation on the barren rocks of Victoria Laud, and and geographical distribution of plants and animals, which cannot be solved otherwise than by an exploration of the lands situated within the antarctic circle; and several problems of less importance might be mentioned in addition. But we need not further dwell upon the scientific aspects of antarctic exploration (which are sure to be fully discussed by the end of July at the Geographical Congress), the more so as there is one more remark to be made. Those who have followed the development of arctic exploration for the last thirty years, since it took a 1 It must be remembered that in arctic regions the want of a proper soil is perhaps a greater obstacle for the development of vegetation than the rough climate. Wherever a protected nook, where some loam could have been formed, was found, even on the east Greenland coast (which is also protected by an ice girdle like Victoria Land), vegetation by no means poor was discovered. The same will probably be found on the antarctic continent. 2 The shells bear a close resemblance to species known to occur in the lower tertiary beds of Britain, as well as to other species of about the same age found in Patagonia (Murray, l.c. p. 11, note). denskjöld at once found support in his country for reaching twice the mouth of the Yenisei, and finally for circumnavigating Asia. Never, in any other country of the world, did science, spirit of adventure, and commercial pursuits so admirably well go hand in hand. In no other country would that have thoroughly scientific character in the were already aware of the importance Swedish expeditions to Spitzbergen, of arctic exploration, in consequence must have been struck by the deep of the wide interest in that sort of influence which these expeditions have research which was spread by the exercised in Scandinavian lands upon Spitzbergen expeditions, Mohn, Northe growth of science and the develop-denskjöld, and Petermann found no ment of taste for science altogether in difficulty in instructing them in what wide circles. Swedish and Norwegian had to be done. In one summer the science (which by no means receives Kara Sea, which had not been naviin west Europe the attention it really gated for the last three hundred years, deserves) may be considered without was explored in all directions; soundexaggeration as a daughter of the ings and surface temperature measureSpitzbergen expeditions and of Nor- ments were taken; the wintering place denskjöld's journeys in search of the of Barents, at the northern extremity north-eastern passage. The names of of Novaya Zemlya, which had not been Swedish and Norwegian scientific men revisited since the sixteenth century, which are well known at the present was reached; and one or two seal time to every student of science are all hunters dashed eastwards, saw an open names long since familiar to the read-sea, and proved the possibility of easily ers of arctic literature; they appeared reaching the Obi. The north-eastern for years past, either among the mem- passage was rediscovered, and Norbers of those expeditions, or among persons who took part in the scientific discussion of their results. Quite a phalanx of men of science has grown out of these expeditions. And at the same time a general interest in, and a remarkable taste for, scientific research have been widely spread in the two countries. The admirable popular been possible, not even in Scandinaaccount of the Spitzbergen expeditions vian lands, before the Spitzbergen exand their scientific work, written by peditions took place. Chydenius, was read far and wide in Sweden and Norway; it was - we know it a most popular book among the whalers and seal hunters; and they have read it with profit, as may be seen from the services they have rendered in the discovery of the north-eastern passage. Before the year 1870, all Russian geographers were persuaded that the Kara Sea, which lies between Novaya Zemlya and the Siberian coast, on the way to the Siberian rivers, was quite impracticable on account of the ice with which it is stocked. It was known to us as "the ice cellar." But that year a Norwegian whaler, Captain Johannesen, peeped into the Kara Sea, and, finding the entrance free, he For science, antarctic exploration steered straight forward and cruised in will prove invaluable. As to society at the ice cellar without incumbrance. large, it has all to win if the spirit of Next year half-a-dozen small Norwe- enterprise is directed towards regions gian schooners rushed into the newly where there are no natives to conquer, opened sea; and, as their captains but where there is very much to endure And now it is certainly not a simple coincidence that the first steps towards the exploration of the antarctic seas and continent have also been made by Norwegian and Swedish whalers. In fact, one cannot read Larsen's journal, simple as it is, nor witness Borchgrevink's enthusiasm, and Svend Föyn's enterprise, in manning the Antarctic, without realizing that a whole atmosphere of interest in arctic matters and taste for them was created on the Scandinavian peninsula by the scientific exploration of the arctic regions - an interest which, so far as the last few years' experience goes, seems not yet to exist among Scotch whalers. for a disinterested purpose, and so closely and you may see the bleached immensely much to be learned about and blackened limbs of former growths the physical life of the globe under all of low shrub which stand amid the its aspects. gallant blaze, gaunt reminders of the transitory existence of African flower life. From Blackwood's Magazine. IT is dim early morning, and upon the vast plains of Great Bushmanland, in the far north-west of Cape Colony, the air blows fresh and chill, though the land is Africa, and the time summer. At 4.15 precisely, the bright morning star shoots above the horizon, and rises steadily upward in a straight, rocketlike ascent. Near at hand lies a vlei, a shallow temporary lake recruited by the recent rains. At the end of this vlei, farthest removed from the group of wagons outspanned there, is gathered at this early hour a notable display of bird life. Duck, geese, widgeon, and teal are there cackling and crying in a joyous plenty. Stints and sandpipers whirl hither and thither, and graceful black-and-white avocets, with their singular upturned slender bills, and Now a ruddy coloring tinges the pale long red-legged stilt-plovers, haunt the grey of the eastern sky, to be followed shallows. Upon the plain some small by broad rays in delicate blues and birds have been afoot some time. You greens that strike boldly for the zenith. may see and hear the lively, inquisitive The changes of dawn in Africa are Jan Fredric thrush, with his pleasing swift and very subtle. Presently these song and his curious note, " Jan-fredriccolors fade, and a pale, subdued light dric-dric-fredric." He is racing swiftly rests upon the earth; the air is full of hither and thither through the shrub a clear but cold brightness. Soon fol- and flowers, bustling for his food suplows the full red-orange that so gor-ply. There, too, are the thick-billed geously paints the eastern horizon and lark, the Sabota lark, with its clear, closely foreruns the sun, and then sud-ringing call, and a few other - but not denly the huge burning disc itself is many — small birds. Aloft an eagle is thrust upon the sky-line, and it is in already on the move, and a hawk or South African parlance "sun-up." two, no doubt meditating descent upon some of the wild-fowl on the vlei. Out upon the plains, half a mile distant from the wagons, are to be seen a knot or two of graceful springbok busily feeding in the choice herbage. But now there is a stir at the wagons yonder. For half an hour past "Cobus," a little wizened Hottentot, has been busy blowing up the embers of the halfdead fire and making coffee for the baas and meisje. The plains here stretch in illimitable expanse to the horizon. Far to the west is a range of mountain forty good miles away, which in the clear morning air stands out as sharply as if but a dozen miles distant. You may see the dark lines and patches of the timeworn seams and krantzes that scar its sides. This translucency of atmosphere is very common in South Africa. The rains have lately fallen, and everywhere around the dry plains have started at the breath of moisture into a splendid if short-lived beauty. Miles upon miles of flats, all glowing and ablaze with purple and a rich flame-like red, are spread around. The wonderful compositæ are in flower, and the barren desert-like flats are for a few brief weeks transformed into a carpet of the noblest coloring and pattern. Look fashion In greet one another in stolid, almost mute | have seldom exchanged an idea with the father kissing impas- their fellows. sively the girl's proffered cheek-and For one hundred and fifty years then, standing, they drink the coffee Klaas Stuurmann and his ancestors handed to them by the little Hottentot have led the wandering life of the man, and eat a few mouthfuls of bread. Trek-Boer, knowing no hearth but the Watch them well, these two figures; pleasant camp-fire, no roof but the they are the representatives of a type glaring blue of the unchanging African slowly disappearing from the Cape Col-sky and the tent of their wagons, no ony - the race of Trek-Boers, nomads, floor but the wild veldt. Many among who for generations have had no home the more settled Dutch farmers wonder but their wagons, and who live (more how these uneasy nomads, with their often than not from absolute choice) shiftless ways and habits of unrest, first the free, vagrant life of the veldt, with came to pursue such an existence. their flocks and herds around them. the present instance it happened much The man, Klaas Stuurmann, is a in this wise. Klaas Stuurmann's greatBoer of loose, ungainly frame. He great-grandfather, a restless spirit stands six feet one, is about fifty-two farming near the old settlement at years of age, has a broad, deeply tanned Cape Town, became, like many others, face, in which are planted two watery- tired of the petty and exasperating reblue eyes, a shock of hay-colored hair, strictions of the then Batavian govand a long beard of the same uninter-ernor. And so he trekked in search of esting hue. He wears veldt-broeks fresh pastures, beyond the reach of (field-trousers) of soft home-tanned taxes and monopolies. He was a skin; he is about the last Dutchman in sportsman, and the land opening before Cape Colony to use these old-world him disclosed the most wonderful and garments; but his father and grand-redundant fauna the world has ever father wore such clothes, and they are good enough for him. He has no socks or stockings, and a pair of rude, homemade hide velschoens cover his feet. He has a flannel shirt to his back, and over that a short jacket of much worn corduroy. Upon his head is the usual tall-crowned, broad-brimmed felt hat, which carries a hideous band of broad rusty crape in memory of his deceased wife. The man's face is dirty, to be sure, but besides the dirt there is a dull, vacant, unthinking look rather painful to see; it is the look of one bred through dull, listless generations of men, self-banished from their own kind, whose only interests have been in sheep and goats and trek-oxen, their only excitement an occasional hunt, or a scrimmage with Bushmen in time gone by. Such a listless and a vacant look you may see even now in some of the more remote dals of Norway, among the poorer of the peasantfarmer folk. It is the look of men who gaze always without a spark of interest upon the silent face of nature around them, and who for generations seen. Still carrying his flocks and family with him, the Boer wandered from veldt to veldt, always in a country virgin to the hunter. and teeming with the noblest game. Year after year went by, his family grew up around him-how, he himself would have been puzzled to explain and still the open-air, hand-to-mouth existence pleased him, the splendid liberty and the free, unfettered chase in that vast crowded game preserve. At the beginning he sometimes cast his eye here and there in search of a farm, but somehow no plaats suited him. He wandered ever farther in search of his ideal, and finally the veldt life had so bitten into him that he preferred to live and die in it. If he wanted powder and lead, some coffee and sugar, or a piece of stuff for his wife's and daughters' gowns, or a new roer (gun) for his growing lads, he had but to trek with a load of ivory and feathers to 'Kaapstad" (Cape Town) and get what he desired. For the rest the earth and her plenty sufficed to him. And so the years rolled on. The old 66 |