384 



GEOGEAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1865. 



cation of the Emperor Napoleon IIL's Life of 

 Caesar has led to the discussion and investiga- 

 tion of many points in regard to his expeditions, 

 and especially of his invasion of Britain. A 

 German geographer, Herr H. J. Heller, has 

 published an elaborate essay on the subject of 

 his landing in Britain, in the Zeitschrift fur 

 A-llgemeine Erdkunde, in which, bringing for- 

 ward all the references to it in the works of 

 the Roman geographers, and illustrating the 

 snbject by a well-drawn ancient map, he fur- 

 nishes ample material for the decision of this 

 long-mooted question. 



The French Government has completed its 

 topographical survey of France, long since un- 

 dertaken, and the French geographers are urg- 

 ing upon the Government the importance of a 

 new one on a larger scale, and with the advan- 

 tages to be derived from better instruments, and 

 from the local surveys which have been made 

 in some portions of the State. 



The Republic of Switzerland has completed, 

 and has now in progress, the best maps of its 

 surface and orography of any country in Eu- 

 rope. A carefully engraved map on copper, on 

 the scale of 1:100,000, is completed in twenty- 

 five sheets. A steel-plate map, on a scale of 

 1:250,000 in four sheets, is in progress, and each 

 of the cantons has a map of its own territory 

 on scales varying from 1:25,000 to 1:50,000. 

 The maps of the republic and some of those 

 of the Cantons represent, by different degrees 

 and modes of shading, the comparative height 

 of every portion of the territory. General Du- 

 four has been engaged for thirty years in the 

 survey which has thus been completed. 



The great increase in the trade of Amsterdam 

 within a few years past has made the great canal 

 across the isthmus of North Holland insufficient 

 for the accommodation of the commerce of that 

 city, and a new and more direct ship-canal of 

 the largest size is now in course of construction 

 to connect the city with the Gulf of Y. It 

 is expected that it will be finished in 1868. 



The Sand Dunes on the coast of Jutland have 

 been for some years past the object of special 

 investigation by the Danish geographer and 

 geologist, Andersen, who published in 1865 a 

 large volume giving the results of his observa- 

 tions, one of the ablest contributions to littoral 

 geography ever made. He has considered the 

 sand dunes historically, geologically, geographi- 

 cally, and economically. 



M. Schmidt, a Russian geographer, has been 

 investigating the phenomena of the glacial pe- 

 riod in Sweden, Norway, and Finland. He finds 

 confirmation of the opinion advanced by Loven, 

 Torell, and other Swedish and Russian geo- 

 graphers, that this whole region was at one time 

 covered with glaciers, probably about the close 

 of the tertiary period, or in the course of what 

 modern geologists call the glacial period. At 

 that time it must have presented an appearance 

 analogous to that of Greenland at the present 

 day. The grooves and furrows in the rocks 

 indicative of glacial action, all have a direction 



from northwest to southeast, and these furrows 

 are seen even in the island of Gothland, in the 

 Baltic Sea. From this and other indications, 

 M. Schmidt believes that the Baltic Sea did not 

 exist in the glacial period, and that the glaciers 

 extended over its present surface, and that the 

 convulsions which resulted in the depression of 

 the bed of that sea, and which left only the 

 Swedish mountains above the surface of the 

 ocean, put an end to the glaciers. About the 

 commencement of our present geological era, 

 the continent began to rise again, and has con- 

 tinued to rise to the present day, lifting grad- 

 ually the submerged lands out of the sea. 



Mr. C. "W. Blomstrand, one of the corps of 

 explorers in the Swedish Exploring Expedition 

 to Spitzbergen in 1861, gives an account, in the 

 Transactions of the Swedish Academy, of the 

 discovery of extensive coal measures in the 

 vicinity of King's Bay, which is at the northern 

 end of Foreland Sound. The coal crops out 

 near the base of a mountain, and extends from 

 the moraine of one glacier to the foot of another. 

 It is of very good quality. There is also marble 

 of great beauty in the same vicinity. This dis- 

 covery may render that portion of Spitzbergen 

 habitable, and thus qualify it to become a base 

 for north polar expeditions. 



The measurement of an arc of meridian across 

 Europe is still in progress, the scientific bu- 

 reau charged with it having its headquarters in 

 Berlin, Prussia, and having collected there all 

 the documents connected with the survey. 

 The Department of "War at St. Petersburg has 

 reported to the permanent geodesic committee 

 a list of the points in Russia of which the lati- 

 tude, longitude, and altitude had been deter- 

 mined either astronomically or geodesically up 

 to 1860. The number of these points is 17,240. 

 A hydrographic exploration of LaTce Ladoga has 

 been in progress, under the direction of Grand 

 Admiral Constantino, since 1858, and is now 

 about complete. At the session of the Imperial 

 Geographical Society of St. Petersburg in March, 

 1865, M. Andreew, one of the engineers of the sur- 

 vey, gave some account of the results of this ex- 

 ploration. The lake abounds with fish of a great 

 number of species, some of them of excellent 

 quality. The sigue is the best known of these, 

 and is renowned for its exquisite flavor. The 

 fisheries for it are principally in the south part 

 of the lake. The climate along the shores of 

 the lake is rigorous. The temperature of the 

 water from the breaking up of the ice to mid- 

 summer is from 36 to 39 F. In August it 

 rises from 43 to 45 F. The ice is usually from 

 3 to 4-J feet in thickness. The navigation of 

 the lake is conducted mostly by sailing -v> 

 of a very rude construction. About six hun- 

 dred of these arrive annually at Schlusselbourg 

 from different points on the lake and the rivers 

 flowing into it. They bring cargoes of fire wood, 

 timber, granite, marble, graphite, black sand, 

 hay, cast-iron, copper, iron, salt fish, etc. The 

 Kareles, who inhabit the eastern shores of the 

 lake, are a very ignorant and superstitious 



