GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AXD DISCOVERIES. 



399 



The Ordnance and Admiralty surveys of the 

 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 

 have been vigorously prosecuted, and the Gov- 

 ernment has ordered a large cadastral survey 

 of England, Wales, and Ireland, to correspond 

 with that already undertaken for Scotland, on 

 the scales of 25 inches and of 6 inches to the 

 mile. The Ordnance survey have made a new 

 measurement of several of the mountains of the 

 Cairngorm group in Scotland, and give the 

 height of Ben-Macdhui, which has hitherto heen 

 stated as 4,390 feet, as only 4,296 feet. This 

 restores the title of Ben Nevis to rank as the 

 highest mountain hi Great Britain, being, ac- 

 cording to one measurement, 4,373 feet, and 

 according to another 4,406 feet in height. The 

 estuary of the Thames, the Scilly Islands, Bris- 

 tol Channel, the "Western Hebrides, and a part 

 of the Channel Islands, have been surveyed dur- 

 ing the year ; the principal triangulation and 

 the initial levelling of the United Kingdom 

 have been published, and the triangulation of 

 Great Britain having been connected with that 

 of France and Belgium, the Russian astrono- 

 mers Forsch and Jilinski have been engaged in 

 the measurement of an arc of parallel in lati- 

 tude 52 X., extending over about 72 of longi- 

 tude. Denmark has continued the publication 

 of its topographical survey, which is most ad- 

 mirably executed. The surveys in the Mediter- 

 ranean and the Grecian Archipelago, under 

 Capt. Spratt, C. B., and Commander Mansell, 

 were vigorously prosecuted during the year, 

 and Malta Channel, the bay of Tripoli, and the 

 Island and Channel of Corfu completed. 



In Russia there has been great activity in 

 geographical research. The surveys connected 

 with the measurement of an arc of meridian by 

 Struve and Tenner, from the Xorth Cape to the 

 Black Sea, have been completed, and though 

 Struve has passed away (see STRUTE, WILHELM) 

 late in the year, other kindred spirits remain 

 to follow out his plans. 



The Emperor Napoleon III. purchased, three 

 or four years since, the Palatine Hill in Rome, 

 and has since that time employed M. Pietra 

 Rosa, an eminent Italian archaeologist, to super- 

 intend the exploration of the rums of this cele- 

 brated locality. M. Rosa has recently pub- 

 lished a photograph of the plan of the explora- 

 tion, with full notes of the results attained. 

 These may be briefly stated as follows : he has 

 ascertained that an intermontium or ravine, as 

 the ancient authors said, did exist, dividing the 

 hill into a northern and southern portion ; that 

 the northern portion constituted the entire ter- 

 ritory of Roma Quadrata the earliest city, and 

 that portions of the walls of that city," 2,500 

 years old, still exist, and have been disen- 

 tombed by his direction. The southern por- 

 tion of the hill was the ancient Velia. He has 

 also discovered the two gates Jfugonia and 

 Romano, of the time of the early empire, and 

 beneath the imperial pavement, in nearly a per- 

 fect condition, the pavement of the time of the 

 republic. 



Turning to ASIA, we find much that is in- 

 teresting in the explorations of geographers 

 in its central zone, to which most of the 

 discoveries have been confined. During the 

 year 1864 several parties explored very fully 

 portions of Palestine. The Due de Luynes, 

 a French nobleman of enterprise and high 

 intelligence, organized an expedition early in 

 the year to explore more fully than had yet 

 been done the Dead Sea and the Jordan. 

 Amply provided with boats, instruments, and 

 apparatus for doing their work thoroughly, 

 they spent four or five months (from March 

 to July) in a careful investigation of the phys- 

 ical geography, geodesy, and geology of the 

 entire region of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. 

 They visited the sources of the Jordan, of 

 which there are three principal ones, the 

 TTady (or valley of) Hasbany, near Hasbeya, 

 1,847 feet above the sea level ; the TTady Ba- 

 nias, 1,257 feet, and the Wady Tell-el Kady, 

 607 feet above tide water. The first of these 

 is in the Anti-Libanus chain, and much above 

 the valley of the Jordan, into which it falls in 

 a succession of cataracts. The valley of the 

 Upper Jordan at the waters of Merom (Lake 

 Samechonitis) has an elevation of only 469 feet 

 above the sea level. 



From this upper valley the descent of the 

 Jordan is very rapid to the Sea of Tiberias, 

 which is 620 feet below the level of the sea, or 

 1,089 feet below the Valley of the Jordan above 

 the waters of Merom. From the Lake of Tibe- 

 rias its course is still rapid to the Dead Sea, 

 which is, by the careful measurement of the 

 French explorers, 1,286 feet below the level of 

 the Mediterranean. The party also ascertained, 

 with great accuracy, the latitude, longitude, and 

 elevation of the city of Jerusalem. The lati- 

 tude is 31 46' 30". The longitude E. (from 

 Paris, probably) 32 53' 8" ; altitude above 

 the Mediterranean, 2,556 feet ; above the 

 Dead Sea, 3,842 feet, 



M. de Saulcy, a French explorer, has been 

 examining the topography of the country to the 

 north of the Dead Sea, and has prepared new 

 charts and drawings of it. One of the most in- 

 teresting contributions to geographical discovery 

 for many years is the narrative and subsequent 

 address before the Royal Geographical So- 

 ciety, of Mr. "W. Gifford Palgrave, who after 

 spending eighteen years in the East, and pos- 

 sessing so thorough a familiarity with Arabic 

 as to be able to speak it like a native, resolved, 

 in 1862, to penetrate into and traverse the en- 

 tire kiterior of the Arabian peninsula. His 

 journey, which, with the various delays, occu- 

 pied somewhat more than a year, has result- 

 ed in a far more complete knowledge of the 

 States in the interior of Arabia than we have 

 hitherto possessed. It has been generally sup- 

 posed that Central Arabia was a desert of mov 

 ing sands, with its fertile patches or oases, 

 scattered at intervals over it, and inhabited only, 

 or mainly, by wandering tribes of Bedouins, 

 often at war with each other, and always hos- 



