546 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1866. 



Y8. The minimum for the same month in 

 1862 was 39.4 ; in 1863, 40.l ; in 1864, 

 48.6; in 1865, 43.2. In November, 1862, 

 the maximum temperature was 86. 1 ; in 1863, 

 95.2 ; in 1864, 86 ; in 1865, 89.4. The min- 

 imum for the same month in 1862 was 47.8 ; 

 in 1863, 46.6; in 1864, 53.2 ; in 1865, 41. 



The maximum height of the mercury in the 

 barometer, according to the scale of Celsius, 

 was in January, 1862, 768.2 ; in 1863, 768.3 ; 

 in 1864, 765.6 ; in 1865, 769.4. The minimum 

 height for the same month was, in 1862, 755.5 ; 

 in 1863, 751.0; in 1864, 752.0; in 1865, 753.8. 

 In April the maxima for these respective 

 years were 771.1, 762.3, 768.2, 770.0; and the 

 minima for the same month, 745.0, 753.0, 

 753.0, 753.0. For July the maxima were 

 774.9, 772.0, 774.4, 771.6; and the minima, 

 756.4, 751.4, 758.4, 750.0. In October the 

 maxima were 772.S, 770.0, 769.0, 770.0; and 

 the minima 755.1, 755.7, 755.5, and 753.0. 



Chili. In the province of Valdivia, in the 

 south of Chili, there is a portion of the Andes 

 which, from the entire absence of the forests 

 which elsewhere cover the slopes of the moun- 

 tains up to near the snow line, has received 

 the name of " Cordillera Pelada" the " tree- 

 less cordillera" or "bald mountain." This 

 mountainous region was explored in the au- 

 tumn of 1865 by Frederick Philippi, a Chilian 

 naturalist and botanist. He found a few small 

 trees on the lower portion of the slopes, mainly 

 laurel and beech, but a great profusion of herbs 

 and flowering plants, many of species not hith- 

 erto described. Two lakes, the lake of the 

 Barriers, and the Fernwater, high up in the 

 mountains, were surrounded with this new 

 sub-alpine flora, in which, as in most of the 

 South American countries, plants of the myr- 

 tle family predominated. 

 The boundary line between Chili and Bolivia 

 had been long a fruitful occasion of controversy 

 between the two countries, and in 1863 had 

 nearly culminated in war. This was amicably 

 settled in 1866 by a boundary treaty. The re- 

 gion of the disputed boundary on the mainland 

 was of very little value, being a waterless desert, 

 reputed to have some veins of copper and im- 

 mense beds of nitrate of soda, but so utterly 

 devoid of moisture that it was uninhabitable. 

 The Mejillones islands, rich in guano, lie off the 

 coast, between the 23d and 25th parallel* of 

 south latitude, and to the product of these both 

 countries laid claim. The treaty makes the 

 parallel of 24 south latitude the boundary, and 

 gives the right of sovereignty over the Mejil- 

 lones to Bolivia r but provides that one-half of 

 the net proceeds of the sale of guano from 

 them shall be paid yearly to Chili. 



III. THE ATLANTIC OCEAN AND ITS ISLANDS. 

 -Captain Henry Toynbee, a member of the 

 Royal Geographical Society, who had already 

 prepared a memoir on the temperature, specific 

 gravity, etc., of the seas between England and 

 India, has supplemented that memoir by a 

 paper detailing further observations on these 



topics made in 1860-'66. These observations 

 made in six different voyages demonstrate the 

 following facts : 1st. That a tract of the South- 

 ern Ocean and the Southern Atlantic, extend- 

 ing west and southwest of the Cape of Good 

 Hope from south latitude 35 to 40, and east 

 longitude from Greenwich from to 14, is re- 

 markably cold, the temperature ranging from 

 60 Fahrenheit to 47, and that in either direc- 

 tion from this tract the temperature rises. 

 There are considerable variations in the tem- 

 perature of the water outside of these limits, 

 due apparently to an under-current of cold 

 water which forces itself to the surface at cer- 

 tain points ; thus, in August, 1860, in 40 south 

 latitude, and 23 east longitude, nearly south of 

 the cape, he found the temperature 67 F., 

 whereas, in August, 1863, at the same place, 

 it was 55 F. 2d. The specific gravity of these 

 cold waters is 1.028 to 1.027, decreasing a little 

 as we proceed toward the southeast. In the 

 Mozambique current, farther east, the specific 

 gravity decreases to 1.0245, while the tempera- 

 ture rises to 76 F., varying a little, however, 

 in different months, being 1.0255 in February, 

 and 1.0245 in March; but the decrease in spe- 

 cific gravity indicates, long before the appearance 

 of the sky or the wind does so, the near approach 

 to the rainy doldrums, in which the specific 

 gravity of the water ranges from 1.026 to 1.022. 

 The same change occurs in the South Atlantic 

 as the navigator approaches the equator. The 

 specific gravity in the Sea of Sargasso being 

 1.0228, and the temperature of the water as 

 high as 83 F. 3d. The boundaries of the cold 

 waters seem very accurately defined ; for, in 

 passing the 15th meridian east from Greenwich 

 in latitude 39 south, Captain Toynbee invaria- 

 bly came suddenly upon water at a temperature 

 of 60 to 63 F. When a mile or two west it 

 had been 47 ; this gradually increased to 67 

 in 19 to 23 east longitude. In 38 south it 

 commenced a little farther west, and in 40 

 south a little farther east. In 40 south lati- 

 tude and 50 east longitude (from Greenwich) 

 a little to the southeast, and about 900 miles 

 south of Madagascar, the captain came upon 

 another considerable patch of cold water, sur- 

 rounded on nearly all sides by warm water, ' 

 and extending over 10 or 12 degrees of longi- 

 tude. The temperature of this tract was 44 

 F., and sometimes even lower. The seas are 

 usually. very high where these hot and cold 

 waters meet. 



Professor Karl von Fritsch, a German geog- 

 rapher, published in Petermann's MittJieilungen 

 for July, 1866, an elaborate paper on the me- 

 teorology of the Canary Islands, the result of 

 protracted observations made by himself in 

 1862 and 1863. On the north coast of Madeira, 

 in August, 1862, the mean temperature was 

 80.5 F. The daily fluctuation was 16.6 F.; 

 the minimum of the month at mid-day was 73, 

 and the maximum 89. 6. At the height of 

 1,000 to 2,000 feet the mean temperature of 

 the -month was 77.7 ; the mean daily flnotu* 



