458 SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS. 



part of Mount Atlas, and the connection of purely mythical ideas 

 ,with geographical traditions. Indistinct allusions to igneous erup- 

 tions. Triton Lake. Crater-like forms of a locality south of Han- 

 nb's "Bay of the Gorilla Apes." Singular description of the 

 " hollow Atlas" from the Dialexes of Marinus Tyrius . 124 127 



Notices respecting the Mountains of the Moon (Djebel al-Komr) in 

 the interior of Africa by Reinaud, Beke, and Ayrton. Werne's 

 instructive notice of the second expedition undertaken by the orders 

 of Mehemet AH. The Abyssinian mountains, which rise, accord- 

 ing to Riippell, almost to the height of Mont Blanc. The most 

 ancient notice of snow between the tropics contained in the Inscrip- 

 tion of Adulis, which is somewhat more modern than Juba. High 

 mountains which, between 6 and 4 of north latitude, and still 

 more to the south, appraach the Bahr el-Abiad. A considerable 

 swelling of the ground divides the White Nile from the basin of 

 the Goschop. Line of separation between the waters which flow 

 to the Mediterranean and those which flow to the Indian Ocean 

 according to Carl Zimmerman's map. Lupata Chain according to 

 the instructive researches of Wilhelm Peters . . 128 134 



Oceanic currents. In the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean the 

 waters are impelled in a true revolving current. That the first im- 

 pulse which causes the Gulf Stream is to be sought at the southern 

 extremity of Africa, was already known to Sir Humphry Gilbert 

 in 1560. Influence of the Gulf Stream on the climate of Scandi- 

 navia. How it contributed to the discovery of America. Instances 

 of Esquimaux who, aided by the returning eastward flowing por- 

 tion of the warm Gulf Stream, and by north-west winds, arrived 

 on the coasts of Europe. Such a case related by Cornelius Nepos 

 and Pomponius Mela (of Indians given by a king of the Boii to 

 Quintus Metellus Celer, Proconsul of Gaul) ; others, in the time of 

 the Othos and of Frederic Barbarossa, of Columbus, and of Cardi- 

 nal Bembo. Again, in the years 1682 and 1684 natives of Green- 

 land appeared in the Orkneys . . , / -; ' 134138 



Operation of lichens and other Cryptogamla in the cold and temper- 

 ate zones in preparing the way for the more rapid establishment 

 of larger phaenogamous plants. Within the tropics lichens are 

 often replaced in this respect by succulent plants. Milk-yielding 

 animals of the New Continent ; the Lama, the Alpaca, the Guan- 

 aco V > . . . . . . . . 138141 



Cultivation of farinaceous grasses . .- *. .- . 141 144 

 On the earliest population of America . . . . . 144 



The coast nation of the Guaranis (Warraus), and the Mauritia palm 

 of the coasts, according to the accounts given by Bembo in the 

 Historise Venetse, and those of Raleigh, Hillhouse, and Robert and 

 Richard Schomburgk .> V' . . . ... 144r 150 



