624 



NA TURE 



[October 25, 1900 



practically the only measurement effected in the Southern 

 Hemisphere, was long a subject of perplexity in all 

 theoretical investigations of the figure of the earth, since 

 the result indicated that the earth's surface was less 

 curved in the Southern than in the Northern Hemisphere ; 

 but though the verification of the arc was an urgent 

 necessity, it was not till 1840 that Sir Thomas Maclear 

 commenced the work that solved the difficulty. The 

 apparently anomalous result offers a good instance of the 

 effect of local attraction in disturbing astronomical lati- 

 tudes. The astronomical amplitude of Lacaille's arc 

 (1° 12') was proved to be very nearly correct, but a 

 large local disturbance of the direction of gravity at the 

 northern end caused a zenithal error of some 8". Maclear 

 enlarged the arc to nearly 5°, and here geodetic opera- 

 tions practically ceased, till the present astronomer, Sir 

 David Gill, developed a scheme which dwarfs into insig- 

 nificance all previous measures, and which, if it can be 

 carried out, will prove of the utmost scientific value. He 

 regards all that has been accomplished in South Africa 

 as the first step in a chain of triangulation which, approxi- 

 mately traversing the 30th meridian of east longitude, 

 shall extend continuously through Africa to the mouth of 

 the Nile. He would make his chain follow, or rather 

 precede, the line of that taken by Mr. Rhodes's trans- 

 continental telegraph, proceeding northwards along Lake 

 Tanganyika, through the region of the Lakes Albert and 

 Victoria Nyanza, and along the Nile Valley. The 

 definite survey of Egypt has not yet been undertaken, 

 hut commercial and political motives will doubtless soon 

 bring this within the domain of practical science, and 

 assist the onward progress of the scheme. Sir David 

 Gill does not stop at the shores of the Mediterranean. 

 Onwards, by an additional chain of triangles from Egypt 

 along the coast of the Levant and through the isles of 

 Greece, he would connect the African arc with the exist- 

 ing^ European systems, till it reached an amplitude of 

 105°. Sir David Gill puts before us a number of con- 

 siderations by which such a scheme might be carried to 

 a successful issue, without by any means minimising the 

 difficulties which his experience teaches him stand 

 in the way. It is not necessary to dwell on these 

 obstacles, some of which are sufficiently obvious. It 

 should, however, be remembered that no other meridian 

 offers greater, if equal, facilities, or furnishes a better 

 prospect for the realisation of this magnificent scheme. 

 Sir David Gill has not confined his attention merely to 

 the elaboration of schemes ; he has accomplished much 

 good work him^elf, often with straitened means, and 

 by his personal iniiuence and indefatigable energy aided 

 and encouraged others. Under his auspices a chain of 

 triangles has been carried eastward from Cape Town to 

 Port Elizabeth, whence two branches have been carried 

 to the north, one ending at Kimberley, while the other, 

 crossing Natal, stops for the present at Newcastle in the 

 extreme north of the colony. Much exploring work, 

 hardly inferior in point of accuracy, has been carried 

 through Bechuanaland and northwards along the 20th 

 meridian, marking the boundary between German and 

 British South Africa. His latest report tells us that on 

 the eastern side of the continent stations were occupied 

 from Bongwe (Lat. 19° 51' S,, Long. 30" 19' E.) to a 

 point in 16" 30' S., and within sixty miles of the Zambesi. 

 There the smoke from extensive grass fires compelled 

 stoppage of field-work for the season, and his party 

 retired to the observatory to occupy themselves in the 

 work of reduction. The outbreak of the war and inter- 

 ruption by the Boers of telegraphic communication with 

 Cape Town have for the moment delayed the determina- 

 tion of longitude of distant stations, but we may be. sure 

 that once the country has settled down to normal con- 

 ditions. Sir David Gill will be ready to prosecute his 

 scheme with the ardour that has ever characterised his 

 undertakings. 



NO. 1617, VOL. 62] 



RECENT ANTARCTIC BOOKS.^ 

 T^HE long-continued neglect of Antarctic exploration 

 has given place to a period of great activity. 

 Several expeditions have, during the last five years, been 

 hovering on the margin of the unknown, and penetrating 

 within it a i^vi steps farther than their predecessors. 

 Great preparations are being made for what ought to 

 prove the most determined effort to explore and study 

 those regions by means of simultaneous national ex- 

 peditions from this country and from Germany, and the 

 public will soon begin to ask where the Antarctic regions 

 may be and why people wish to go there. 



The forerunners of the inquiring public have hitherto 

 been obliged to cull such information as may be obtainable 

 by the tedious process of consulting the records of original 

 voyages which have been " out of print " for a generation 

 I at least ; but in 1898 Dr. Karl Pricker came to their aid 

 j by producing his admirable compilation, "Antarktis," 

 the introductory volume of Kirchhoff and Fitzner's 

 " Bibliothek der Landerkunde." Of this book it is im- 

 possible to speak too highly, and we must congratulate 

 the editors and publishers of the series on their choice 

 of a beginning. We must congratulate the English pub- 

 lishers also on having the courage to show the Britisli 

 public how much better the results of British pluck 

 and enterprise are appreciated in Germany than at 

 home. We know nothing less pleasant to contemplate 

 with regard to the long Antarctic record than the apathy 

 of the British public and publishers alike to the pioneer 

 work of Cook, the public-spirited enterprise of the 

 Enderbys, and the great achievements of Ross. The 

 fact that the account of Ross's Antarctic voyage has never 

 appeared in a popular edition is a mystery in the face of 

 the frequent inquiries for that delightful book. 



Dr. Ericker passes lightly over the early history of the 

 Antarctic regions, not mentioning, we may note, Rain- 

 aud's excellent historical summary, " Le Continent 

 Austral," in which the myth of the Great South Land is 

 traced to its source. He takes up the work of Cook in 

 the eighteenth century, of the Russian expedition under 

 Bellingshausen, of Weddell, Biscoe, Balleny and the 

 other sealers sent out by Messrs. Enderby Brothers, and 

 deals in a thoroughly satisfactory manner with the simul- 

 taneous expeditions at the dawn of the Victorian era, 

 when the French under Dumont d'Urville, the Americans 

 under Wilkes and the British under Ross competed in 

 the investigation of the south polar seas. Probably it 

 was wise to pass lightly over the acrid controversy 

 between Ross and Wilkes, although the English reader 

 might have liked to see how such Homeric heroes 

 assailed each other in the pages of the Athenaeum half a 

 century ago. 



The history of recent voyages stops with the trip of 

 the Antarctic to Victoria Land in 1895. This was in- 

 evitable in the case 'of Dr. Fricker's German edition; 

 but the translator might have endeavoured to convey, 

 in a supplementary chapter, some idea of the great re- 

 sults which have been achieved since the first publica- 

 tion. It would only have been fair to the author to have 

 given him the opportunity of revising his section on 

 Bouvet Island, with which the detailed description of 

 the various known lands of the Antarctic regions com- 

 mences. The translator might at least have added a 

 note to let the reader know that this interesting group, 

 which was sought in vain by Cook and by Ross, was 

 re-discovered by the Valdivia on November 25, 1898, 

 during the first scientific voyage conducted by Germans 

 to the edge of the Antarctic (see Nature, vol. Ix. p. 114). 



1 " The Antarctic Regions," by Dr. Karl Fricker. Pp. xii + 292. 

 Maps and Plates. (London : Swan Sonnenschein and Co., Ltd., 1900.) 



"Through the First Antarctic Night, 1898-99. A Narrative of the 

 Voyage of the Belgica among newly-discovered lands and over an unknown 

 sea about the South Pole." By Frederick A. Cook, M.D., Surgeon and 

 Anthropologist of .the Belgian Antarctic Expedition. Illustrated. Pp. xxiv 

 -h 478. (London : William Heinemann, 1900.) 



