34 



NATURE 



[November 13, 1902 



soundings along a track where none existed before. 

 Eleven of these were more than iooo fathoms, five were 

 more than 2000 fathoms, and the deepest was 2830 

 fathoms, in 42 J 30' S., 33° 45' E. The weather 

 was unfavourable with occasional calms, frequent head 

 winds and almost always a very heavy sea rendered 

 the ship extremely uncomfortable. The most interesting 

 episode on the way was a landing which was successfully 

 made on Possession Island of the Crozet group on 

 Christmas Day. Possession Island and East Island 

 came in sight at 5 a.m., the latter thickly veiled in fog, 

 which gradually cleared. The landing was made in one 

 of the numerous small bays of the north-west coast of 

 Possession Island, where the party stepped ashore on a 

 low basalt rock into an idyllic beast-world of slumbering 

 sea-elephants, penguins drawn up in lines of military 

 precision, and sea-birds fluttering curiously close over- 

 head. The coast of the island as a whole was diversified 

 with off-lying rocks and deeply cut caverns, the variety 

 being due to the contrast of the alternate horizontal 

 sheets of hard basalt and soft volcanic agglomerate. 

 Moss grew luxuriantly, and above the cliffs the gentle 

 slopes were in some places covered with marshy vegeta- 

 tion so deeply as to require the greatest care in crossing 

 them. The sea-elephants and penguins furnished a 

 supply of fresh meat which seems to have been appre- 

 ciated on board ; but the Kerguelen cabbage (which 

 seems to have been nearly extirpated by rabbits in 

 Kerguelen itself) was found bitter and unpleasant. 



There was no trace of glaciation on the island. A 

 puzzling appearance was presented by the loose material 

 covering the slopes of one of the old craters and stretch- 

 ing down to the sea in stripes alternately wide and narrow 

 in regular sequence, the wide of red, comparatively fine 

 debris, the narrow of coarser fragments of black rock. 

 Neither water nor wind action could account for these 

 remarkable stone streams. 



During the three hours on shore, large collections of 

 every kind were made. Fifteen flowering plants were 

 found, three times the number of species formerly known 

 from the Crozets, though all are of species already known 

 from Kerguelen or other islands of the South Indian 

 Ocean. The fauna was found very rich in insects and 

 spiders, several of the species not yet identified being 

 apparently unknown in Kerguelen. 



The voyage to Kerguelen continued until January 2, 

 1902, when the Gauss anchored in Observatory Bay, 

 where the land party, who had arrived from Australia 

 some months before, were waiting somewhat uncomfort- 

 ably. The ship that had brought them had not been able 

 to remain, and her Chinese crew had been such worthless 

 workmen that the labour of installing the land station had 

 been left for the crew of the Gauss, who had also to take 

 on board the coal, stores and dogs that had been left for 

 them. Much time was necessarily consumed in this 

 work, everything having to be carried by hand to the 

 boats and rowed out to the ship. About 130 tons of 

 coal had to be left behind, the Gauss being full up with 

 400 tons. 



The Gauss sailed on January 31 for her destination in 

 the Antarctic with provisions for nearly three years on 

 board. Prof, von Drygalski proposed to visit and if 

 possible land on Heard Island, and then make straight for 

 Wilkes' Termination Island, sailing along the ice towards 

 the west so as to have the prevailing easterly winds of 

 high southern latitudes in his favour, and ultimately 

 turning southward and entering the ice. All on board 

 were full of enthusiasm and confidence, satisfied with 

 the ship, pleased with her equipment and determined to 

 stay in the far south as long as they possibly could. The 

 leader warns his friends not to suppose he is lost if pieces 

 of wreckage from the Gauss should be discovered at sea, 

 for she is very likely to lose some of her gear. He thinks 



NO. 1724, VOL. 67] 



it possible he may be able to send news home by June, 

 1903, but the expedition is planned for two summers in 

 the ice, and no news will be good news until June, 

 1904. 



Dr. Bidlingmaier appends a summary of the meteor- 

 ological conditions of the whole voyage out from Ham- 

 burg to Kerguelen. There are two maps and several 

 illustrations. 



MR. CHAMBERLAIN ON EDUCATION. 



MR. CHAMBERLAIN visited University College 

 •'■*•'■ School on Wednesday, November 5, to unveil a 

 memorial tablet to old boys who have fallen in the war, 

 and was afterwards presented with an address from the 

 students of University College. The address, read by 

 the president of the Students' Union Society, referred to 

 the keen support of higher education shown by the 

 Colonial Secretary in his interest in the foundation of 

 the University of Birmingham. We quote the following 

 from the report of Mr. Chamberlain's reply in the 

 Times : — 



I thank you very cordially for the warmth of your reception. 

 I appreciate the kindness which led you to offer to me this 

 address. I have, as the address states, a very great interest in 

 the higher education of the country. Thirty years ago some of 

 us in Birmingham were prominent in securing for all tie 

 children of the country an efficient primary education. We 

 thought it was right that, whatever might be the social posiiion 

 of any child born in this land, he ought to have, as it were, the 

 tools put into his hands in order to carve out a career for him- 

 self. That, I believe, was a great and important work. As 

 you know, the Government of which I am a member is now, 

 at this very moment, engaged in the endeavour to develop it. 

 But it left untouched a work which, perhaps, from one point of 

 view, at any rate, is of even greater importance — that is the 

 work of secondary and higher education. It is not everyone 

 who can, by any possibility, go forward into the higher spheres 

 of education ; but it is from those who do that we have to 

 look for the men who, in the future, will carry high the flag of 

 this country in commercial, scientific and economic competition 

 with other nations. At the present moment I believe there is 

 nothing more important than to supply the deficiencies which 

 separate us from those with whom we are in the closest com- 

 petition. In Germany, in America, in our own colony of 

 Canada and in Australia, the higher education of the people 

 has more support from the Government, is carried further than 

 it is here in the old country ; and the result is that in every 

 profession, in every industry, you find the places taken by men 

 and by women who have had a University education. And I 

 would like to see the time in this country when no man should 

 have a chance for any occupation of the better kind either in 

 our factories, our workshops or our counting-houses who could 

 not show proof that, in the course of his University career, he 

 had deserved the position that was offered to him. What is it 

 that makes a country? Of course you may say, and you would 

 be quite right, the general qualities of the people, their reso- 

 lution, their intelligence, their pertinacity, and many other good 

 qualities. Yes ; but that is not all, and it is not the main 

 creative feature of a great nation. The greatness of a nation 

 is made by its greatest men. It is those we want to educate. 

 It is to those who are able to go, it may be, from the very 

 lowest steps in the ladder, to men who are able to devote their 

 time to higher education, that we have to look to continue the 

 position which we now occupy as, at all events, one of the 

 greatest nations on the face of the earth. And, feeling as I do 

 on these subjects, you will not be surprised if I say that I 

 cordially agree with what is said in this address. I think the 

 time is coming when Governments will give more attention to 

 this matter, and perhaps find a little more money to forward 

 its interests. When we are spending, as we are, many millions 

 — I think it is 13,000,000/. — a year on primary education, it 

 certainly seems as if we might add a little more, even a few 

 tens of thousands, to what we give to University and secondary 

 education. 



