OcToBER 26, 1899] 
graphy and Plant-Geography. Dr. Erich von Drygalski gave a 
detailed account of the plans tor the German Antarctic expedition, 
which is to sail in 1901, and submitted the specifications for the 
ship and her equipments. All the preparations for the ex- 
pedition are in a forward state. Dr. Drygalski himself is the 
scientific leader, the captain of the ship being simply a sailing- 
master responsible for the navigation. Dr. Vanhoffen, who 
accompanied Dr. Drygalski in his Greenland expedition, goes 
as botanist, and several other members of the scientific staff, 
which will number at least six, have been chosen. Much stress 
is laid on the importance of co-operation with the British 
expedition. Dr. Drygalski hopes to land somewhere to the 
south of Kerguelen, that island being occupied by a land-party 
as a scientific base, and to advance towards the South Pole by 
the aid of dogs. Sir Clements Markham gave a full exposition 
of the plans of the British expedition. He said that the vessel 
for the expedition will be built of oak with an ice-casing of 
harder wood. She will be 172 feet long by 33 broad, with a dis- 
placement of about 1525 tons. Arrangements will be made for 
a magnetic observatory before the mainmast, which shall have 
no iron within 30 feet of it. There will be accommodation 
for six executive officers, including two engineers, three civilians 
for biology and geology, including the surgeon, and thirty-nine 
men. Melbourne will be the base for magnetic observations, 
and a party will be landed in MacMurdo Bay, near Mount 
Erebus, to push inland with sledges, but without dogs, the use 
of which involves unjustifiable cruelty. In the discussion on 
the Antarctic papers, Dr. Nansen strongly defended the use of 
dogs, the alternative being in his opinion far greater cruelty to 
men. Sir John Murray urged the importance of circumpolar 
oceanographical investigations as a preliminary to the pene- 
tration of the Antarctic ice-pack. M. Ar¢towski read a paper 
on the oceanographical and meteorological results of the Be/gzca’s 
voyage, and Prof. Nielsen of Christiania gave some account of 
Sir George Newnes’ expedition under Mr. Borchgrevink. 
In north polar exploration the most important papers were 
the first public statements regarding the scientific results of the 
Fram expedition, Dr. Nansen in a lecture of an hour and a 
half’s duration described the North Polar Basin as revealed by 
his soundings, and discussed the distribution of temperature and 
the circulation of water in it in great detail, while Prof. Mohn 
in another paper gave a résumé of the meteorological results. 
It is impossible in a few lines to summarise either of these 
massive contributions to knowledge. 
Oceanographical papers were numerous, that of Prof. Chun, 
the leader of the Valdevza expedition, exciting the greatest 
amount of interest. Sir John Murray discussed the distribution 
of deep-sea deposits over the ocean floor, and the Prince of 
Monaco described some of the results of his recent cruise to 
Spitsbergen. Several useful and really international discussions 
took place, culminating in the appointment of committees to 
draw up a systematic terminology and nomenclature for the 
forms of sub-oceanic relief, introduced by Profs. Wagner, 
Kriimmel, Voiekoff and Dr. H. R. Mill, and to determine a 
common method of expressing the density of sea-water, intro- 
duced by Baron Wrangell and Prof. Pettersson. 
There were several valuable papers on subjects involving 
climatology, limnology, the study of glaciers and seismology, 
and one on kumatology by Mr. Vaughan Cornish; indeed it 
would be difficult to mention any department of physical geo- 
graphy to which some contribution was not made. 
The geography of plants was discussed with particular 
thoroughness, both with regard to the distribution of special 
types of vegetation and the more general relations of nomen- 
clature and cartographic representation. Profs. Drude, Engler, 
Warburg, Krasnoff and Nehring dealt with these subjects. 
The geological aspects of geography produced several 
papers of unusual value, including one by Prof. de Lapparent 
on the question of peneplains, one by Prof. Penck on the 
deepening of alpine valleys, and one by Mrs. Gordon (Dr. 
Maria Ogilvie) on the basins of southern Europe. Mr. W. 
Obrucheff, of St. Petersburg, gave an important account of 
the orography and tectonic structure of the trans-Baikal region 
of Siberia as revealed by the most recent observations—between 
1895 and 1898 ; and Prof Philippson discussed the AZgean region 
in a similar. way. 
The human and historical aspects of geography were not left 
in the background. Prof. Raizel discoursed on the origin and 
dispersal of the Indo-Germanic peoples, and Prof. Sieglin on 
the discovery of England in ancient times. Papers were read 
NO. 1565, VOL. 60] 
NATURE 633 
on the need of fresh organisation in obtaining statistics ot 
population in unorganised countries by Dr. Scott Keltie, and 
on means of representing such statistics on maps by Prof. 
Hettner. Prof. Neovius, of Helsingfors, exhibited a remarkable 
atlas of Finland recently completed by the Finnish Geographical 
Society, in which all the conditions of the land, natural and 
economic, are mapped with a completeness that has never 
been attempted for any other country. It even includes a map 
showing in horse-power the available energy of the rivers. 
As was to be expected there were many papers on geography 
in its educational aspects. Amongst these one by Prof. Ratzel on 
geographical position as the central fact in geographical educa- 
tion was perhaps the most important. 
The last meeting of the Congress was to have been addressed 
by Prof. Hergesell on the results of international balloon in- 
vestigations, but the author somewhat rashly made an ascent 
the previous morning in a balloon, which carried him so far 
towards the Russian frontier that the Congress had been formally 
closed before the slow means of terrestrial locomotion brought 
him back to Berlin. 
No better bird’s-eye view of the work of the Congress can be 
given than by presenting in a condensed form the series of 
resolutions passed at the final meeting, which are intended to 
minister to more complete international co-operation in the 
work of scientific investigations. 
RESOLUTIONS OF THE SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL 
GEOGRAPHICAL CONGRESS. 
(The order is that in which the resolutions were presented. ) 
(1) The Congress appoints a Committee of Bio-geographers 
resident in or near Berlin to draw up a uniform scheme of 
nomenclature for plant-formations, and after consultation with 
non-resident specialists, to revise the same and present it to the 
Eighth Congress. 
(2) The Congress believes that the plans for international co- 
operation in Antarctic exploration form an excellent basis for joint 
research in physical geography, geology, geodesy and biology. 
With regard to meteorological and magnetic work, however, they 
appoint an international committee to determine the general 
scheme and methods to be employed on the expeditions, and to 
endeavour to organise a system of simultaneous observations in 
the regions surrounding, but exterior to, the Antarctic. 
(3) The Congress expresses the earnest desire that all maps, 
including those published in countries using English and Russian 
measures, should, in addition to the graphic scale, bear the pro- 
portion of lengths on the map to those in nature in the usual 
form I:x. 
(4) The Congress views it as desirable that the publication of 
all new geographical material accompanying accounts of travel, 
should be supported by details regarding the methods of survey- 
ing, the instruments employed, and their verification, the calcu- 
lation of astronomical positions with their probable error, and 
the method of utilising these data in preparing the map. Also 
that all maps published by scientific men, institutions or govern- 
ments should be accompanied by notes of the principal fixed 
points. 
(5) The Congress expresses the hope that a uniform system of 
measures will be used in all geographical researches and dis- 
cussions, and recommends that the metric system of weights 
and measures be so employed. 
(6) The Congress expresses the hope that in scientific public- 
ations the centigrade thermometer scale should, as far as possible, 
be employed; or, at least, the values in centigrade degrees 
added to those expressed on the scales of Fahrenheit or 
Réaumur. 
(7) With regard to the proposal to introduce a decimal 
division of time and angles, the Congress desires to preserve the 
present division of time and of the citcumference into 360°, but 
allows that the adoption of a different subdivision of the angle 
might be studied, and considers that in certain cases the decimal 
subdivision of the degree of arc presents no objection. 
(8) The Congress is of opinion that the Bié/iotheca Geographica, 
published by the Berlin Geographical Society, may be accepted 
as an efficient international bibliography of geography. 
(9) The Congress considers the construction of statistical 
population maps to be very desirable, and appoints an inter: 
national committee to draw up a scheme, at the same time 
expressing the hope that national committees will be formed in 
various countries to promote the preparation of such maps. 
(10) The Congress considers the collection of data as to the 
