722 REPORT — 1901. 



SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14. 

 The Section did not meet. 



MONDAY, SEPTEMBER IG. 



The following Papers and Reports were read : — 



1. The Belgian Scientific Expedition of Ka-Tanga.^ 

 By Captain Lemaire. 



The duty of a scientific exploring expedition is to study in all its aspects the 

 object which has been assigned to it, and not to concern itself with affairs. 



The scientific apparatus and equipment of the expedition were enumerated. 



The European staff' of the expedition; loss of two of their number who were 

 drowned in Tanganyika ; their replacement by others. 



Work of the Expedition. 



Cartoyrapliy. — 6,600 kilometres of itinerary mapped on a large scale ; map of 

 1 : 1,000,000 in four colours, containing 195 stations determined by astronomical 

 observation. 



Terrestrial Magnetism. — 117 stations determined by the three magnetic com- 

 ponents. 



Altimetrg. — Remarks upon the establishment of a single table for the deter- 

 mination of altitudes in equatorial Africa by a single reading of the barometer and 

 the thermometer, without the knowledge of these data for the same moment at a 

 point of comparison. Altitude of Tanganyika ; the greatest altitudes noted. 



Meteorology. — Four stations for observation were at work from August 1808 

 to August 1900, furnishing data relating to temperature, atmospheric pressure, 

 moisture, evaporation, duration of insolation, radiation from the earth, atmospheric 

 precipitations, the nature and direction of clouds and winds, the transparency of 

 the air, &c. Certain remarkable phenomena. 



Geology. — The geologist and the prospector of our expedition have drawn up 

 detailed reports, accompanied by maps and geological sections. Forty cases of 

 mineralogical specimens were collected. 



Fauna and Flora. — An herbarium was collected : 100 coloured plates have 

 been prepared ; ten cases of specimens were brought back. A rapid glance over 

 the economic fauna and flora of the country traversed. 



Ethnography. — Anthropometric determinations ; ten cases of collections. 



•Photography and Painting. — .350 photographs; 290 canvasses, water colours, 

 and sketches. 



Occupation of the Country by Europeans. — Description of the plateaux of high 

 altitude, 1,790 to 1,900 metres; food-products: European potatoes, wheat, Euro- 

 pean vegetables, fruits, rice, &c. ; domestic animals, both large and small, uninjured 

 by the tse-fse; the White Fathers of Tanganyika and their admirable work; the 

 steamers on Tanganyika and Moero ; our meeting with Major Gibbons; Anglo- 

 Belgian relations. 



2. Rej)ort on Terrestrial Surface Waves. — See Reports, p. 398. 



3. The Mean Temperature of the Atmosphere and the Causes of 

 Glacial Periods. By H. N. Dickson, B.Sc. 



If we suppose that secular variations of climate in the past have been due to 

 changes in the mean temperature of the atmosphere, it is most probable that such 



' Published in the Scottish Geographical Magazine, October 1901. 



