808 REPORT—1899. 
and south-east, and without any great change of elevation in the former direction 
trends towards the district capital of Nochistlan at a distance of about thirty-five 
miles, and thence in an easterly course towards the line of the Southern Railway 
at Parian, some thirty miles north of the city of Oaxaca. This latter approach 
has a good road, which, prior to the existence of the railway, would merely have 
led into the mountains again. It may be expected, however, that slow as the 
Mexicans are to recognise or avail themselves of any advantages of communication, 
the better access from the north to these productive valleys may gradually lead to 
their occupation and development, when further explored under European auspices. 
The climatic conditions are similar to those of all the southern interior cf 
Mexico, though, owing to the intersection of the country by long and lofty ridges, 
the rainfall during the wet season is somewhat greater, The journey here described 
was undertaken during the month of December last, when the atmospheric condi- 
tions are perhaps unrivalled in the world as to temperature and salubrity, 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 
The following Papers were read :— 
1. Oceanographical and Meteorological Results of the German Deep-sea 
Expedition in the ‘ Valdivia.” By Dr. Geruarp Scuort. 
The voyage of the Valdivia was undertaken at the cost of the Imperial German 
Government, and may be generally described as a circumnavigation of Africa, 
although the route involved some wide sweeps away from that continent. From 
Capetown the route led southward into the Antarctic Ocean until the ice-pack 
forbade further progress ; then along the edge of the ice from 0° to 60° East longi- 
tude, then north to Kerguelen. The two main geographical results of the cruise 
were the rediscovery of Bouvet Island, and the sounding of the whole of the tropical 
Indian Ocean for the first time. 
The oceanographical work included a large number of deep-sea soundings. The 
Valdivia was provided with two sounding machines. The Sigshee machine worked 
remarkably well even in very stormy weather. The introduction of an electro- 
motor for reeling in the line was a novelty that turned out most satisfactory ; it is 
especially to be commended for. Polar work in which steam pipes are apt to freeze. 
The best results of the sounding work were on the southern part of the cruise, 
from Capetown to Bouvet Island, thence along the edge of the ice to the vicinity 
of Enderby Land, and thence to Kerguelen, because the ship was then in waters 
which had rarely been visited, and because of the discovery of remarkably great 
depths of 2,800 to 3,000 fathoms, in place of the supposed Antarctic plateau. 
Many details of the form of the ocean-bed were also studied, as, for example, the 
enclosed seas between the west of Sumatra and the Nias Islands, the steep sub- 
marine slope from Sumatra to the Indian Ocean, the connection of the Chagos 
Islands with the Maldives, and the slope of the Agulhas bank to the deep sea. 
The measurement of deep-sea temperature came next in importance. We can 
only refer here to the results obtained in the tropical Indian Ocean and on the 
margin of the ice. In the first-named instance an extraordinarily rapid transition 
between the temperature of the superficial layer heated by the sun and the deeper 
mass of cold water was observed, forming a sort of Sprungschicht between the 
depths of 50 and 100 fathoms, On the border of the ice the distribution of tem- 
perature was a cold layer on the surface, produced by the melting of ice with a 
temperature of from 29° to 80° F.; below 50 fathoms warmer and salter water (the 
temperature rising from 32° to 35° F.), and below that to nearly 1,000 fathoms a 
steadily falling temperature. The larger icebergs all dip into the warmer layer. 
This arrangement of temperature is not identical with that found in the Antarctic 
by the Challenger, although similar to it. 
The expedition has also carried oyt exact ohseryations on the ice conditions, 
