16 AUSTEALASIA. 



enterprise the serious prosecution of the work of exploration should have been 

 suspended for so many years, more especially as research has been greatly 

 facilitated b}' the progress of maritime enterprise and the thousand resources 

 offered by modern appliances. Hence it is with a certain feeling of shame that 

 geographers have to record the enormous gaps still occurring along the line of 

 antarctic navigation, and well may ask for volunteers to resume the work of 

 Cook, Ross, d'Urville and other illustrious navigators. At one time it was hoped 

 that the next expedition might have been fitted out in Australia, which lies 

 nearest to the south polar lands, and whose inhabitants are most interested in 

 investigating the meteorological and glacial phenomena of those frigid regions. 

 Between the southernmost point of Tasmania and the coast of Wilkes Land the 

 distance is not more than 1,600 miles. But a scheme advocated in 1888 came to 

 nothing owing to the parsimony of the British Government, which refused to 

 grant the modest sum of £5,000 required to meet the preliminary expenses. The 

 question, however, has now been taken up by the Germans, and there are some 

 prospects that the influence of Dr. ]S^eumayer may induce the Reichstag to grant 

 a sufficient sum to defray the expenses of a German antarctic expedition. 



Bathymf.tric Researches. 



In the part of the ocean whose surface has already been surveyed, the 

 exploration of its depths has long been begun, and the density of the marine 

 waters may even be said to be ascertained, at least in a general way. The Indian 

 Ocean presents as a whole a tolerably regular bed, with a somewhat uniform depth 

 of over 2,000 fathoms. As revealed by the soundings of the Challenge)' and 

 other more recent expeditions, the submarine escarpments of the continent and 

 large islands enclosing this basin on three sides fall rapidly down to the oceanic 

 abysses, so that almost everywhere a depth of 1,000 fathoms occurs within 120 

 miles of the coasts. Towards 40° south latitude a body of equal depth floods the 

 sill which forms the southern limit of the Indian Ocean, properly so called. 



Within this normal bathymétrie curve of 1,000 fathoms, which is disposed 

 nearly parallel with the continental seaboards, the line of 2,000 fathoms describes 

 a large number of sinuosities, at least to the west and north round about 

 Madagascar, the Mascarenhas, the Seychelles, and the Laccadives. The Chagos 

 archipelago also rises in the midst of abysses flooded by from 2,000 to 2,500 

 fathoms of water. The mean for the whole Indian Ocean is estimated by 

 John Murray at about 2,100 fathoms, or 450 more than Otto Kriimmel's 

 calculation. 



The greatest cavities hitherto revealed by the sounding line in this basin occur 

 in the regions lying between the north-west coast of Australia and the islands of 

 Java and Sumatra. Here the vessels engaged in laying the submarine cable have 

 recorded depths of from 2,600 to 2,800 fathoms, and to this abyss Kriimmel proposes 

 to give the name of the " Lemurian Depression." It is a remarkable fact that thB 

 deepest chasms in the Indian Ocean have been found at relatively short distances 



