THE DEFINITE LOCATION OF BOUVET ISLAND 413 



Treasury estimates. A conclusion inconsistent with them re- 

 quires therefore little apology. 



Reasons have been given for preferring calculation C, which 

 gives the largest result of the four, to the others. The writer can 

 only present his own views for what they are worth. According 

 to them the population to be shown by the twelfth census will 

 be more probably above than below 75,000,000, but is altogether 

 unlikely to reach 76,000,000. If it should be anything like so 

 high, it will indicate a deficiency in the last census total suffi- 

 ciently marked to invalidate any computation for the future in 

 which the figures of that census are adopted, without correction 

 or criticism. In fact, while it is necessary to take the whole 

 series of results, so far as that can be done, as a foundation for 

 any law which is applied to further calculations, it is necessary 

 also to correct one set of figures by others, that the result may 

 be as little as possible tainted by errors belonging to one or a 

 few previous results. If it be supposed, on the other hand, that 

 all discrepancies between census figures and calculation are in- 

 dications of real irregularities of which the calculation takes no 

 account, it need hardly be added that such a supposition nega- 

 tives the validity of an}'- possible prediction from the data at 

 command. 



THE DEFINITE LOCATION OF BOUVET ISLAND 



The last number of the Zeitschrifi der Gesellscliaft fur Erdkunde zu Berlin 

 is entirely devoted to the recent German deep-sea expedition of the 

 Valdivia. The navigating officer of the ship gives an interesting ac- 

 count of the rediscovery of Bouvet island. It appears that in the year 

 1738 a French company in search of the - Terra- Australis, supposed to be 

 a fruitful and populous country, sent out two ships, one of them, L' Aigle, 

 being commanded by Captain Lozier Bouvet. On January 1, 1739, Bouvet 

 discovered land which he supposed to be a mere promontory, and which 

 he called Cape Circumcision. During nine days, however, Bouvet found 

 it impossible to effect a landing and was forced to continue his journey. 

 In 177") Cook searched for Bouvet's discovery, but, finding nothing, con- 

 cluded that Bouvet had been deceived by large masses of ice. In Octo- 

 ber, 1808, Captain Lindsay, commanding the whaler Swan, belonging to 

 Messrs Enderby, and who bad been commissioned by them to search for 

 Bouvet land, sighted an island, which he called Lindsay island, in the 

 Locality in which he was directing his search for Bouvet land. Lindsay 

 found it impossible to land, and gave a brief description of the estimated 

 dimensions and general contour of the island. In 1825 Captain Norris, 

 of the whaler Sprightly, sighted an island and assigned a certain position 



