212 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IT., No. 83. 



Bitter Lakes has risen since the exodus; and from 

 the Indian survey it is ' almost certain ' that the 

 mean sea-level at Madras is a foot lower than it was 

 sixty years ago. From the Chinese annals it is learned 

 that the so-called Hot Lake (Myk-kul) of Turkestan 

 was formed about a hundred and sixty years ago; 

 and there seems no good reason to reject the Japanese 

 legend that Fusiyama itself was thrown up in the third 

 century before our era. 



He then touched lightly on the progress made in 

 our knowledge of the geography of the Dominion of 

 Canada, which comprises within its limits the pole 

 of vertical magnetic attraction, commonly called the 

 magnetic pole, and the focus of greatest magnetic 

 force, also often but incorrectly called a pole. The 

 first of these, discovered by Ross in 1835, was re- 

 visited in May, 1847, by officers of the Franklin ex- 

 pedition, whose observations have perished, and was 

 again reached, or very nearly, by McClintock in 

 1859, and by Schwatka in 1879. Neither of these 

 explorers, however, was equipped for observation. 

 The utmost interest attaches to the question whether 

 the magnetic pole has shifted its position in fifty 

 years; and, although far from rating the difficulty 

 lightly, it is probably approachable overland, without 

 the great cost of an arctic expedition. The second, 

 which is in the neighborhood of Cat Lake, has never 

 been visited, although Dr. R. Bell was within two 

 hundred miles of it. These two objects, and the 

 exploration of an almost unknown tract of some 

 seventy thousand square miles, lying east of Athabasca 

 River, were declared worthy of the scientific ambi- 

 tion and energy of the dominion. He alluded also 

 to the extent and importance of Lake Misstassini, 

 which has recently been discovered in no very remote 

 part of the dominion, — a lake rivalling Lake Ontario, 

 if not Lake Superior, in magnitude. 



He then mentioned the report of Lieut. R. P. Rodg- 

 ers, U. S. N., on the state of the canal-works at 

 Panama so lately as Jan. 25 last, and read the official 

 returns of the amount of excavation during the 

 months of October, 1883-March, 1884, by which it 

 appeared that the quantity evcavated per month had 

 greatly increased during that time, and shows that 

 the limit has not been reached. The two great prob- 

 lems which await solution are, how to deal with the 

 River Chagres, and how to manage a cutting nearly 

 four hundred feet deep. The Chagres, which is sub- 

 ject to great fluctuations of volume, it is proposed to 

 arrest by an enormous dike, 1,050 yards long at 

 the bottom, 2,110 yards at the top, 110 yards thick 

 at the base, and 147 feet in the greatest height ; 

 the overflow of the reservoir so constructed to be led 

 away by two artificial channels, partly utilizing the 

 old bed. The cutting, nearly five hundred feet wide 

 at the top, it is proposed to attack by gangs working 

 on twelve different levels at the same time, one each 

 side of the summit, dividing the width at each level 

 into five parallel sections. Thus there will be a 

 hundred and twenty gangs at work together, and it is 

 confidently hoped that the whole will be really fin- 

 ished in 1888. 



He next turned to another quarter, and referred to 



tbe mission intrusted to Mr. Joseph Thomson last 

 year, in East Africa, by the Royal geographical 

 society. After an unsuccessful start from Zanzibar in 

 March of last year, — in which, however, he reached 

 Kilima-njaro, and ascended it about nine thousand 

 feet, — he returned to the coast from Taveta, and start- 

 ed again in July, this time from Mombasa. We are 

 not yet fully acquainted with his route; but we know 

 that he again reached the great mountain reputed to 

 have an elevation of more than twenty thousand feet ; 

 that thence he reached the east side of Lake Nyanza; 

 that he is the first who has stood on the shores of 

 Lake M'Baringo; that thence, always among natives 

 who had never before seen a white man, he reached 

 Mount Kenia, reputed to be eighteen thousand feet 

 high, and found his way back to the coast without 

 any conflict or loss of life by violence ; and this after 

 a journey of about five hundred miles, nearly the 

 whole of it through a country previously unknown 

 to geography. Before Mr. Thomson's return to Zan- 

 zibar, Mr. H. H. Johnston, under direction of a com- 

 mittee of this association, whose plans are devoted 

 primarily to the investigation of the fauna and flora 

 of Kilima-njaro, had left Zanzibar in good health, 

 and with every hope of ultimate success. 



The president then alluded to the unfortunate 

 French expedition of Col. Flatters, who, together 

 with several other officers and men, was killed by 

 the Youaregs in February, 1881. The French trav- 

 ellers have emphasized the probable consequences of 

 the rapid progress of the religion of Mohammed among 

 the African races of the northern equatorial zone, 

 which in time may reach the populous basin of the 

 Kongo, and may greatly affect the white settlements 

 and missionary enterprises in Central Africa here- 

 after. 



The Upper Kongo, from Stanley Falls to Stanley 

 Pool, is now pretty well known; but as to its tribu- 

 taries, much remains to be learned. Mr. Stanley has 

 discovered two new lakes. The labors of that en- 

 ergetic traveller, Mr. de Brazza, have to a great ex- 

 tent cleared up the geography of the region included 

 between the Kongo and the Ogowe, from the equator 

 southwards ; and there are now said to be twenty-two 

 trading- stations in this part of the country. We are 

 not informed what commerce exists. Higher up, but 

 still to the north, Mr. Stanley has ascended the Aru- 

 wimi about a hundred miles, without having solved a 

 question of no little interest; namely, whether it is 

 identical with the Welle, and takes its rise in the same 

 watershed which feeds the White Nile, or whether 

 we have not, beyond its sources, a drainage system, 

 as yet untraced, but which may connect together a 

 number of rivers whose relations to one another, and 

 whose final outlet, are alike unknown. Lupton Bey 

 reported, nearly two years ago, that a very large lake 

 had been visited by one of his native subordinates 

 west of the Aruwimi ; and it is, in his opinion, proba- 

 ble that the Welle flows into it. The southern basin 

 of the Kongo has been crossed from Koando to Nyan- 

 give by the late Dr. Pogge and Lieut. Wissman, the 

 latter of whom continued his journey by Yabora to 

 Zanzibar. He brings confirmation of the often re- 



