THUS MEN DO GEOGEAPHY ! 



91 



Murchison's Depression. As this wholly hypothetical, 

 or rather inventive feature, — I had seen the mountains 

 growing upon paper under my companion's hand, from 

 a thin ridge of hill fringing the Tanganyika to the por- 

 tentous dimensions given in Blackwood (Sept. 1859), 

 and Dr. Petermann's Mittheilungen, (No. 9, of 1859,) — 

 wore a crescent form, my companion gravely published, 

 with all the pomp of discovery, in the largest capitals, 

 " This mountain range I consider to be the true moun- 

 tains of the moon." * * * Thus men do geography ! 

 and thus discovery is stultified. 



When my companion had somewhat recovered from his 

 wetness, and from the effects of punching-in with a pen- 

 knife a beetle which had visited his tympanum*, I began 



* My companion gives in Blackwood, Sept. 1859, the following descrip- 

 tion of his untoward accident: — " This day (that of his arrival at the isle 

 of Kivira) passed in rest and idleness, recruiting from our late exertions. 

 At night a violent storm of rain and wind beat on my tent with such fury 

 that its nether parts were torn away from the pegs, and the tent itself was 

 only kept upright by sheer force. On the wind's abating, a candle was 

 lighted to rearrange the kit, and in a moment, as though by magic, the whole 

 interior became covered with a host of small black beetles, evidently attracted 

 by the glimmer of the candle. They were so annoyingly determined in their 

 choice of place for peregrinating, that it seemed hopeless my trying to brush 

 them off the clothes or bedding, for as one was knocked aside another came 

 on, and then another, till at last, worn out, I extinguished the candle, and 

 with difficulty — trying to overcome the tickling annoyance occasioned by 

 these intruders crawling up my sleeves and into my hair, or down my back 

 and legs — fell off to sleep. Repose that night was not destined to be my lot. 

 One of these horrid little insects awoke me in his struggles to penetrate my 

 ear, but just too late: for in my endeavour to extract him, I aided his im- 

 mersion. He went his course, struggling up the narrow channel, until he got 

 arrested by want of passage-room. This impediment evidently enraged him, 

 for he began with exceeding vigour, like a rabbit at a hole, to dig violently 

 away at my tympanum. The queer sensation this amusing measure excited 

 in me is past description. I felt inclined to act as our donkeys once did, 

 when beset by a swarm of bees, who buzzed about their ears and stung their 

 heads and eyes until they were so irritated and confused that they galloped 

 about in the most distracted order, trying to knock them off by treading on 



