Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/519

 1899.] SCIENCE. 95

voyage Patagonia was visited in March, and Antwerp was reached in November.

The German expedition, in the Valdivia, determined the position of Bouvet Island. Lying in latitude 54° 26' S. and longitude 3° 24' E., and having a general diameter of about five miles, it was seen to be a volcanic mountain 3,066 feet in height, entirely covered by ice, and with- out a trace of vegetation. The position of the great antarctic anticyclone was thought to extend towards the western part of the Indian Ocean and not over the Pole. Soundings taken between 7° and 63° E. longitude revealed a depth of 16,200 feet. South of the fifty-sixth parallel the bottom temperature of the sea was everywhere between 32° and 31° Fahr., while the surface temperature was between 32° and 29° Fahr. It decreased from the surface downwards to 260 feet, then down to 4,000 feet it increased, and below this to the bottom it slowly decreased again. Animal life becomes more abundant down to about 6,600 feet, and then rapidly diminishes, but is nowhere absent. Vegetal life reached its minimum at a depth of about 1,200 feet. A main characteristic of the plankton is the large quantity of diatoms, among which are some special forms. Another German antarctic expedition is to set out in the autumn of 1901.

In Central Asia Captain Deary has completed his great work of tri- angulation, which comprises more than a hundred peaks, and puts the height of Murtagh Ata at 24,400 feet.

Mount Morrison, the highest mountain in Formosa, and not previ- ously scaled, has been ascended by H. Stoepel ; and the virgin summit of Mount Kenia, in British East Africa, has been reached by Mr. Mac- kinder, the Reader of Geography at Oxford.

Dr. Eandt claims to have discovered the true source of the Nile, which he found issuing drop by drop from a cave on the slope of Mount Techuho, three days' march east of the southerly end of Lake Kion.

Dr. Koettlitz, who was surgeon to the Jackson-Harms worth expedi- tion to Franz Josef Land, and filled a similar post in the Weld-Blundell expedition to Abyssinia, has made a journey to the sacred Mount Touquala, never before visited by an Englishman. It is a volcanic cone 10,000 feet high, and forty miles from Addis-Abbeba. Its crater is occu- pied by a curative lake, three-quarters of a mile long, whose waters are especially good against sterility.

The Central African expedition, under Colonel Macdonald, has reported. The exact position of Lake Kioga has been defined, and its length was found to be not ten but eighty miles. The hitherto unknown country and people of Latuka were visited, and much information was gained.

Mr. M'Cann has been to the Gold Coast hinterland, which he believes to be more auriferous than any other country. He also visited the Lake Bosomohwi, held sacred by the Ashantis, who guard it from all pollution. He considers that it is contained in a volcanic crater, since earth rumbles are often heard there, and a thick mist lies on the water all day.

Mr. Moore has found in Lake Nyassa a depth of 2,580 feet, which is 1,000 feet below sea level.