Physical Geography

1. “Cosmos,” by Alexander Von Humboldt, translated under the superintendence of Colonel E. Sabine, F.R.S. Second Edition. London, 1848.

2. Alexander Keith Johnston’s “Physical Atlas,” 4to., in Monthly Numbers. Edinburgh, 1849. [Published by Lea & Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1850.]

3. The Solar System:—

• Mercury, nearest the Sun, known to the ancients.
• Venus, known to the ancients.
• The Earth.
• Mars, known to the ancients.
• Flora, discovered by Mr. Hind in 1847.
• Vesta, discovered by Mr. Olbers in 1807.
• Iris, discovered by Mr. Hind in 1847.
• Metis, discovered by Mr. Graham in 1848.
• Hebe, discovered by Mr. Hencke in 1847.
• Astræa, discovered by Mr. Hencke in 1845.
• Juno, discovered by Mr. Harding in 1804.
• Ceres, discovered by M. Piazza in 1801.
• Pallas, discovered by Mr. Olbers in 1802.
• Jupiter, known to the ancients.
• Saturn, known to the ancients.
• Uranus, discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781.
• Neptune, discovered by M. Le Verrier and Mr. Adams in 1846.

4. The compression of the earth is the flattening at the poles. Its numerical value is equal to the difference between the equatorial and polar diameters, expressed in feet or miles. [The amount of compression, oblateness at the poles, is measured by the ratio of the difference of the equatorial and polar diameters to the equatorial diameter, which is technically termed the oblateness. The following are the dimensions of the earth in miles:

5. The theoretical investigation of the figure of the earth, the method employed for measuring arcs of the meridian, and that of finding the form of the earth from the oscillations of the pendulum, are given in the “Connection of the Physical Sciences,” by Mary Somerville, 7th Section, 7th edition.

6. A pendulum which oscillates 86,400 times in a mean day at the equator, will do the same at every point of the earth’s surface if its length be increased progressively to the pole as the square of the sine of the latitude. The sine of the latitude is a perpendicular line drawn from any point of a terrestrial meridian to the equatorial radius of the earth. That line expressed in feet or miles, and multiplied by itself, is the square of the sine of the latitude. Gravitation increases from the equator to the poles according to that law, and the length of the degrees augments very nearly in the same ratio.

7. The compression deduced by M. Bessel from arcs of the meridian is ¹⁄₂₉₉; that deduced by Colonel Sabine from his experiment with the pendulum is ¹⁄_288·7. Other pendulum experiments have given a compression of ¹⁄_298·2 and ¹⁄_266·4. The protuberant matter at the earth’s equator produces inequalities in the moon’s motions, from whence the compression of the earth is found to be ¹⁄_305·05; and although the reciprocal action of the moon on the protuberant matter at the earth’s equator does not actually give the compression, it proves that it must be between ¹⁄₂₇₉ and ¹⁄₅₇₃. Coincidences so near and so remarkable, arising from such different methods, show how nearly the irregular figure of the earth has been determined. The inequalities in the motions of the moon and earth alluded to are explained in Sections 5 and 11 “Connection of the Physical Sciences.”

8. It is clear that the mean density of the earth may be found from the attraction of the plumb-line by mountains, or by the irregularity in the oscillations of the pendulum, but the torsion balance is a much more sensible instrument than either. The density determined by M. Reich differs from that found by Mr. Baily by only one twenty-eighth part.

9. If a line be drawn from the north-eastern coast of North America within the limit of floating ice, and if it be continued across the southern half of Ireland and England, and prolonged eastward so as to strike against the Ural mountains, it will mark the boundary of the European portion of the Glacial Sea. It submerged part of Russia to the depth of 1000 feet.—Essay on the British Fauna and Flora, by Professor E. Forbes, in the “Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain,” vol. i.

10. Sir James Ross and Captain Wilkes met with icebergs covered with mud and stones in the antarctic seas, and even in 66° 5ʹ lat. One block seen by Sir James Ross was estimated to weigh many tons.—Antarctic Voyages.—[Narrative of United States Exploring Expedition. By Charles Wilkes, U. S. N.].

11. Account of the Ganges and Brahmapootra, by Major Rennell.—“Phil. Trans.,” 1781. Sir George Staunton’s Embassy to China. Elie de Beaumont, Leçons de Géologie, 1 vol., 8vo. The latter work contains a very elaborate essay on alluvial deposits by rivers, &c.

12. Lieut. Anjou’s Polar Voyage.

13. [See Statistics of Coal. By Richard Cowling Taylor. Philadelphia, 1848.]

14. The author’s geological information rests on the authority of those distinguished authors whose works are in the hands of every one, namely, Baron Cuvier, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir Roderick Murchison, Sir Henry de la Beche, Professor Owen, and the Memoirs of the Geological Society.

15. The proportions of land to water referred to in the text were estimated by Mr. Gardner. According to his computation, the extent of land is about 37,673,000 square British miles, independently of Victoria Continent [discovered by Charles Wilkes, U. S. N.]; and the sea occupies 110,849,000. Hence, the land is to the sea as 1 to 4 nearly. The unexplored region within the Arctic Circle is about 7,620,000 square miles.

16. This very general view of the structure of the globe originated chiefly with the celebrated German geologist Von Buch, and has been much extended and developed by M. Elie de Beaumont, one of the most philosophical of modern geologists.

17. M. Boué.

18. The author avails herself with much pleasure of an opportunity of expressing her admiration of the accuracy, extent, and execution of Mr. Keith Johnston’s Physical Atlas, and of the valuable information contained in the letterpress which accompanies it, which has afforded her the greatest assistance. As Mr. Johnston is publishing a small and cheap edition of his Atlas, well fitted to illustrate these volumes, the necessity of inserting in them any similar maps, which was at one time contemplated, is obviated.

19. “On the Parallel Lines of Simultaneous Elevation in the Weald of Kent and Sussex,” by —— Hopkins, Esq.

20. M. Boué.

21. By the soundings of Captain Smyth, R. N., the Strait is 960 fathoms deep between Gibraltar and Ceuta, and varying from 160 to 500 in the narrowest part.

22. A crater of elevation is a mountain, generally dome-shaped, whose top has sunk into a crater or hollow, after the internal force which raised it was withdrawn, but from which no lava has issued. Dome-shaped mountains owe their form to internal pressure, probably from lava, but which have not sunk into a crater.

23. Professor Forbes on Glaciers.

24. Dr. Boué.

25. Sir Charles Lyell.

26. Johnston’s Physical Atlas.

27. Sir John Malcolm on Persia, and Mr. Morier’s Travels.

28. Johnston’s Physical Atlas.

29. Ibid.

30. Johnston’s Physical Atlas.

31. Sir Roderick I. Murchison.

32. From the observations of Sir Roderick Murchison, M. Middendorf, M. de Verneuil, and Count Keyserling, it appears also that the low land of Siberia has been extended since the existing species of shell-fish inhabited the northern seas; a circumstance that must have rendered the Siberian climate still more severe, and materially affected that of the northern parts of Europe and Asia.

33. In 1820, Admiral (then Lieutenant) Wrangel travelled from the mouth of the Kolyma to Behring’s Straits on sledges drawn by dogs, and made a bold but vain attempt to reach the North pole. Lieutenant Anjou, at the same time, sailed from the mouth of the Jana river, reached 76¹⁄₂ degrees of north latitude, and passed round the group of the New Siberian Islands.

34. Johnston’s Physical Atlas.

35. From Miss Martineau’s spirited and picturesque account of her journey to Egypt and Syria.

36. By the trigonometrical measurement of Major Anthony Symonds, confirmed by French authorities, and adopted by Baron Humboldt, the depression of the Dead Sea is, as stated in the text, 1300 feet; but MM. Bertou and Russiger made it out to be 1388 by the barometer. See Lieut. Molyneux’s paper in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1848.

37. [For a very interesting and reliable account of the river Jordan and its valley, the reader is directed to a “Narrative of the United States’ Expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea, by W. F. Lynch, U. S. N., Commander of the Expedition.” Philadelphia, 1849.]

38. Estimated from N.E. to S.W., the proportion of the two slopes of the Abyssinian table-land is as 12·6 to 1.

39. Johnston’s Physical Atlas.

40. The Voyage of Captain King, R. N., Mr. Darwin’s “Journal of a Naturalist,” Dr. Pœppig’s “Travels in South America,” are the authorities for the account of Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia, and Chile; Baron Humboldt, Mr. Pentland, Drs. Pœppig and Meyer of Berlin, for Peru and the Andean Chain to the Isthmus of Panamá.

41. This great height has been deduced, adopting the position of the Peak as fixed by Captain Fitz Roy, and employing the angles of elevation observed by Captain Beechey near Valparaiso.

42. Dr. Pœppig’s Travels.

43. The celebrated silver mines of Potosi were formerly worked to the very summit of that metalliferous mountain, 16,150 feet above the sea level.

44. Baron Humboldt and Mr. Pentland.

45. The breadth of the table-land, and the two Cordilleras of the Bolivian Andes given in the text, was measured by Mr. Pentland; he also determined the heights of Illimani to be 21,150 feet; of Supäíwasi or Huayna Potosi, 20,260 feet; and of Ancohuma or the Nevado of Sorata, 21,290 feet.

46. Baron Humboldt.

47. Baron Humboldt.

48. It appears by the measurements of Mr. Pentland in the Peru-Bolivian Andes, that many of their passes are higher than in the equatorial portion of the chain. The passes of Rumihuasi, on the high road from Cusco to Arequipa, of Toledo (between Arequipa and Puno), of Gualillas and Chullunquiani (between Arica and La Paz), all in the Western Cordillera, attain the respective elevations of 16,160, 15,790, 14,750, and 15,160 feet;—whilst in the Eastern or Bolivian Cordillera the passes of Challa (between Oruro and Cochabamba), of Pacuani (between La Paz and Coröico), of Pumapacheta (between the lake of Titicaca and the affluents to the Amazon), of Vilcañoto (between the valley of the Collao and that of the river Yucay), rise to heights of 13,600, 15,350, 13,600, and 14,520 English feet.

49. Dr. Pœppig.

50. Baron Humboldt.

51. Baron Humboldt’s Personal Narrative.

52. Captain King, R. N., and Mr. Darwin.

53. Sir Woodbine Parish on Buenos Ayres, and Sir Francis Head’s Journey over the Pampas.

54. Mr. Pentland found a very perfect volcanic crater, with well-marked currents of lava issuing from it—a rare occurrence in the higher craters of the Andes—near to San Pedro de Cacha, in the valley of the Yucay (lat. 14° 12ʹ, long. 71° 15ʹ W., and at an elevation of 12,000 feet), near to the ruins of the Temple of the Inga Viracocha, a monument and a locality celebrated in Peruvian legend, the nearest point of the sea-coast being 175 miles distant. It is probable that many of the most celebrated mining districts of Alto Peru—Potosi, for instance, situated in a porphyry—have been upheaved at a very recent period. Modern volcanic rocks are not wanting in the valley of the Desaguadero; volcanic conglomerates exist in the deep ravines round the city of La Paz. lat. 16° 30ʹ; and the mountain of Litanias, which furnishes the building-stone for that Bolivian city (lat. 16° 42ʹ, long. 68° 19¹⁄₂ʹ), is composed of a most perfect trachyte, and rises to a height of 14,500 feet above, and at a distance of 160 miles from the Pacific.

55. Dr. Pœppig.

56. Mr. Pentland found fossil shells of the Silurian period at a height of 17,500 feet, on the Bolivian Nevado of Antakäua, lat. 16° 21ʹ, and those of the carboniferous limestone as high as 14,200 in several parts of Upper Peru.

57. Mr. Darwin’s Journal of Travels in South America.

58. Mr. Darwin’s Journal of Travels in South America.

59. Johnston’s Physical Atlas.

60. Baron Humboldt.

61. [Notes on the North-west, or Valley of the Upper Mississippi. By Wm. J. A. Bradford. New York, 1846.]

62. Mr. Taylor.

63. Sir Charles Lyell’s Travels in North America.

64. A chain of mountains is assumed to be a three-sided horizontal prism, whose height is the mean elevation of the chain, and the base the mean length and breadth of the same, or the area on which the chain stands, and thus its mass may be computed approximately. It is evident that a table-land must have a greater effect on the mean height of a continent than a chain of mountains, for, supposing both to be of the same base and altitude, one would be exactly double the other; and even if the mountains be the higher of the two, their upper parts contain much less solid matter than their lower on account of the intervals and deep valleys between the peaks.

65. The author is indebted to the “Physical Geography of North America” by H. D. Rogers, Esq., of the United States, for much valuable information.

66. Dr. Richardson on the Fauna of the High Latitudes of North America.

67. Sir Charles Lyell.

68. This remarkable analogy between the fossil remains of the Silurian systems in the Old and New World has been more particularly shown by the researches of Messrs. de Verneuil and Sharpe.

69. According to M. Charpentier, the area of the base of the Pyrenees is 1720 square English miles. As the mean elevation of the passes gives the mean height of the mountains, Baron Humboldt estimated from the height of 23 passes over the Pyrenees that the mean crest of that chain is 7990 feet high, which is 300 feet higher than the mean height of the Alps, though the peaks in the Alps have a greater elevation than those of the Pyrenees in the ratio 1⁴⁄₁₀ to 1.

70. The Russian Academicians MM. Fuss and Bunge, found by barometrical measurement the mean height of that part of the Eastern Asiatic table-land lying between Lake Baikal and the Great Wall of China to be only about 6960 feet. The smallness of this mean is owing to hollows in the table-land, especially in the desert of the Great Gobi.

71. By the mensuration and computation of Baron Humboldt and Mr. Pentland, the elevation of the highest peaks, and the mean heights of the Himalaya, of the equatorial and Bolivian Andes and the Alps, are as follows:—

However, the Peak of Dhawalaghini is certainly 28,000 feet high. Captain Gerard gives 18,000 or 19,000 feet as the height of the snow-line on the mountains in the middle of the Asiatic table-land, and 30,000 feet as the absolute elevation of the Kuen-lun, but Colonel Sabine observes that these measures want confirmation.

72. Memoirs of Count Strzelecki.

73. Count Strzelecki.

74. M. Von Buch.

75. —— Mansel, Esq.

76. Mr. Darwin on Coral Reefs.

77. Supplement to the Observations on the Temple of Serapis, by Charles Babbage, Esq.

78. By Mr. Jukes, Naturalist to the Surveying Voyage of Captain Blackwood, R. N., in Torres Straits.

79. Another theory relative to the formation of the lagoon islands is, that the coral circuit is but the edge of a submarine elevation crater, on which the coral animals have raised their edifice. This view, which has been adopted by Von Buch and Captain Beechy, to whom we are indebted more than to any other navigator for positive information and admirable surveys of the coral islands of the Pacific, receives corroboration from the perfect conformity in shape between many of the lagoon islands of the Gambier group and the known elevation craters, and from the circumstance of a lagoon island having been seen to rise in 1825, in lat. 30° 14ʹ, accompanied with smoke, and communicating so high a temperature to the surrounding sea as rendered it impossible to land.—See Beechy’s Voyages, and Pœppig’s Reise.

80. Few books have more interest than Mr. Darwin’s on Coral Reefs and Volcanic Islands, to which the author is much indebted. Consult also Captain Beechy’s Voyages, and his beautiful charts of the Coral Islands in the Pacific.

81. By the Nautical Survey in 1848.

82. Sir Stamford Raffles on Java.

83. Mr. Darwin on Volcanic Islands.

84. Mr. Douglas’s Voyage to the Sandwich Islands in 1833-4.—Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London.

85. Letter from Alex. Loudon, Esq., in the Journal of the Geographical Society of London.

86. Mitchell on the Causes of Earthquakes, in Philosophical Transactions for 1760.

87. Captain Graah’s Survey in 1823-4, and Dr. Pingel, 1830-2.

88. Lyell’s Principles of Geology, in 8vo. See also Mr. Darwin’s observations on the same subject, in the voyage of the Adventure and Beagle.

89. Remarks on the Antarctic Continent and Southern Islands, by Robert MacCormick, Esq., Surgeon of H.M.S. Erebus.

90. Captain Cook discovered Sandwich Land in 1772-5.—Captain Smith, of the brig William, discovered New South Shetland in 1819.—Captain Billingshausen discovered Peter’s Island, and the coast of Alexander the First.—Captain Weddel discovered the Southern Orcades.—Captain Bisco discovered Enderby’s Land and Graham’s Land in 1832, Admiral d’Urville La Terre d’Adelie in 1841; and Sir James Ross Victoria Land in the same year.

91. The author owes much information on British mines to two publications on the Mining District of the North of England, by J. Sopwith, Esq., Civil Engineer, and Mr. Leithart, Mine Agent. On the Cornish mines she has derived much information from the writings of John Taylor, Esq., and Sir Charles Lemon, Bart.; from a store of valuable materials contained in the “Progress of the Nation,” by G. R. Porter, Esq.; from the Statistical Journal; and on the general distribution of minerals over the globe, from the “Penny Cyclopædia,” and various other sources.

92. The metals are gold, silver, platinum, copper, lead, tin, iron, zinc, arsenic, bismuth, antimony, nickel, quicksilver, manganese, cadmium, cerium, cobalt, iridium, uranium, chrome, lantanium, molybdenum, columbium, osmium, palladium, pelapium, tantalum, tellurium, rhodium, titanium, vanadium, tungsten, dydynium, ferbium, erbium. The three last are little known.

Sir Humphry Davy discovered that lime, magnesia, alumine, and other similar substances, are metals combined with oxygen. There are thirteen of these metalloids, namely—calcium, magnesium, aluminum, glucinum, thorium, yttrium, zirconium, strontium, barium, lithium, natrium, potassium, and silicium.

93. This subject is ably discussed by Mr. Leithart in his work, already mentioned, on the formation and filling of metallic veins. Mr. Leithart is an instance of the intelligence that prevails among miners, notwithstanding the scanty opportunities of acquiring that knowledge which they are generally so eager to obtain. He was a working miner, whose only education was at a Sunday-school.

94. Mineral veins are generally richer near the surface than at great depths: this is particularly the case in the mines of the precious metals in America, where the greatest quantities of ore have been found near the surface—a fact that may be explained by supposing the mineral substances brought by sublimation from the interior of the earth, and deposited where the temperature was lowest at or near the surface in the rocks among which they are situated.

95. Rotation alone produces electrical currents in the earth.—“Connection of the Physical Sciences,” page 364, 7th edition.

96. J. Taylor, Esq., on Cornish mines.

97. The total amount of steam-power in Great Britain in 1833 was equal to that of 2,000,000 of men.—J. Taylor, Esq., on Cornish Mines.

98. The splendid discovery of Sir Humphry Davy, that flame does not pass through fine wire-gauze, prevents the fatal explosion of inflammable air in the mines, by which thousands of lives have been lost. By means of a light enclosed in a wire-gauze lantern, a miner now works with safety surrounded by fire-damp. To the honour of the illustrious author of this discovery, be it observed that it was not, like that of gunpowder and others, the unforeseen result of chance by new combinations of matter, but the solution of a question based on scientific experiment and induction, which it required the genius of a philosophic mind like his to arrive at.

99. Supposing the barometer to be 30 inches on the level of the sea.

100. Note to the English translation of Kosmos, by Colonel Sabine, on the depths below the surface of the earth attained by man.

101. Dr. Pœppig’s “Travels in Chile and Peru.”

102. Dr. Pœppig.

103. Constructed under the direction of Thomas Sopwith, Esq.

104. Sir Charles Lemon, Bart.

105. M. Erman’s “Travels in Siberia.”

106. In 1841 there were 196,921 persons employed in the mines of Great Britain and Ireland.

107. In the year 1829 the value of the mineral produce of Europe, including Asiatic Russia, but exclusive of manganese, amounted to—

England contributed more than half this amount, namely,—

—nearly £29,000,000 sterling.—John Taylor, Esq., on the Cornish Mines.

At present there are 34,000,000 of tons of coals consumed in Great Britain annually, besides the quantity exported to our colonies and to foreign countries, amounting to nearly 2,000,000 of tons. 8,000,000 of tons are consumed in our iron-foundries alone. Between 500,000 and 600,000 tons are used in making gas.

The iron made in Britain in 1844 amounted to 1,400,000 tons. Iron is now applied to many uses instead of timber, especially in ship-building: between the years 1830 and 1847, 150 iron vessels were launched in Britain. 25 of the steamships of the East India Company are of iron.

The produce of our copper-mines has increased threefold within the last 60 years. The quantity of tin has also increased from our own mines, and also from the extensive importation of that metal from Banca, where the country yielding stream-tin extends from 7° N. lat. to 3° S. lat. The yearly produce amounts to 300 tons of pure metal.—“Progress of the Nation, in its Social and Commercial Relations, since the beginning of the Nineteenth Century,” by G. R. Porter, Esq., 2d edition.

In France there are 62 coal-mines, which yielded 3,410,200 tons in 1841, and in 1838 the 12 iron districts in that country yielded to the value of 4,975,424l.

The British coal and metal imported into France amounted to 1,222,228l.—Progress of the Nation.

Belgium is next to Britain as a European coal country. In Britain the coalfields occupy one-twentieth part of the area of the country—in Belgium one twenty-second part—in France one two hundred and tenth part of its area.

The quantity of coal raised in one year is, according to “The Statistics of Germany,” by R. Valpy, Esq.—

[The following table exhibits the quantity and value of coal produced, in the six principal coal countries in the world, in the year 1845:—

The coal trade appears to be increasing in all parts of the world.

There are no authentic data from which the increasing production of bituminous coal in the United States can be exactly deduced, but what we have show that it is very rapid. The production of anthracite may be said to be entirely confined to the State of Pennsylvania, which possesses a numerous and interesting group of coal basins, of various sizes and characters.

In the year 1820, the anthracite coal trade commenced with 365 tons; in 1827 it reached 48,047 tons; in 1837, 881,026 tons, and advanced to 3,000,000 tons in 1847.

The following table exhibits the production of smelted or manufactured iron in different countries in the year 1845:—

The rapid increase in the number of railroads and locomotive engines, and the number of steam vessels employed in commerce, augments the demand, proportionally, for iron and fuel.

At the commencement of 1847, the length of railroad completed and partly finished in the principal countries of Europe and America was 20,000 miles, only a few thousand miles less than the entire circumference of the globe.]^[108]