CHAPTER IX.

MADRAS.

"Catamarans" and "Masuli" Boats.--Difficulty of Disembarkation, and Plans for remedying it.--History.--Brahminism.--Festival in Honour of Vishnù.--Employment of Heathens under a Christian Government.--Politics and Religion.--Laws of Brahminic Faith.-- The Observatory.--Museum of Natural History and Zoological Garden.--Academy of Fine Arts.--Medical School.--Infirmary.-- Orphan Asylum.--Dr. Bell.--Lancastrian Method of Teaching Children first Applied in Madras.--Colonel Mackenzie's Collection of Indian Inscriptions and MSS.--The Palace of the former Nabob of the Coromandel Coast.--Journey by Rail to Vellore.--_Féte_ given by the Governor in Guindy Park.--Visit to the Monolithic Monuments of Mahamalaipuram.--Excursion to Pulicat Lake.--Madras Club.--_Féte_ in Honour of the Members of the _Novara_ Expedition.--"Tiffin" and Dance on Board.-- Departure from Madras.--Zodiacal Light.--Shrove Tuesday in the Tropics.--Arrival at the Island of Kar-Nicobar. 424

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

VOL. I.

PAGE

The Track Of The Austrian Imperial Frigate Novara. _frontispiece_

Letter. iii

Letter Continued. iv

Notes. xvi

Departure. 1

Gun-room of the _Novara_. 4

Plate: Vertical Section of the Frigate "Novara". 7

Geodetical and Astronomical Instruments. 10

Look-out Man. 11

Track from Triest To Madeira. 11

"Palinurus". 16

Seamen off duty. 21

View of Gibraltar from Seaward. 28

Rock of Gibraltar. 29

Rock Cavern in Gibraltar. 34

South Gate, Gibraltar. 38

Inhabitant of Frangola. 47

Cape Trafalgar. 52

Loo Rock (Madeira). 57

Scene in Madeira. 58

Bridge over the Ribeiro Seco. 70

Carapuça, or Cap worn by the Natives of Madeira. 91

Cathedral of Madeira. 95

Sleigh party in Madeira. 97

Village of Fayal. 99

"El Homem em pié". 101

Erica Trees. 103

Track From Madeira to Rio Di Janeiro. 107

Cape Frio. 120

The Quay at Rio. 121

Island of Paquità, Bay of Rio. 156

Track from Rio Di Janeiro to the Cape Of Good Hope. 182

Cabo Tormentoso. 195

Cape Town. 196

Rifle Volunteer _Fête_ at Stellenbosch. 217

Paine's Kloef as it was. 220

Paine's Kloef as it is. 220

Crossing the Breede River. 226

Hot Springs of Brand Vley. 227

Hottentot Huts at Genaadendal. 233

Church and Mission Houses of the Moravian Settlement at Genaadendal. 237

Tomb of a Malay Prophet at Zandvliet. 245

Interior of the Mausoleum. 246

Tsetse Fly. 252

Track from the Cape Of Good Hope to St. Paul's Island. 259

Arrival at St. Paul. 266

View of St. Paul. 267

Distant view of Crater-Basin of St. Paul. 275

Rainy day at St. Paul. 300

Track from St. Paul to Point De Galle (Ceylon). 309

Cingalese Canoe. 344

View of Adam's Peak from Colombo. 345

Buddha Temple near Galle. 353

Interior of a House at Galle. 359

Track from Point De Galle To Madras. 418

Masuli Boat at Madras. 423

View of Madras (and Proposed Pier). 424

The Holy Mountain. 458

The god Ganeza. 461

Bivouac at Mahamalaipuran. 464

Bas-relief on one of the Monolith Temples. 467

Entrance to One of the Temples. 470

Track from Madras to the Nicobar Islands. 480

Arrival at Kar-Nicobar. 482

Transcriber's Note: The text of the letter above, along with supplemental address information, are in the first volume of the German edition:

Sr. Hochwohlgeboren dem Herrn Oberst von Wüllerstorf, kais. kön. Linienschiffs-Capitän, Befehlshaber S. Maj. Fregatte Novara, Ritter hoher Orden &c. &c. &c. in Triest.

Hochwohlgeborener Herr,

Hochzuverehrender Herr Oberst, k. k. Linien-Schiffs-Capitän.

Ew. Hochwohlgeb. wollen, als Befehlshaber Sr. Maj. Fregatte Novara, die zu einem großen, edeln, das deutsche Vaterland und die Wissenschaft ehrenden Unternehmen durch kaiserliche Huld bestimmt ist, den Ausdruck meiner Verehrung nachsichtsvoll empfangen, indem ich, von der Zeit naher Abfahrt in halber Genesung bedrängt, es wage, Ihnen einige _physikalische_ und _geognostische Erinnerungen_ ganz gehorsamst vorzulegen, von denen Einiges vielleicht den ausgezeichneten Gelehrten, die die Expedition zu begleiten das Glück haben, von Nuzen sein kann. Ich würde dies Wenige nicht angeboten haben, wenn eine so genädige und liebenswürdige Aufforderung Sr. kaiserl. Hoheit des Herrn Erzherzogs Ferdinand Maximilian mich nicht dazu bestimmt hätte. Was ich Nautisches über Richtung und Temperatur der Meeresströhmungen, über die magnetischen Curven eingeflochten habe, muß ich besonders _Ihrer_ Nachsicht empfehlen. Wenn man erinnert, scheint man belehren zu wollen, und von dieser Anmaßung bin ich weit entfernt. Da kein Entwurf, keine Abschrift meiner, wenigstens fleißigen, mit Zahlen überladenen Arbeit existirt, so wäre es vielleicht vorsichtig, sie von Jemand, der der behandelten Gegenstände kundig ist, abschreiben zu lassen. Meine gelehrten und mir lieben Freunde Dr. Ferdinand Hochstetter, Dr. Karl Scherzer und Dr. Robert Lallemant, der mich bei seiner letzten Durchreise durch Berlin, um mir sein wichtiges Werk über das Gelbe Fieber in der Tropenzone zu geben, verfehlt hat, wage ich dringend Ihrem besonderen Schuze und Wohlwollen zu empfehlen.

Mit der innigsten Verehrung und den heißesten Wünschen für den Erfolg eines so schön vorbereiteten Unternehmens

Ew. Hochwohlgeboren

gehorsamster Al. Humboldt.

Berlin, den 7. April 1857 Nachts.

PHYSICAL AND GEOGNOSTIC SUGGESTIONS,

BY

ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT.

In compliance with the gracious invitation which H.I.H. the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian was pleased to address to me from Trieste (December 12th, 1856), and as yet barely recovered from an indisposition, I jot down these hasty notes, without presuming to give definite instructions, such as those I drew up, conjointly with M. Arago, for the guidance of the French expeditions, or for Lord Minto, then First Lord of the Admiralty, on the occasion of the Antarctic Voyage of Discovery of Sir James Ross (1840-43). The following pages consist simply of hints which may possibly prove serviceable to the distinguished and highly informed gentlemen, who have the good fortune to sail on board the Imperial Frigate, _Novara_, under the command of Commodore von Wüllerstorf. With two of these savans, Dr. Ferdinand Hochstetter and Dr. Karl Scherzer, I have had the pleasure, here in Berlin, to agree verbally on various subjects.

As I do not exactly know what course it is intended the _Novara_ shall follow in navigating the Atlantic, nor in what meridian it is proposed to cross the Equator, (in conformity with the sound and useful directions of my friend Lieut. Maury, of Washington), on her voyage to Rio de Janeiro, nor how near she shall keep to Cape San Roque and Fernando de Noronha, I must content myself with inviting the attention of the voyagers in a general way to the temperature of the sea, as also to the variations and aberrations of the magnetic curves, and their currents.

A lower degree of temperature is usually observed W. of the Canaries, and Cape Verde Islands, commencing with the Salvages, the thermometer indicating as low as 72°·7 Fahr. This has been already ascertained by Mr. Charles Deville, in his chart of temperature on the voyage "aux Antilles, à Ténériffe et à Fogo." I consider this diminution of temperature results from the North Guinea current, bringing with it cold water from the north southwards as far as the Bight of Biafra and the River Gaboon, at which point it is encountered by an opposite current flowing northwards along the south-western coast of Africa from Loando and Congo.

In 1825, Captain Duperrey had accurately laid down the point of intersection of the magnetic, with the terrestrial equator. In 1837, we learned from Sabine's investigations of magnetic inclination near the Island of St. Thomas (on the Equator, adjoining the above portion of the coast of Africa), that this point of intersection had already shifted four degrees to the westward. A period of twenty years having elapsed since Sabine's expedition for determining observations with the pendulum, it would be most desirable that fresh investigations should be made in that neighbourhood, for the purpose of verifying the secular changes of all magnetic curves, especially with regard to their variation. In 1840, the line of no declination in America began 9° 30' E. of South Georgia, whence it ran to the S.E. coast of Brazil, near Cape Frio, thus traversing the mainland of South America only between the latter point and the parallel of 0° 36' S., when it leaves the continent a little to the east of Gran Parà, near Cape Tigioca, cutting the terrestrial equator again, but in 50° 6' W. According to Bache's Map of Equal Magnetic Declination, it reaches the coast of North America near Cape Fear, to the south-west of Cape Lookout. This line, along which the magnetic declination is _nil_, extends to a point in Lake Erie, 2° 40' W. of Toronto, where the declination is already 1° 27' W.[2]

[Footnote 2: Wherever, in this paper, it is not precisely expressed to the contrary, the scale of the Centigrade Thermometer, the longitude from the Meridian of Paris, the French foot (_pied du roi_=12·79 inches English), and the geographical mile, 15 to a degree of the Equator, measuring 3807 "toises," are meant.]

It is evident from the observations of Captains Beechey and Findley, and still more particularly from those of the French Captain Kerhallet, that the remarkable subdivision of the main equinoctial current, flowing from east to west into two branches, one directed to the N.W., the other to the S.S.W., commences at a considerable distance from the Capes of St. Roque and St. Augustin. This bifurcation has always, and with good reason, been ascribed to the protruding convexity of the South American continent at these two promontories. It would be an important step gained in verifying the theory of currents, could the precise distance be ascertained by chronometer. It is apparently like an "_actio in distans_," probably a phenomenon of what is known as "packing." As the frigate, on leaving Rio de Janeiro is to make for the Cape of Good Hope, the opportunity will present, should she steer sufficiently southerly, for many interesting observations with respect to the _connecting current_ W.N.W. and E.S.E. which encounters that from Madagascar and Mozambique, close to the Cape, more especially with regard to the temperature of the sea.

If the frigate is intended to approach the small cluster of islands of Fernando de Noronha, E. of Pernambuco (Lat. 3° 50' S.), I would recommend to that excellent geognostic, Dr. Hochstetter, the hornblendic phonolithe rock found there, far from a volcanic crater, but with trachytic dykes and basaltic amygdaloid. The flat little island of St. Paul (Peñedo de San Pedro), 1° N. Lat., singular to say, is not volcanic at all, containing, like the Malouin or Falkland Islands, slaty green-stone passing into serpentine.

Should the frigate alter her course and cross the Equator more to the eastward, without touching at Rio de Janeiro, she might possibly fall in with the Marine Volcanic region, (Lat. 0° 20' S., Long. 22° W.), which has quite lately become famous again by the U. S. Expedition of the Brig _Dolphin_ (1854), commanded by Lieutenant Lee. On 19th May, 1806, columns of black smoke were seen issuing from the sea by Krusenstern, and volcanic ashes were gathered, after a singular bubbling of the sea from 1748 to 1836, according to careful investigations by Daussy.

As the frigate is commissioned to visit Ceylon and the Nicobar Islands, she cannot sail direct from the Cape to Australia; and the hope must therefore be abandoned of her visiting the small basaltic islands, known as Prince Edward's (47° 2' S., 38° E.), and Possession (46° 28' S., 47° 30' E.), belonging to the Crozet's Group, or the two islands, long confounded with each other, of Amsterdam (Lat. 37° 48' S.) and St. Paul (Lat. 38° 38' S.) The latter island, the more southerly of the two, (a very characteristic drawing of which was given by Willem de Vlaming so far back as 1696), is supposed to be volcanic, not only by its form, which will at once remind the geologist of Santorin, Barren Island, and Deception Island, (one of the New Shetland group), but also in consequence of the eruption of steam, and the flames occasionally observed there.

As for Amsterdam, which consists of a single densely-wooded mountain, the puzzle remains for solution as to how, during the expedition of D'Entrecasteaux in 1792, the whole island seemed, during two entire days, enveloped in smoke; whereas, on landing there, the naturalists of that expedition were satisfied that the mountain was not an active volcano, and that the columns of steam issued out of the ground near the shore! As yet, the phenomenon remains entirely unexplained.

If we examine any map of the Indian Ocean, we may trace the continuation of the Sunda group from Sumatra, N.W., through the Nicobar, and Great and Little Andaman Islands, and thence through the volcanoes of Barren Island, Narcondam and Cheduba, nearly parallel with the coasts of Malacca and Tenasserim, all on the eastern part of the Bay of Bengal. The minor volcanoes just enumerated will present valuable opportunities of geological enquiry.

Along the coasts of Orissa and Coromandel, the western portion of the Bay of Bengal is quite free of islands, Ceylon, like Madagascar presenting rather the type of a continent.

Off the W. coast of the peninsula of India, (that is opposite the Neilgherrie hills, and the coast of Canara and Malabar), there is a series of three archipelagoes, extending from 14° N. to 8° S., viz., the Laccadives, the Maldives, and the Chagos, which appears, as it were, continued through the banks of Sahia di Malha, and Cargados Carajos, to the volcanic group of the Mascarenhas and Madagascar. As the first-named archipelagoes, so far as is yet known, consist solely of coral, and are, consequently, true "atolls," or reef-lagoons, the bottom of the ocean should be examined over a large extent, adopting the ingenious hypothesis of Darwin, that it is to be considered _as an area of subsidence_, rather than an elevated region.

It would also be a matter of great importance to get observations respecting terrestrial magnetism, particularly so as to define the position of a given segment of the magnetic equator. Capt. Elliott, as the result of his comprehensive studies, (1846-49), ascertained that the magnetic equator passes through the north end of Borneo, and thence nearly due W. to the northern extremity of Ceylon. In this region the curve of minimum intensity is nearly parallel to the magnetic equator, which intersects the Continent of Africa near Cape Guardafui--according to Rochet d'Héricourt, in lat. 10° 7' N., long. 38° 5'. E. Between this point and the Bight of Biafra nothing is known.

The South Asiatic islands comprise Formosa, the Philippines, the Sunda group, and the Moluccas. The great and little Sunda Islands and the Moluccas embrace 109 volcanoes, with fiery eruptions, and 10 what are called mud-volcanoes. This is not a mere estimate, but is the result of an enumeration by Junghuhn, who, within the last year (1856), has returned to Java, and thoroughly equipped by M. Pahud, Governor-General of the Indian Netherlands, will be of great assistance to the Imperial Expedition.

An exact mineralogical determination of the volcanic rocks (trachytes) is unfortunately wanting everywhere.

The most active volcano of Sumatra is the Gunung Merapi (8980 feet), which must not be confounded with a volcano in Java, of the same name. That of Sumatra was ascended by Dr. L. Horner, and Dr. Korthals in 1834. We may pronounce Indrapura (11,500 feet, but this measurement is very uncertain), and Gunung Pasoman (9010 feet), the Ophir of our maps, to be utterly unknown geologically. The highest of the Java volcanoes is Gunung Semeru (11,480 feet), ascended by Junghuhn in 1844, 1220 feet higher than the Etna. The largest craters of the 45 which are disposed in a line along the shores of Java, are Gunung Tengger, and Gunung Raou. Dr. Junghuhn has recently given the outlines of each separate volcano in his splendid topographical and geological map of Java, in four sheets, published in 1856, which does great credit to the Dutch Government.

The following subjects are worthy of special attention while the frigate is at Java.

1. The curious phenomenon of the ribbed surface. (_Vide_ Junghuhn, Java,