The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-11 00:00:00

I'HE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVEAING, MAY 11, 186 a,

Naval and Military Intelligence.

Instructions have been received at the port of
Plymouth by Mr. Luscombe, the vice-consul for
Russia, to prepare for the temporary reception of
the remains of the Czarewitch. The squadron in
charge consists of the frigate Alexander Newsky,
Capt. Fedowfsky, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral
Lessofsky, the frigate Ileg, Capt. Bironleff, the cor-
vette Witias, Capt. Krehmer, and the clipper Almas,
Capt. Zeleuoy. The body is in charge of Gen. An-
nenkow, Aide-de-Camp-Gen. On arrival in the
Sound the squadron will be received with flags
hoistedhalf-mast high, and by Royal salutes of 21
guns, fired in slow time from the citadel at Ply-
mouth, and from the Royal Adelaide, 26, Capt.
Frederick B. P. Seymour, C. 8., in Hamoaze, which
bears the flag of Port-Admiral Sir Charles H. Free-
mantle, K.C.B.

The Deputy Director of Works to the Admiralty,
Mr. Scamp, has just conclnded an official visit to
Portsmouth, during which he has been engaged in
inspecting the lines which mark the sites of the
docks, basins, &c., in the plan approved for the ex-
tension of Portsmouth dockyard. The soil where
the excavations for the docks and basins will have
to be made has been found most favourable, and the
accuracy of the lines marked out having been tested
by the Deputy Director of Works the details of con-
struction will, it is understood, be now prepared.
Although the work as it is now to be carried out is
only a part of Mr. Scamp's original design for the
extension of the dockyard and the improvement of
the harbour, it will take from the harbour many
acres of its water space. In the elaborate report
drawn up by Mr. Scamp on the condition of Ports-
mouth dockyard and the means he proposed for
their extension and improvement, and in his
evidence before the Committee of the House
of Commons on the same subject, an ample
compensating remedy is proposed for the loss
of this water space by taking advantage of
the flow of the tide from Chichester and Langston
harbours into that of Portsmouth through the con-
necting channel in front of the Hilsea defensive lines
on the north shore of Portsea Island. This is the
point at which there is the only road communication
between Portsmouth and its dockyard and the main
land. The peculiar state of the tide in this connect-
ing channel between the harbours of Chichester and
Langston and that of Portsmouth, which gives Mr.
Scamp this means of compensation for any loss of
water space in the latter harbour, is that the tides from
Langston and Chichester flow through the connecting
channel into Portsmouth harbour for two hours after
the ebb has commenced at the mouth of Portsmouth
harbour, on the west side of Portsea Island. It is
evident, therefore, from this well-understood fact that
by giving increased area and depth to the new chan-
nel which is now forming in front of the new defen-
sive works at Hilsea, and by the aid of retaining
gates, to prevent the return of any portion of the
tide from Portsmouth to the two feeding harbours,
a vast volume of water may each day be added to the
contents of Portsmouth harbour. This will give the
ebb tide proportionate preponderance over the flood,
and thus increase its " scour," thereby removing the
singular shingle foundation in the centre of the har-
bour known as the " Ballast-bank," and also the
shingle " bar" in the entrance channel. These latter
results would not only render Portsmouth harbour
and its channel of entrance perfect-in its interior com-
munication and approaches for ships of war between
30ft. and 40ft. draught of water, if we should ever
determine to build such monsters, but they would also
save a large annual expenditure under the head, as
shown in the Naval Estimates, of " dredging." The
defensive lines at Hilsea, commenced some five or six
years since by the War Department, have been greatly
delayed by the failure of successive contractors and
other unavoidable causes, and the delay in the com-
pletion of these works has necessarily delayed the
formation of the new harbours'-connecting channel;
at the same time the old channel has been also prac-
tically stopped. Now, however, a fresh contract has
been entered into to complete the last portion of the
fortifications—the earthen ramparts and curtains
that will connect the formidable flank casemated
batteries, the battery earthwork coverings, the new
roadway, and the harbours'-connecting channel ;
the latter, it is understood, to be carried on the plan
proposed by Mr. Scamp, and thus insure the elii-
Ciency of Portsmouth harbour and its dockyard as
Our chief naval station.

The trial of the engines of the screw steam iron-
cased cupola ship Scorpion, 4, built by Messrs. Laird,
of Birkenhead, took place on Monday outside Ply-
mouth breakwater. She made eight runs at the mea-
sured mile, which gave a mean of 11.448 knots per
hour. The circle was turned in 4 min. 31 sec.

The Pembroke, 60, 200-horse power, Capt. J. 0.
Johnson, flagship of Commodore A. F. Ryder, Con-
troller-General of the Coastguard, is ordered from
Harwich to theNore, for the purpose of being taken
into one of the vacant docks, either at Chatham or
Sheerness, for the purpose of undergoing an over-
haul and refit. A party of riggers and labourers will
at the same time be dispatched from the dockyard
to Harwich, under the orders of Commander Hodges,
the assistant master-attendant, to examine the Pem-
broke's moorings in 'Harwich harbour.
The screw gunvessel Serpent, 4, 200-horse power,
Commander Bullock, fitting at Sheerness for sur-
veying service in the Eastern Seas, is nearly com-
plete in her equipment, and awaits Admiralty order
as to the date for her leaving the Nore. She takes
out with her a large supply of hydrographical
and surveying instruments, together with the neces-
sary appliances for carrying on the duties in which
she will be engaged. The whole of her officers and
crew have joined, and her guns; shot, shell, &c.,
have been despatched to her from Chatham dock-
yard. The Serpent is expected to be absent from
England several years.

Yesterday the Racehorse, which has been taken
up by the Government for the conveyance of con-
victs to Western Australia, received on board 153
convicts from St. Mary's Prison, Chatham, who
were conveyed from Chatham to the Nore in the
paddlewheel steamer Adder, Master-Commander
Blakey. The Racehorse will call in at Portsmouth
and Portland for the remainder of the convicts, the
total number she takes out being close upon 500.
The guard is selected from old pensioners who are
about to settle in Australia.

The Lords of the Admiralty have awarded Mr.
P. Thornton, the master shipbuilder at Chatham
dockyard, a gratuity of £5O, in acknowledgment of
their lordships' approbation of the unprecedentedly
short time in which the ironclad frigate Bellerophon,
16, 1,000-horse power, was completed and launched.
Their lordships, at the same time, 'express, in an
Admiralty order addressed to the Captain Super-
intendent, the master shipwright, and the officers
and workmen employed on that vessel, their satis-
faction at the great progress made in building the
Bellerophon, which, as already noticed in The
Sun, was launched exactly twelve months after
she was commenced. The frigate is still alongside
the dockyard putting in the
heavy portions Hof
her machinery and boilers, six of the latter and two
lengths of shafting, together with a considerable
amount of the machinery, having already been
hoisted on board. According to existing arrange-
ments it is intended to dock the Bellerophon on the
22d inst., providing her iron masts, which are being
manufactured by the Woodside Iron Company,
Birkenhead, arrive in time, the paddle-wheel steamer
Medusa, 312-horse power, Master Commander J.
Allard, having been ordered to proceed round to the
Mersey to convey them to Chatham. The state-
ments which have appeared from time to time in
certain of the morning papers relative to the defec-
tive and leaky state of the vessel since her launching
are incorrect.

The following appointments were made yesterday,
at the Admiralty --Commander E. F. Kerby, Com-
mander J. W. Pike, Commander J. Z. Creasy, and
Commander Josiah H. Hatehard, to be Inspecting
Commanders in the Coastguard ; and Sidney J.
Spark, paymaster, to be paymaster in the charge of
the victualling establishment at Esquimault, Van-
couver's Island.

The following appointment has been made in the
Royal Naval Reserve :--To bo assist.-engineer of
the second class, John Darroch.

MEXlCO.—Matamoras papers of 'the 13th ultimo
make no mention of the rumoured revolt of Cortinas.
Companies of citizens and aliens had been formed there
to preserve order. The consuls had organised the citizens
of their respective nationalities.

Royal Geographical Society.

The 40th meeting of the present session of this
society was held on Monday evening, at Burling-
ton-house--Sir R. I. Murchison, president, in the
chair.

The : irst paper was " On the specific gravity,
temper; uture, and currents of the seas passed
through "between England and India," by Captain
Toynbee, R.N. The author, in this paper, recorded
the princi "pal observations which he had made, with
instrumet its supplied by the Board of Trade, during
five voyal ;es to India, leaving England on the Ist
July and returning about the middle of April. It
was the constant recurrence of certain phenomena
in the co,: ndition of the sea, in the same place and
at the sf uue time of the year, that had led him to
think they might be interesting to the public, as
pointing to some important conclusions regarding
the ph3 Tical geography of the sea. He found in the
Atlanti c that the specific gravity of the sea de-
creased on approaching the equator—a result due
to the rains falling between the north-east and
south-e of trades ; and in the southern Indian
Ocean, :in the rainy season (Jan. and Feb.), the
whole ocean was, affected by the rains then falling
south of the line. With regard to the temperature,
his numel rolls observations during the five voyages
(the chief results of which he had tabulated) in the
first place threw some light on the cold current
which swept in August northward along the West
Coast a Africa. This, he found reason to conclude,
curved sharply to the westward shortly after crossing
the line i.n about 17 deg. W. long. The further to the
east of this the colder was the water. Onoe, between
1 30 deg.. and 0 30 deg. N. lat., he found its tempe-
rature descended as low as 70 deg. (Fahrenheit),
making the air quite cool and damp. In March
this current is of a higher temperature, because it
has then flowed from the south after the southern
summer. The author confirmed the views of Tow-
son regarding the direction of the tracks of icebergs
in the south Atlantic, and showed that the very low
temperature of the sea in Table Bay (51 deg. in
February)was due to the current setting from the
ice-bearing sea, and that this was also the source of
the great West African current. A few miles to
the south-east of the Cape the sea greatly increases
in warmth, and along the parallel of about 40 deg.
running from the meridian of Greenwich to 50 E.
there was found in each voyage a succession of lanes
alternately of hot and cold water—the hot as high
as 67 deg. (Fahrenheit), and the cold as low as 40
deg. Were it not for the rush of warm water down
the Mozambique Channel the ice-streams travelling
north-eastward would not be deflected as now to
the south-east, but would go forward and render
the passage round the Cape much more dangerous
than it is. After giving further details on this im-
portant subject, the author concluded by recom-
mending outward-bound ships to delay crossing the
40th parallel till the longitude of 10 deg. E. is
reached. As the sea on the Agulhas Bank is always
several degrees colder than that to the eastward of
it, the thermometer is a good guide to tell a ship
when she is coming near the land.

After some remarks from Admiral COLLINSON on
the great importance of Captain Toynbee's observa-
tions,

Commander DAVIS said that great errors in the
observations made on the temperature and specific
gravity of the sea arose from the fact that the water
experimented upon was generally taken directly
from the surface, which was likely to be acted upon
by solar radiation, the descent of rain, and other
purely local circumstances. More value would be
attached to these observations if the water were
taken from a depth of two or three fathoms.
Captain TOYNBEE replied that he had taken water
for experiment from various depths. He thought
the observations contained in his paper were not
liable to error from local and temporary conditions
of the sea, as he had found the same phenomena
repeated in pretty nearly the same parts of the
ocean and at the same periods of the year during
five successive voyages.
' Mr. F. GALTON bore witness to the accuracy of
Capt. Toynbee's remarks about the cold current
along the coast of Africa. He had himself experi-
enced the low temperature at the mouth of the
Swakop river, in the height of the southern summer ;
he and his men suffering keenly from the relative
Cold compared with what they had experienced in
the interior.

The next paper was " On the Rovuma River, East
Africa," by Dr. Kirk. The author stated that this
river was of interest to the English public as being
the first of any importance on the 600 miles of
coast north of the Zambesi, and opposite that blank
on the map where the great problem in African
geography remains to be solved, and the head
waters of the Nile, Congo, and Zambesi yet de-
fined. It lies within the jurisdiction of the Sultan
of Zanzibar, and is accessible to small vessels, hav-
ing no bar. He accompanied Dr. Livingstone on
two journeys up the river in 1861 and 1862 in the
second he reached the rapids which limit naviga-
tion, a little more than 100 miles from the coast
and halfway to the east bank of Lake Nyassa. A
little beyond this point the river is joined by the
Niende, flowing from the south-west, but the main
stream comes from the north-west, and none of the
natives seemed to have any knowledge of its course.

The PRESIDENT stated that the Rovuma was the
entrance by which Dr. Livingstone, who had
recently received the appointment of Consul to the
independent chief of Central Africa, and was about
to start on his third journey of exploration, in-
tended to penetrate the great unknown interior.
He would endeavour to proceed up the north-
western branch, which would enable him to pass all
those obstacles offered by tribes nearer the coast
connected with the slave traffic. His chief object
on reaching the interior would be to solve the great
problem of the watershed of Central Africa, by as-.
certaining the nature of the connection (if any) be-
tween the great lakes, whichthemselve,s are still im-
perfectly known. Should it be the doctor's good
fortune to reach the northern end of Lake Tangan-
yika, he would be able to determine the great ques-
tion of the ultimate source of the Nile.

A thirdpaper was " On a visit to unexplored parts
of North Madagascar," by Dr. Gunst. This was
an account of a journey which the author had re-
cently performed in the first place from Tamatave
to Tananarivo and back, and thence along the east
coast northward to Vobemaro, touching on the way
at the port of Agouzy. Being furnished with letters
fromKingßadama he was allowed to travel in the in-
terior from this place, and visited mountain ranges
to examine them for traces of metals. He dis-
covered here tin ore, gold, and traces of copper, and
saw an abundance of copal trees in the forest. His
explorations came to an end by his being seized by
a party of Hova soldiers in the interior, robbed of
all he possessed, bound with cords, and dragged for
a long distance over the ground. The news of the
outrage reached the French commander at St. Mary,
who sent a vessel to bring him away, soon after
which he returned to the Island of Bourbon, and
thence to Europe.
Before the adjournment of the meeting, the Pre-
sident announced that a telegram had that day been
received from Colonel Pelly, stating that he had
returned in safety to Bushire, after leading his party
to the Wahabite capital, in the interior of Arabia,
and back. We might now hope to have shortly
much new geographical information regarding this
little-known country.
The anniversary meeting and dinner of the society
were announced as to take place on Monday, May
22..

THE TURNPIKE ABOLITION MOVEMEGT.—The
second reading of the bill for the abolition of tolls, intro-
duced by Mr. Whalley, is fixed for the 17th inst., before
which day petitions in suppoet of that object should be
forwarded. In accordance with the recommendation of
the committee of the Turnpike Abolition Society, the bill
proposes to abolish turnpike tolls throughout the king-
dom by voluntary acceptance on the part of the parir,hes
interested.

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