Physics
Scientific paper
May 1870
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1870natur...2...26w&link_type=abstract
Nature, Volume 2, Issue 28, pp. 26-27 (1870).
Physics
Scientific paper
RELUCTANT as I am to meddle with geographical discoveries made by the `` high priori road,'' I cannot refrain from protesting against erroneous statements, which, if left uncontradicted, may acquire currency. The zealous geographer of former times sought for truth and accuracy. Treasuring truth, his knowledge increased with his information. But fashions are now changed. It has been found that one who starts in ignorance may every day alight on some novelty and wonder ; and that since anything may be proved by data made for the purpose, the best mode of treating preceding information is to corrupt, change, and distort it as the case may require, so that instead of fettering invention, it may serve as proof of endless new discoveries. Captains Burton and Speke examined the northern end of what they called Lake Tanganyika. They saw it narrowing to a point and enclosed by hills, called by the latter officer the Mountains of the Moon. Six rivers, they learned, flowed into it from those hills. They did not examine nor approach the southern end of the lake ; they differed in their accounts of it; and Captain Burton, in writing that it was often circumnavigated by the Arabs, made a statement repugnant to common sense. The pedlar Arabs cross the lake in ill-built boats, with savage crews, navigating only in daylight. They navigate it no more than is absolutely necessary for their trade with the interior, and not for pleasure or scientific purposes. Captain Speke measured the altitude of the lake, and on his second journey, going to a great extent over the same ground, he saw no reason to be dissatisfied with his previous hypsometrical observations. The result of his observation at Gondokoro was thought to prove the accuracy of his instruments. Yet the account given of the northern end of the lake is now rejected, while that of the southern end is obstinately adhered to ; and as to the elevation of the lake, the à priori geographers find it convenient to add 1,000 feet to that assigned by Captain Speke.
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