F. GEOGRAPHY. 141 



F. GEOGRAPHY. 



pavy's explorations. 



Mr. Octave Pavy now announces his intention of starting 

 very soon from San Francisco on that raft expedition to the 

 pole about which so much has been heard for the last twelve 

 months. He proposes to take with him Dr. Chesmore, who 

 has had much experience in Alaska, Captain Mack, the sea- 

 man who crossed the Atlantic on the raft Nonpareil, and 

 Watkins, a celebrated Rocky Mountain hunter. He carries 

 with him a rubber raft built like the Nonpareil, which cau 

 be transported with ease on the land, and is capable of car- 

 rying a large weight on the water. The expedition will be 

 taken to Petropaulovski from San Francisco, where dogs and 

 fur clothing will be procured ; and they will then endeavor 

 to make Wrangel's Land direct, instead of going by way of 

 Cape Yakan, as originally intended. From this island, if they 

 reach it, they will launch their raft, and make their way to 

 the coast of Greenland, touching at the pole on the way ! 



CAPTAIN LONG OX PAVY's EXPLORATIONS. 



Captain Thomas Long, so well known as the discoverer, in 

 1867, of Wrangel's Land, situated about seventy to one hun- 

 dreds miles north of Cape Yakan, in Siberia, bas written a 

 letter in reference to the plan of exploration by Mr. Octave 

 Pavy, to which we have already referred. While indorsing 

 the idea presented by Mr. Pavy, he takes occasion to claim it 

 as his own, having, as he states, urged this route as long ago 

 as 1867, the time of his first discovery. He does not think 

 that Mr. Pavy will be able to pass through the channels be- 

 tween Spitzbergen and Greenland, or between Nova Zembla 

 and Spitzbergen, as those passages have always been found 

 blocked with ice, and it would be impossible to winter in the 

 ice in such a raft as he has constructed. He thinks it possi- 

 ble that the north pole may be reached from Wrangel's Land, 

 but that it would be necessary for him to return for winter 

 quarters; but to endeavor to return into the Atlantic with 

 such a craft would be the height of folly. He believes that 



