144 ANNUAL KECOKD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



promised to be of service to him. Partly in consequence of 

 the suggestions of the commander, Baron Von Otter, and of 

 other scientific men whom he met in Greenland, Captain Hall 

 concluded to abandon the Jones's Sound route, and intended 

 to cross Melville Bay to Cape Dudley Digges, and thence to 

 steam directly to Smith's Sound, with a view of finding a pas- 

 sage on the west side of the sound from Cape Isabella to 

 Kennedy Channel. Captain Hall speaks very favorably of 

 the steaming qualities of the Polaris, her passage having been 

 perfectly satisfactory from port to port. The entire steaming 

 time from New York to Disco was twenty days seven hours 

 and thirty minutes. Washington Daily Chronicle. 



PARTICULARS OF THE -EXPEDITION OF PAYER AND WEY- 



PRECHT. 



In the December number of Petermann's MittheilungenwQ 

 have a detailed though preliminary report of Payer and Wey- 

 precht of their polar expedition of the past summer. The 

 first acclamation with which the announcement of the dis- 

 coveries of these gentlemen was received has been somewhat 

 tempered by the criticisms of Markham and others; but, while 

 we are not able to admit that they have solved the general 

 problem of a journey to the pole, we can hardly suppose that 

 Dr. Petermann would have been so exultant without good 

 grounds. The information of the report in question gives the 

 diary of the journey from the beginning up to the 4th of 

 October, when they reached Tromsi), on their return. Their 

 highest point reached (on the 6th of September) was 78 5' 

 north latitude, and 56 east longitude; and with the open 

 sea expanding before them, their progress northward was 

 only arrested by severe northerly winds, and the necessity 

 of entering upon the homeward course, if they desired to 

 avoid the possible danger of being blockaded by tli#ce and 

 frozen in for the winter. 



The earlier accounts of the expedition referred to the abun- 

 dance of whales noticed ; and in this report it is remarked 

 that so many fin-backs were seen that for days and days to- 

 gether numbers of them were continually in sight. They rec- 

 ommended for the future that three well-manned expeditions 

 be sent out ; one to investigate Gillis's Land, and to proceed 

 thence northeastwardly ; second, a special polar expedition 



