150 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



during the miocene period, when probably a different day 

 and night existed from what we have at present. The flora 

 now is extremely meagre, embracing only about 300 flower- 

 ing plants, these being well-known species, inhabiting the 

 whole circumpolar region, and extending southward along 

 the Rocky Mountains. Sir Leopold M'Clintock thought that 

 the interval since any arctic exploration had been prosecuted 

 by Great Britain was so great that there were no officers now 

 fitted to take the command, and urged the propriety of an 

 expedition for the purpose of serving as a training-school in 

 reference to the antarctic expedition for the observation of 

 the transit of Venus in 1874. He thought that unless some- 

 thing of this kind were initiated very soon, it would be diffi- 

 cult to organize properly such an expedition as the last men- 

 tioned. He was therefore in favor of arctic expeditions any 

 where, and especially in the direction of the north pole. Dr. 

 Carpenter was especially interested in the proposed expedi- 

 tion in view of the probable results in regard to ocean cur- 

 rents and deep-sea temperatures. 19 A, April 27, 1872, 376. 



EXPLORATIONS OF THE YACHT NORN A IN 1872. 



In the extended list of expeditions for deep-sea exploration 

 carried on during the summer of 1871, not the least interest- 

 ing was that of the yacht Noma, owned by Mr. Marshall 

 Hall, and placed by him in the service of men of science for 

 the purpose of employment in their investigations. This en- 

 terprise on the part of Mr. Hall is, we learn, to be repeated 

 by him during the coming summer; and he is said to be pre- 

 paring an expedition to Morocco and Madeira, accompanied 

 by a young naturalist of Dublin, Mr. Abraham, who has al- 

 ready obtained a considerable reputation as a zoologist. He 

 proposes to prosecute inquiries into the natural history of the 

 regions visited, and to inquire into the chemical and physical 

 questions relating to the deep sea and its currents. Nature, 

 in reporting these facts, adds that the great government ex- 

 pedition, to which we have referred as likely to visit foreign 

 seas for the purpose of investigation, is in a favorable state 

 of progress, and that Professor Wyville Thompson, with a 

 corps of assistants, will probably sail in the autumn, so as to 

 spend the antarctic summer season in the waters adjacent to 

 Cape Horn. 12 A, Feb. 29,1872,344. 



