120 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



most importance, especially in view of the fact that reports 

 from all the other polar expeditions of the present year indi- 

 cate a very unfavorable state of the ice. Full accounts of 

 these other expeditions will be published in a forthcoming 

 number of the Mittheilungen. 



Dr. Petermann thinks the favorable condition of the ice for 

 navigation in these seas is caused by the action of the Gulf 

 Stream; and he refers to his map of 1870 (lately reproduced 

 by the United States Hydrographic Bureau, under Captain 

 Wyman), in which he lays down the Gulf Stream, between 

 75 and 76, as having a temperature, according to Dr. Bes- 

 sels, of over 41; while an arrow, inserted there to indicate 

 the direction of the stream, points exactly to the 79th degree 

 of north latitude and 49th of east longitude. Circular of 

 Dr. Petermann, October 10, 1871. 



DISCOVERIES OF PAYER AND WEYPRECHT. 



We have already made brief mention of the important an- 

 nouncement received from Messrs. Payer and Weyprecht, da- 

 ted at Tromso, of the discovery of open water between Spitz- 

 bergen and Nova Zembla, in a region before this believed to 

 be occupied entirely by ice, and have now the pleasure of 

 furnishing some additional details received from these gentle- 

 men by letter. Their report is addressed to the Association 

 for Geography and Statistics at Frankfort, and is dated at 

 Tromso on the 19th of October. Postponiiig*a more full ac- 

 count of their general adventures to a later period, they pro- 

 ceed at once to the announcement that in the space between 

 Spitsbergen and Nova Zembla, which had previously been 

 supposed inaccessible (and which, indeed, the Russian, Ger- 

 man, and Swedish expedition in 1868 had attempted to pen- 

 etrate without success), they entered a region almost entire- 

 ly free from any obstacles, and in which they reached a lati- 

 tude of 79 degrees without any apparent impediment to their 

 proceeding almost, if not quite, to the pole. As, however, the 

 Ice-Bear was merely a sailing vessel, and their provisions 

 were running low, they dared not venture any farther, and 

 accordingly returned. 



They anticipate complete success, therefore, should the 

 great expedition, which is to be prosecuted next year, follow 

 in their course ; and they remark that the key to the appa- 



