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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ondary importance." Our wonder is that 

 the thought of a plan of selection from 

 which this was omitted should have been 

 tolerated for an instant. The primary ob- 

 ject of the expedition being to carry out the 

 scientific programme of the Hamburg Polar 

 Conference, the utmost care was given to 

 physical observations. The series began 

 July 1, 1831, at St. John's, Newfoundland, 

 and terminated June 21, 1884, forty hours 

 before the rescue of the survivors. Sum- 

 marics of them are given in the appen- 

 dixes to the book, and a chapter is allotted 

 to the description of the manner in which 

 they were taken. Natural history observa- 

 tions and collections were also made, but 

 the collections, of course, in the straits to 

 which the expedition was reduced, could not 

 be brought home. As good provisions as 

 were possible under the circumstances were, 

 however, made for the preservation of the 

 scientific results. They were cached, at 

 places which were suitably marked and de- 

 scribed, and may possibly be recovered by 

 more fortunate adventurers. A suggestive 

 glimpse of the character of Arctic life dur- 

 ing the winter darkness is afforded by the 

 fact that some of the observations and the 

 places for taking them were arranged so as 

 to afford the men reasonable occasions, in 

 going to mark them, for going out-of-doors 

 and taking walks of considerable length. 

 Exercise is as indispensable in the winter 

 of the poles as in more favored regions, 

 and one of the difficult problems for explor- 

 ers is to manage matters or " sugar-coat " 

 it, so that it shall be taken regularly and in 

 sufficient amount without appearing to be 

 administered as a medicine. 



Two important geographical achieve- 

 ments stand to the credit of the expedi- 

 tion: They are the journey of Lieutenant 

 Lockwood, Sergeant Brainard, and the Es- 

 kimo Christiansen to the farthest north, and 

 the exploration of Grinnell Land. The itin- 

 erary of the northerly journey, as given 

 from the journals of the explorers, is very 

 interesting, and, with the aid of the accom- 

 panying maps, is very clear. It was on the 

 13th of May, 1882, when, having made six- 

 teen miles in ten hours, and worn out by 

 travel through deep snow, the party made 

 their farthest camp at the north end of 

 Lockwood Island, which, by circum-meridian 



and subpolar observations reduced by Gauss's 

 method, was determined to be in 83 23*8' 

 north, the highest latitude ever attained by 

 man. The highest latitude reached previous 

 to this was by Markham, on sea, in 1876, 

 83 20' 26". Of this event Sergeant Brain- 

 ard's field-notes say : " We have reached a 

 higher latitude than ever before reached by 

 mortal man, and on a land farther north 

 than by many was supposed to exist. We 

 unfurled the glorious Stars and Stripes to 

 the exhilarating northern breezes with an 

 exultation impossible to describe." So, says 

 Lieutenant Greely, " with proper pride, they 

 looked that day from their farthest vantage- 

 ground of the farthest north (Lockwood 

 Island) to the desolate cape which, until sur- 

 passed in coming ages, may well bear the 

 grand name of Washington." Of this party 

 Sergeant Brainard, " without whose efficient 

 aid and restless energy, as Lockwood said, 

 the work could not have been accomplished," 

 is the only survivor. The exploration of 

 Grinnell Land begun by Lieutenant Greely 

 in the spring, whose journey of two hundred 

 and fifty miles of travel in twelve days was 

 marked by the discovery of the large Lake 

 Hazen and the interesting Henrietta Nesmith 

 Glacier, was continued in the summer with 

 the results, as summed up by the author, of 

 the satisfactory, if not complete, determina- 

 tion of the extent of North Grinnell Land ; 

 the outlining of the extraordinary and pre- 

 viously unsuspected physical conditions of 

 the interior of Jhat country ; and the dis- 

 covery of numerous valleys covered with 

 comparatively luxuriant vegetation, which 

 afford sufficient pasturage for large num- 

 bers of musk-oxen. About five thousand 

 square miles of newly discovered land fell 

 under observation, of which over one half 

 was determined with sufficient accuracy to 

 enable its physical geography to be passed 

 upon. Lieutenant Greely's discoveries ac- 

 cord closely with the opinions of Sir Joseph 

 Hooker ; and " the intimate relation be- 

 tween the physical sciences is forcibly illus- 

 trated by the ability of a highly trained and 

 accomplished specialist to state from a hand- 

 ful of plants the insularity or continental 

 configuration of a land and its physical con- 

 dition." Another expedition was made, 

 across Grinnell Land, by Lieutenant Lock- 

 wood, who carried out his commander's in- 



