VIII NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



Franklin Expedition, if one should exist, as recent reports brought 

 home by whaling captains would tend to show may possibly be the case. 

 Secondly, the discovery and restoration of any documents or relics ap- 

 pertaining to the lost Expedition ; and, thirdly, the verification of the 

 course taken by the Franklin Expedition, and confirmation of the re- 

 port brought home by Dr. Rae, to the effect that in the early spring 

 of 1850, a party from the Erebus and Terror landed a boat on King 

 William Land, a fact which in itself establishes the priority of the 

 discovery of a North- West Passage by Sir John Franklin. The lo- 

 cality to be searched is in the immediate vicinity of the North Magnetic 

 Pole, one of the most interesting spots on the face of our globe, which, 

 however, it will be remembered, is not stationary. With the view of 

 taking advantage of the opportunities thus presented for magnetical 

 investigations, the Council of the Royal Society voted a sum of money 

 for the purchase of magnetical and meteorological instruments ; and a 

 committee, consisting of distinguished physicists, have supplied Capt. 

 M'Clintock with desiderata in magnetism and meteorology, while Sir 

 W. Hooker and Dr. Hooker have furnished instructions respecting bo- 

 tanical collections, and supplied Ward's cases for the growth of escu- 

 lent vegetables. 



The following is a summary statement of the recent geographical 

 surveys planned or executed under the authority of the Russian Gov- 

 ernment during the last few years : 



The most important has been the exploration of the Amour River. 

 This vast river, which flows through Chinese Tartary, has not hitherto 

 been surveyed, and is very loosely located on even the best maps. It 

 rises in the mountains of Siberia, east of Lake Baikal, and flows east- 

 wardly through the immense district of Mantchouria into the Sea of 

 Ochotsk, in fifty-three degrees north latitude. Its length is 2,200 miles, 

 being about as large as the Mississippi. An exploration and scientific 

 survey has been made of Lake Baikal, the largest body of fresh water 

 on the Asiatic continent. It is situated in Southern Siberia, between 

 latitude fifty-one degrees and fifty-six degrees north, and between lon- 

 gitude 103 degrees and 109 degrees east. It is about 370 miles in 

 length, forty-five miles average width, about 900 miles circuit some- 

 what larger than Lake Erie. Its depth is very remarkable, as it is 

 surrounded by high mountains. The River Angoria, its outlet, joins 

 the Yenisei River, and flows north until it reaches the Arctic Ocean, 

 making, in its total length, another of the great rivers of the world - 

 some 2,600 miles. Through its channel an immense volume of water 

 is emptied into the Bay of Yenisei, and thence into the Sea of Kara, 

 in north latitude seventy-three degrees, east longitude eighty-five de- 

 grees, being six degrees thirty minutes within the Arctic circle. Ow- 

 ing to its Arctic outlet it is rendered impracticable commercially, al- 



