220 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in tlie history of arctic exploration. The ship was frozen in off tlie 

 coast of Nova Zembla from August till October, 18Y2, Avhen the ice 

 broke up, and they found themselves fixed upon an ice-floe helplessly 

 drifting^ but, strangely enough, to the northward. Drifting fourteen 

 months in this way, mere passengers on an ice-floe, they were at last 

 driven ashore and frozen in on a coast which tliey had discovered, but 

 were unable to reach, two months before. This was in 79 43' north 

 latitude, and 60 23' east longitude. It was now November, 1873, and 

 they had passed the eightieth parallel. The long polar winter of 175 

 days set in, and the cold was so severe that the quicksilver remained 

 frozen for weeks, and the darkness in midwinter was intense. The 

 land, to which they gave the name of Franz-Joseph Land, was a most 

 desolate region. In April, 1874, they set out in sledges and reached 

 81 57' north latitude, coming upon a country which they called 

 Crown-Pz'ince Laud, whose clifis were covered with thousands of ducks 

 and auks ; seals lay upon the ice, and there were traces of bears, hares, 

 and foxes. Here, over a sea comparatively free from ice, they saw 

 land in the distance, which seemed to stretch beyond the eighty-third 

 parallel of north latitude. Their return-journey was one of over three 

 months' hardship, make in sledges and boats. 



In Europe, the long-projected measurement of an arc of the merid- 

 ian was begun last autumn. 



Archseological researches have been prosecuted in Dr. Schliemann's 

 excavations of ancient Troy ; and, while many doubt its identity, M. 

 Emile Burnouf, Mr. Gladstone, the late premier, Prof. Keller, of Frei- 

 berg, and other eminent scholars, are of the opinion that it is really 

 the city of Priam that has been discovered. But whether the site be 

 Troy, or not, in the twenty thousand objects unearthed we have 

 records which carry us back to the childhood of the world. The ex- 

 cavations in Pompeii show that only a small part of the city has as 

 yet been opened. Every extension adds new objects, none of which 

 are of more interest than its paintings ; without these we would have 

 been unable to judge of the excellence to which the Greeks had ar- 

 rived in the art of painting; for, while their architecture and sculpture 

 have endured, the paintings of their great masters have perished. In 

 Rome, the excavations have disclosed many objects connected with 

 ancient Roman life, public and private. In the tomb of a priest, the 

 gold threads that were woven into his robe remained when every 

 thing else had crumbled into dust. 



An ancient Egyptian medical treatise has been discovered by Prof. 

 Ebers, of Leipsic, which, by a calendar on the back of the papyrus, 

 discloses that it was written 1,600 years before Christ. 



In Asia, the geographical explorations and researches have, during 

 the year, been numerous and widely distributed. The Sea of Aral has 

 been surveyed, and found to be 165 feet above the level of the ocean, 

 and 250 feet above the Caspian. The river Oxus, which empties into 



