276 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



sudden expansion and contraction of such bubbles, 

 many of them larger than peas, sets the whole of the 

 vessel in violent agitation which constitutes the singing. 

 Thirdly the simmering is simply the result of com- 

 plete boiling, i.e. of the bubbles of steam reaching the 

 surface of the water and bursting in the air, which 

 can only occur when the whole of the water has 

 attained the boiling-point. The sudden change from 

 noisy singing to the barely audible hiss of the simmer- 

 ing is very instructive, and every intelligent laundress 

 and every other good old woman knows that this is 

 the signal for pouring into the teapot. 



The Marquis of Tweeddale's Collection. — 

 Every naturalist, and everybody else endowed with 

 sufficient intelligence to understand the elevating in- 

 fluence of the study of Nature, will join in chorus of 

 grateful rejoicing on learning that Captain R. G. 

 Wardlaw Ramsay, of Whitehill, has presented to the 

 nation the magnificent collection of birds which were 

 bequeathed to him by his uncle, the late Marquis of 

 Tweeddale. Captain Ramsay's gift to the nation is 

 not limited to this noble collection. He adds to it a 

 large number of birds obtained during his military 

 career in the East, and hundreds of other valuable 

 specimens obtained since his uncle's death. In addi- 

 tion to these, Captain Ramsay presents to the nation 

 the splendid Tweeddale library, including nearly 3000 

 volumes, which M. R. Bowdler Sharpe (see 

 " Nature," Nov. 3) describes as " one of the best in 

 the world, containing many rare volumes which we 

 have not seen elsewhere, and this donation alone is 

 worth several thousands of pounds." These books 

 are to be placed in the British Museum, alongside of 

 the collection of skins, for the benefit of students of 

 ornithology. Mr. Sharpe tells us that the ornitho- 

 logical collection in the British Museum has been 

 raised, by this and other gifts, from a number of 40,000 

 skins to more than 200,000 during the last fifteen 

 years. We now possess the best ornithological 

 library in the world, and one of the best ornithological 

 collections. Let us hope that our metropolis will 

 make similar progress in other intellectual directions, 

 and thus become something more than merely an un- 

 rivalled aggregation cf brute physical wealth, which, 

 like agricultural manure, is so useful when distributed 

 and so pestiferous when heaped. 



Arctic Exploration by Tourists. — Dr. Karl 

 Pettersen, Director of the Tromso Arctic Museum, 

 says, " It seems to me that every year shows more and 

 more clearly that it is sheer waste of life and money 

 to despatch casual and erratic expeditions to the North 

 Pole. In my opinion, the result "would be obtained 

 more easily, surely, and cheaply by despatching every 

 year, for a period of ten or eleven years, a certain 

 number of well-equipped steamers from suitable spots 

 towards the Pole. As the ice masses in the Polar 

 basin are, without doubt, in a constant and varying 



motion, this plan would enable one or another of the 

 expeditions to seize the right moment for a dash 

 northwards. We could not of course, be absolutely' 

 certain of success, for experience has proved that the 

 state of the ice in a particular locality, at a particular 

 time, does not enable us to predict what it will be in 

 the same locality in the following year. Still the op- 

 portunity to reach a high latitude would present itself 

 sooner or later." He further suggests national co- 

 operation for this purpose, and adds that, " In any 

 case, I venture to think that the plan of any expedi- 

 tion should not be finally formed before July, or if 

 possible, August. 



Some years ago I made a suggestion somewhat 

 similar to this, but with the advantage of being self- 

 supporting, sj far as the pioneering is concerned. (See 

 "Through Norway with Ladies.") My scheme 

 starts with the fact, that a trip to the Arctic regions 

 is now one of the easiest and most enjoyable of alL 

 marine excursions. Passenger steamers, incomparably 

 better catered than any of our British excursion vessels, 

 go every week from the southern and western ports 

 of Norway round the North Cape and the Arctic face 

 of Europe to the Varanger Fjord. Passengers from 

 England may embark at Christiansand, Stavanger,, 

 Bergen, Aalesund, Trondhjem, and other ports, and 

 sail through magnificent scenery of the fjords and the 

 thousand and one islands of the coast, always on the 

 sea and yet protected from sea sickness. They may 

 reach these ports in two or three days from London,, 

 or Hull, or Newcastle, or Leith, etc. Besides these, 

 other similar passenger ships steam two or three 

 times per week as far as Tromso, lat. 69J. A great 

 and annually increasing stream of tourists from. 

 all parts of the world, especially from Britain, 

 and America, avail themselves of these, but all 

 are, in one respect, disappointed. They see vast 

 glacier fields inlan 1, they see huge whales in the 

 course of blubber peeling and cutting up at Vadso, 

 but no icebergs, no drift ice, no more of anything like 

 these than at Margate. Neither would they see them 

 even in the midst of winter, although they reach five 

 degrees north of the Arctic circle. 



What I proposed is that the craving of this multi- 

 tude should be satisfied by weekly trips from TromiO 

 or Hammerfest to the Arctic ice barrier wherever it 

 may happen to be. The position of this barrier varies. 

 most curiously, but, on an average, two or two and a 

 half days from Hammerfest would carry the excur- 

 sionists to it. Having thus satisfied a natural curiosity,, 

 and seen a sight never to be forgotten, they would 

 return, and the captain of the ship would report 

 the result as regards the movements of the ice. 

 This information regularly repeated would doubtless 

 reveal what Dr. Pettersen requires, in order to 

 learn what all other Arctic explorers have sought 

 to learn but have not learned, and cannot learn by 

 casual and erratic expeditions at long and irregular 

 intervals. 



