234 ADDITIONAL NOTICES. [June 25, 1860. 



Both were most williugly given, in accordance with instructions sent by tho 

 Company by circular letter to the officers in charge of every station in the 

 country. They had no plans and charts which they were not willing to publish, 

 and which he believed were not already published. He might state that there 

 was one pass which Captain Palliser and his party had not noticed. He had 

 himself gone twice over the Kocky Mountains : the first time by a pass along 

 the Peace lUver down to the head-waters of the Eed River ; and when he came 

 back from Fort Vancouver he ascended Columbia lliver and crossed by the 

 Athabasca portage. He slept on the top of fourteen feet of snow in the mouth 

 of April. 



The Chairman, in closing the discussion, said they had certainly always 

 heard that the Company had more or less kept their maps to themselves. 



Mr. Arrowsmith. — Not at all. 



The Chairman. — Mr. Arrowsmith says " No," and he was sure, if all the 

 knowledge they possessed of the geographical features of the country had been 

 communicated to Mr. Arrowsmith, that that gentleman would have placed it 

 before the world. There was a Dr. Thomson who had executed some remark- 

 able majjs of the country ; and Mr. EUice, a leading member of the Hudson Bay 

 Company, had promised, if it were possible, that those maps should be brought 

 to this country. He understood they were not attainable at once ; but if they 

 were, and the names applied by Dr. Thomson were to be realised, he had to 

 announce tliat the mountain which had been named by Dr. Hector — " Mount 

 Murchison" — would be converted into the '* Devil Peak," etc. This came from 

 geographical discoveries not being made public more rapidly. 



ADDITIONAL NOTICES. 



1. On a Possible Passage to the North Pole, By Thomas 

 Hopkins, m.b.m.s. 



Among the various attempts that have been made to approach the North 

 Pole, that of Captain Parry may be considered as the most successful. It 

 appears that he arrived at the latitude of 82° 43' 32", the point nearest to the 

 Pole that has been visited .by man, of which we have any knowledge. And 

 it seems to be considered that there is but little probability of a more northern 

 part being reached by the employment of any means at present known. 



The difficulties encountered by Parry were certainly formidable, and there 

 is not much likelihood of greater spirit or perseverance being displayed by 

 future explorers than was exhibited by him and his companions. Yet it may 

 be desirable that the nature of the impediments that were met with should 

 be examined, in order to form an opinion respecting the possibility of future 

 navigators being more successful than their ]iredecessors. The climatic 

 features of that part of the world in which the effort was made are so extra- 

 ordinary as to leave room to doubt whether past experience in other j^arts, in 

 high northern latitudes, presents the means of forming decided opinions 

 respecting what kind of weather may be found adjacent to the longitudes 

 visited by Parry. The facts which he furnishes deserve close examination 

 and careful analysis, in order to ascertain whether they present to view ob- 

 stacles that must be deemed insurmountable, and, if not, what are the best 

 means to be used in making a new attempt to overcome them ? 



A general view of the temperature of the atmosphere in this part may be 



