240 ADDITIONAL NOTICES. [June 25, 1860. 



distance might be passed over in a very few days. Floating ice seems to be 

 the impediment most likely to be met with, but a screw-propelled ship might 

 be able to make way through it, without much danger of sustaining damage, 

 and in this way the Pole might possibly be reached. 



Persons familiar with Arctic navigation would have the benefit of local 

 knowledge, though possibly such knowledge may hardly justify such an 

 attempt. This paper has been suggested by observations of continuous winds 

 in many parts of the world, of their places of termination, and the climates of 

 those places. The south-west monsoon, blowing towards the Himalaya 

 Mountains, readily takes a ship into the Bay of Bengal, and the trade-winds 

 waft vessels across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. A wind blows from 

 Victoria Land, in the Antarctic Ocean, to the* mountains about Cape Horn, 

 which are warm in the winter, evidently because vapour is condensed there 

 iu great abundance ; and the wind is the strongest when it approaches the 

 locality of condensation. If, as is very probable, there be similar elevated 

 land near the North Pole, it is likely that a ship might reach that land with 

 greater ease than when passing from Victoria Land to Cape Horn. 



2. Surveys in Norway. By Professor Holst, Christiania. Translated 

 from the Norwegian by Dr. Shaw. 



In the Budget of the Norwegian Diet is found an article on the progress of 

 the Geographical Survey of that country, from its beginning to the year 1859, 

 accompanied by a review of the results attained ; which statements will be of 

 interest to many more than to those few into whose hands a copy of the 

 Government's treatise may fall, and which therefore is communicated here. 



The Survey was founded in the year 1779 by General Huth, Chief of the 

 Danish and Norwegian Engineer and Artillery Corps, and in that year the 

 officers appointed to the task, Lieuts. D. Vibe and Rick, after having received 

 the necessary instructions, repaired to Norway. A base was measured during 

 the winter on the ice of the Mibs, on which the trigonometrical net was con- 

 structed, and later, on the ice of the Lakes of Foemund, Storsoe, and other 

 lakes. Astronomical observations were likewise made by the above-mentioned 

 officers. While these were employed from 1780 to 1790 on the survey of the 

 kingdom, especially along the frontier districts, it was resolved that a Hydro- 

 graphic Survey should, at the same time, be carried on, in order to obtain 

 exact charts of the southern coasts. For this task Lieut. Growe of the Royal 

 Navy and Lieuts. N. Vibe and Aubert were selected. This survey was com- 

 menced in 1788 and concluded in 1799. The result was 7 engraved charts of 

 the tract between Drontheimsled and Idefiord, with descriptions of the coast and 

 of the country around. At that time the survey was placed under the Revenue 

 Board of Denmark, and the King, as proprietor of Laurvig, in the year 1807 

 commanded that very special charts should be taken of this district also. 

 Besides this, the survej^s were continued in the districts of Drontheim and 

 Hedemark and along the frontier of the kingdom, and executed on a large 

 scale ; it being thought necessary to have very special maps of those districts 

 in which the contests between Norway and Sweden had generally taken place. 

 The surveys were, however, often delayed, partly from want of means, espe- 

 cially during the last war. After the union of Norway with Sweden the task 

 was placed under the Department of Finance, Commerce, and Customs, and 

 afterwards under that of the Home Department. When, in 1826, so much of 

 the east and south of the country had been specially measured, that maps 

 of the districts could be made, Captains Munthe and Ramm undertook this 

 task, as a private enterprise; and six maps, comprising the districts of 



