GEOGRAPHY. 357 



thns allotted to Chili, and the straits are declared free to vessels of all 

 nations. 



In the course of an address before the geograj^hical section of the 

 British Association, Mr. John Ball calls attention to the remarkable 

 contrasts existing between the climate of the eastern and western sides 

 of South America. Not only is there an immense difference between 

 the rainfall of the two coasts, there being a portion of the west coast 

 (formerly Bolivia) where no rain ever falls, but a radical difference 

 exists in the climate of neighboring places on the western coast only 

 one hundred miles apart. Mr. Ball finds that the reasons heretofore 

 adduced for these remarkable differences are entirely insufficient, and 

 likewise fails to find any adequate reason for the exceptionally mild 

 climate of the Straits of Magellan. 



AECTIC KEGIONS. 



Beyond the more accurate delineation of one or two coast lines, the 

 geographical results attending the numerous Arctic expeditions of the 

 last few years cannot be said to be very great in spite of the energy and 

 devotion of the explorers, attended in so many cases with extreme hard- 

 ship and loss of life. 



During a long succession of years numerous attempts were made to 

 sail from Europe to the Pacific Ocean by the north of Asia; no less 

 than thirteen expeditions having been fitted out at various times and 

 by different nations for this puri)ose. The only successful expedition 

 was the last one, in 1878, commanded by Prof. A. E. Nordenskjold, in 

 the Swedish steamer Vega, which, after passing the strait south of Nov- 

 aya Zemlya on August 1, found the Kara Sea nearly free of ice, and, 

 dredging, sounding, and surveying as they went along, succeeded in 

 reaching a point within 120 miles of Behring's Strait on the 28th of 

 September, but were there ice-bound all winter, only passing into the 

 Pacific on the 20th of the next Julj-. This expeiience seems to have 

 couA^inced Professor Nordenskjold that voyages could be made every 

 year from the north of Europe by way of the Kara Sea to the mouths 

 of the rivers Yenesei and Obe, affording a much better means than for- 

 merly of conveying the wheat and other products of Southern Sibe- 

 ria to Europe, but subsequent events do not appear to justify this con- 

 clusion. 



In the summer of 1880 steamers were not able to pass through any 

 of the passages into the Kara Sea, owing to an ice-field 20 to 30 miles 

 wide, on the east coast of ISTovaya Zemlya, which entirely blocked the 

 mouths of the Waigat and the Matyuskin Shar. The passage north of 

 Novaya Zemlya by the Orange Islands was also tried, but the sea was 

 full of ice, and the steamers escaped with difficulty late in the season 

 by way of the Matyuskin Shar. Late in September, M. Sibiriakoff" suc- 

 ceeded in passing the Jugor Strait with two steamers and reached the 

 mouth of the Yenesei, too late, however, to return. 



