480 . SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1883. 



20, the Varna was met, beset in the ice, bound for Dickson Haven, with 

 the Dutch meteorological party on board, and in two days more both 

 vessels were frozen in. During October, November, and December 

 both vessels drifted about with the ice, reaching nearly 71° north lati- 

 tude. The Varna became uninhabitable, and all hands were taken on 

 board the Dijmphna. No event of importance happened except the 

 rapid erosion and disappearance of the ice during June and July, and 

 on July 24 the Varna sunk, the Dijmphna drifting toward Karagate 

 and being set free from ice on August 2. The crank-shaft breaking, 

 the ship returned under sail to Vardo, arriving October 10. The great- 

 est cold experienced seems to have been about February 1, when it 

 reached 46°. 8 C. During the time the ship was drifting in the ice 

 soundings were constantly taken, so that valuable materials for correct- 

 ing the charts were secured. 



Captain Sorenson, of the Norwegian sloop William, reports having 

 seen high land northeast of the northern promontory of Spitzbergen 

 and about 100 miles from Eep Island. Dr. Karl Pettersen, of the 

 Tromso Museum, points out that this land is probably the same as that 

 seen by Captain Kjeldsen in 1S70, and called by him HvideOe, or White 

 Island. 



A most valuable treatise on the Properties of Water and Ice, by Dr. 

 Otto Pettersen, forms a volume of the publications of the Vega Expe- 

 dition. The physical and chemical properties of both water aud ice are 

 discussed at length, and the nature of various kinds of ice are ex- 

 plained very clearly. 



In Nature, for August 30, 1883, Dr. Karl Pettersen proposes a new 

 system of Arctic research. On the hypothesis that the condition of the 

 ice in the Arctic basin is not always the same, but undergoes periodical 

 changes, Dr. Pettersen proposes that, selecting the most proper locali- 

 ties, an arrangement should be made between the various European 

 nations to equip a certain number of expeditions which should be sent 

 to the same locality every summer for a period of ten or eleven years. 

 Dr. Pettersen thinks that during certain years of such a period oppor- 

 tunities would certainly occur for penetrating very far into the Polar 

 Basin. In 1881, for example', Norwegian hunters found the sea north of 

 Spitzbergen so clear of ice that a steamer could have apparently pro- 

 ceeded northward to a considerable distance, and there is reason to 

 believe that the sea to the northeast of Franz Josef Land is also navi- 

 gable at times. Dr. Pettersen is convinced, from observing the motions 

 of the ice north of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zernlya, that there is a 

 strong probability of a more or less open Polar sea. 



GREENLAND. 



Under the command of Baron Nordenskjold, a Swedish expedition 

 has been engaged in an endeavor to explore the interior of Greenland 

 from the east coast, one of the objects of the expedition being to fix the 



