574 SCIENTIFIC EECOED FOR 1885. 



lei. The paper was supplemented by others received from Chief Engi- 

 neer Melville, U. S. N., Sir George Nares, and Lieutenant Greely, and ver- 

 bally discussed by Dr. Emil Bessels, of the "Polaris " expedition, and Mr. 

 Clements E. Markham, of the Royal Geographical Society, who presided 

 at the meeting. Letters in favor of further Arctic exploration were read 

 from Prof. J. E. Nourse, U. S. IST., and Dr. H. Rink, formerly governor of 

 the Danish colonies in Greenland. The general tenor of the discus- 

 sion, both oral and written, was that scientific exploration of the Arctic 

 regions will go on. 



Mr. C. R. Markham, in his article "Polar Regions," of the current 

 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, permits himself to make the 

 following remarkable misstatement: "Lieutenant Lockwood made a 

 journey along the north coast of Greenland, and reached a small island 

 in 330 24' [north latitude] and 44° 5' [west of Greenwich]. Dr. Pavy 

 and another went a short distance beyond the winter quarters of the 

 "Alert," and a trip was made into the interior of Grinnell Land. But 

 all this region had been explored and exhaustively examined by the English 

 expedition in 1875-'76." The italics are ours. 



Dr. Leonard Stejneger's illustrated article on the Commander Islands 

 in Heft 3, Band viii, of the Deutsche geographische Blatter is of special 

 value, in that it settles definitely the doubt that has existed as to the death 

 of Bering. The writer visited and described the ruins of the hut on 

 Bering Island in which Bering and his companions wintered 141 years 

 previously, and where the celebrated traveller himself died and was 

 buried. The relics found by Dr. Stejneger are of great, if melancholy, in 

 terest. 



HYDEOGRAPHY. 



The U. S. S. "Alert" has been engaged for some time in surveying the 

 coasts of Corea. The returns have not yet been charted by the Depart- 

 ment. 



The last report from the U. S. S. " Ranger's" work on the west coast of 

 Central America embraces 100 miles of coast between San Juan del Sur 

 and the Gulf of Dulce ; this connects the former surveys with the Eng- 

 lish detail work from Panama northward. 



The new chart of the harbor of Payta is an excellent specimen of the 

 standard which Commander John R. Bartlett has established for the 

 future work of the Hydrographic Bureau of the Kavy Department. The 

 reduction of the photographic view of the anchorage will be of the great- 

 est service to mariners. The old Spanish charts of Porto Rico and other 

 West India islands have been verified, and as fast as possible this veri- 

 fication will be extended to all the harbors of the West Indies. A chart 

 of the Arctic Ocean, constructed on the ordinary conical projection, en- 

 ables one to study those regions with the utmost facility. 



Returns have just been received from the summer's work of the Coast 

 Survey steamer "Carlile P. Patterson" in Southern Alaska. An im- 



