THE FAUNA OF SPITSBEEGEN. 173 



with what they accomplished, or with what they failed to effect. 

 The skill and bravery displayed, alike by commanders and crews, 

 are written in the annals of the British Navy. But it is akin to 

 our purpose here to observe that not one of these expeditions can 

 be said to have been properly equipped. Not one of them was 

 accompanied by a competent Naturalist — unless, indeed, we may 

 except the earliest, under Commodore Phipps, afterwards Lord 

 Mulgrave, with whom sailed Mr. Israel Lyons, a botanist of some 

 note. But it remains a fact that not much more has been added to 

 our knowledge of Zoology from these expeditions, than we might 

 have expected from amateurs, — adventurous yachtsmen, like Lord 

 Dufferin or Mr. Lamont — and the only Englishman who has 

 materially assisted our special branches of science, was an energetic 

 north country whaling-skipper, — William Scoresby, of pious 

 memory. 



In 1838 and 1839, the French Corvette, La BecJierche, bearing 

 on board a distinguished company of savans of various nations, 

 visited two districts on the w^est coast of Spitsbergen. But it is vain 

 to seek in the multitude of volumes — thickly printed octavos, brist- 

 ling with tabulated figures, showing the results of all sorts of 

 magnetic and meteorological observations — or ponderous folios, 

 whei'ein we see displayed through Gallic spectacles the whole Arctic 

 world, from Magdalena Bay to Godthaab, which record the pro- 

 gress of President Gaimard's ' Commission Scientifique du Nord,' 

 more zoology than is contained in a few anecdotes respecting 

 Whales and Eider Ducks. 



Some few years ago it occurred to the leading men of science 

 in Sweden that a plan, long projected and talked of in other countries, 

 might be carried out by their means. This was no less than the 

 measurement of an arc of the meridian in Spitsbergen, between 

 the parallels of 76« and 81°. Not much time was lost in putting the 

 -plan into execution. We believe that the Swedish Government 

 have had no hand in the matter. The expenses have been defrayed 

 by the ancient Universities of that country. But much of the 

 success already achieved is owing rather to the unselfish nature of 

 the explorers themselves — who, aware of the scanty supply of funds 

 forthcoming, have been content to carry on their researches on a 

 system the most economical — and to put up with no inconsiderable 

 amount of personal discomfort, by doing without many accessories 

 which by most persons in their situation would be regarded as absolute 



