96 NATURAL SCIENCE. August. 1894. 



boats and bridges, read like a chapter from Jules Verne, and ex- 

 emplified the imagination of the American journalist. The news 

 recently brought by the " Saide " concerning this expedition is a little 

 contradictory ; for while we are told that the " Ragnvald Jarl " was 

 only six days on its passage from Tromso to Danes Island, Spitz- 

 bergen, and that the sea to the north of that island was remarkably 

 free from ice, on the other hand, we learn that, in the opinion of 

 Captain Johannesen, of the " Smeerenburg," the " Ragnvald Jarl " 

 must have been subsequently beset and crushed by heavy pack-ice. 

 This does not augur well for the immediate prospects of the Jackson- 

 Harmsworth expedition, which, in the opinion of Arctic experts, is in 

 any case starting six weeks too late. Since, however, the party are 

 prepared for an absence of two or three years, a slight delay at the 

 outset will perhaps not affect the ultimate result of the expedition. 

 It is, besides, far more the object of Messrs. Jackson and Harmsworth 

 that worthy scientific results should be obtained than that the Pole 

 itself should be seriously threatened. The expedition is very 

 thoroughly fitted out with scientific instruments, and carries besides 

 several experienced observers, although we understand that at the 

 last moment some difficulties arose with regard to the latter. 



Almost simultaneously with the starting of the " Windward," 

 the Peary auxiliary Polar expedition left St. John's on board the 

 steamer " Falcon " for Inglefield Gulf, Greenland, to bring home 

 Lieutenant Peary's party. The vessel will call at Carey Island, 

 where the unfortunate Swedish naturalists, Bjorling and Kallstenius, 

 came to grief in their schooner the "Ripple" in 1892. Dr. Ohlin, 

 a Swedish zoologist, accompanies the expedition chiefly for the 

 purpose of searching for his two countrymen or their remains. 

 The party on board the " Falcon " is also charged to explore Jones's 

 Sound and to make a chart of the coast. After this it will call for 

 Mr. Peary, and return to St. John's about the end of September. 



Whatever else may happen, as all these expeditions intend to 

 observe the aurora on one definite plan, the results to meteorology 

 cannot fail to be of exceptional interest. 



The Pollination of the Yucca. 

 In May, 1893 (Natural Science, ii., p. 321), we described in 

 detail Trelease's studies on the pollination of the Yucca by the larvae 

 of the moth Pronuba yuccnsella. In the Fifth Annual Report of the 

 Missouri Botanical Garden (p. 137), Mr. J. C. Whitten has completed 

 the details, previously incomplete, of the life-history of this interesting 

 insect. He finds that the larvae make their escape from the capsules, 

 and enter the soil, during the rainy weather when the ground is 

 softened and easy of penetration. He also makes the interesting 

 notes that they do this during the daytime or at night, and not ex- 

 clusively toward the end of the night, and that they drop quickly 

 down to the ground by means of a silken thread. 



