1866. | | Geography. 273 
many cases ruins have been excavated, and thus disputed points of 
topography have been settled. Inscriptions have been copied, or 
brought bodily away ; and thus we may look forward to a flood of 
light bemg thrown upon many matters about which we are at 
present completely in the dark. Jewish, Pheenician, Assyrian, 
and Syrian antiquities will probably all receive some assistance 
from this expedition. 
It is not alone in new, unknown, or even forgotten countries 
that geographical knowledge may be advanced. In almost the 
oldest of known countries we are acquiring information, as the last 
paragraph shows; in the most highly-civilized country of modern 
Europe something remains to be done. A M. Bourdaloue has brought 
before the Société de Géographie the importance and necessity of a 
general survey of France similar to our trigonometrical survey of 
Great Britain. The advantage of a work of this kind can hardly 
be exaggerated. Jor all matters of drainage, irrigation, and sant- 
tary arrangements, it affords facilities, and it is mdispensable for 
plans of extensive public benefit. 
Whilst the Germans are preparing an expedition to the North 
Pole, to start next spring, towards which project the Prussian Govern- 
ment contributes a corvette of 200 horse-power and 9,0002., a voice 
comes to us from the deep mists of the northern winter, speaking in 
mysterious sounds of some of the lost navigators of former expe- 
ditions. Captain F.C. Hall, who has already written a book about 
the habits of the Esquimaux from observations he made during an 
expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, writes word that in a 
second journey he has been told by those people, on whom he seems 
to rely more than northern travellers usually do, of the existence of 
Captain Crozier and two seamen. Very detailed and circumstantial 
stories of the loss of the ships, the destruction of others of their 
company, and the discovery of these men and of another who has 
since perished by disease, were given to the enthusiastic captain ; 
but it does seem remarkable that, should they still be alive, they 
have never found means of communicating with any of the nume- 
rous parties that have travelled over their route, nor have been 
enabled to get within reach of any of the northern outposts of the 
Hudson’s Bay Company. Until something more trustworthy is 
reported, it seems scarcely worth while pursuing such fleeting 
shadows as the Crozhar, Parme, and Pezart (Fisher) of the Esqui- 
maux squaw. 
We have already spoken of the German travellers in Africa, of 
the German expedition to the Pole, it remains to mention two 
important German works of Geography lately published : ‘ Journeys 
on the Upper Nile, from the papers of W. von Harnier, with a 
Preface by Dr. Petermann, chiefly referring to the countries between 
Kharttim and Zanzibar; and Dr. Adolph Bartien’s ‘Peoples of 
