Polar Expedition. 387 
in this experiment, and if the hydrogen was inflamed, ‘its flame 
might not be observed when contrasted with the heated iron, a 
body so much more Juminous. 
The operation of the water-burner, then, appears to be simply 
this:—Tar, minutely divided, and intimately mixed with steam, 
is inflamed; the heat of the flame, aided by the affinity for oxy- 
gen of that portion of carbon which would otherwise pass off in 
smoke, decomposes the water, and the carbon and oxygen unite; 
the hydrogen of the water, and probably of the tar, expand on 
all sides (and hence the flame is very large) to meet the atmo- 
spheric oxygen; water is recomposed, and passes off in steam; a 
degree of heat is produced, no doubt, greater than that which is 
produced hy the combustion of the tar alone; and this heat is 
equal to that evolved by the combustion of a quantity of carbon 
which would otherwise form smoke. 
The invention is ingenious, and may be found very useful in 
steam-boat navigation, where it has already been applied. Pro- 
bably a saving of heat would be produced by condensing the pro- 
ducts of this combustion, which might be effected to a certain 
degree by an apparatus of simple construction. 
POLAR EXPUDITION. 
We stated in our last the return of one branch of this expe- 
diticn, under Captain Buchan. It has been since followed by 
the return also of the other ships, the Isabella and Alexander, 
under Captain Sir John Ross, after a fruitless attempt to pene- 
trate through Baflin’s Bay into the Northern Pacihe Ocean. 
Captain Ross is said to have completely succeeded in exploring 
every part of Bafiin’s Bay, and, with the exception of errors in 
the latitudes and longitudes, of verifying the statements of that 
old and able navigator whose name it bears, and of ascertaiving 
that no passage exists between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans 
through Davis’s Straits and Baffin’s Bay, the whole being found 
to be surrounded by high land, extending to the north as far as 
lat. 77 deg. 55 min. and loug. 76 deg. W.: and in the 74th 
degree of latitude stretching westward as far as 84 deg. W. lon- 
gitude. They traced the same the whole way down to the Cape 
Walsingham of Davis, which they ascertained to lie in lat. 66 
deg. and long. 69 deg. From hence they steered for Resolution 
Island, and then stood homeward. They have made many cu- 
rious observations and discoveries, of which, perhaps, will not be 
considered as the least interesting, that of a nation being found 
to inhabit the Arctic regions, between the latitudes of 76 and 
78 degrees, who thought that the world to the south was all ice; 
that generation had succeeded generation of a people who had 
never tasted the fruits of the earth, had no idea of a Supreme 
Bb2 Beings 
