GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1870. 



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i, in liis "Wild Life among the Koords," 

 iiic description of the scenery and in- 

 ut- nt' the remote and hithorto almost 

 unknown districts of Koordiston and Upper 

 Armenia; find Mr. Douglas W. Frenhfiold, an 

 i|.li>hed geographer, lias thrown lauoh 

 ..11 tin- neighboring and little explored 

 us of the Caucasus in his " .loiinu-y in the 

 .uid Ascent of Kashek and Elbruz." 



>ne of the finest contributions made in mod- 

 i-rii times to archaeology and ancient geog- 

 raphy is "The Recovery of Jerusalem; a Nar- 

 rativo of Kxploration and Discovery iu tho 

 City and the Holy Land." It is the report, or 

 rather tho reports, of Captains Wilson and 

 W.-invn, of the Palestine Exploration Fund 

 Commission, with dissertations, from actual 

 (.\-nlorors, on the Ilauran, the Moabite Stone, 

 etc. The work, admirably illustrated, has been 

 republished in this country, and will take rank 

 with Robinson's " Biblical Researches," and 

 Thomson's "The Land and The Book," as au- 

 thentically settling many of the vexed questions 

 of the geography of the Iloly Land. In other 

 parts of the world the enterprise of geograph- 

 ical writers is equally manifest. In addition 

 to Prof. Agassiz and Mrs. Agassiz's books on 

 tho exploration of the Amazons, and Prof. Or- 

 ton's "Andes and the Amazons" previously 

 published, two young gentlemen, of Williams 

 College, Messrs. H. M. and P. V. N. Myers, 

 who were sent out by the Williams College 

 Lyceum of Natural History, and associated 

 with Prof. Orton in the exploration of the 

 northern portion of the South American Con- 

 tinent, published at the close of the year a 

 narrative of their journey of discovery through 

 the Orinoco region, and along the course of 

 the northern affluents of the Amazons. The 

 work, without making any parade of scientific 

 attainments, is really a valuable addition to 

 our somewhat limited knowledge of the geog- 

 raphy of this region. 



The European war, though its principal seat 

 has been in one of the best known regions of 

 Central Europe, has yet produced some interest- 

 ing treatises on the geography, productions, and 

 history of Alsace, Lorraine, and the Vosges and 

 Argonnes mountains and forests ; but, though 

 it impeded and delayed many geographical en- 

 terprises, it performed one great service for 

 geographical science, in demonstrating the ab- 

 solute necessity of a minute knowledge, on the 

 part of military officers, of the physical geog- 

 raphy and topography of the regions in which 

 military operations are to be conducted. The 

 thorough and minute attainments of Baron von 

 Moltke in the physical geography and topog- 

 raphy of France were as important an element 

 in his extraordinary successes as his superb 

 strategical skill; and the gross ignorance of 

 the French officers, of the geography of their 

 own country, contributed largely to their disas- 

 trous defeats. With these preliminary remarks 

 we pass to the consideration of the several 

 fields of geographical exploration. 



I. ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC REGION*. Tho 

 i- \i.-teiice of on opon water-passage and prob- 

 ably of on open polar sea, north of tho Ameri- 

 can Continent, received additional confirmation 

 in the early autumn of 187U by the capture of 

 a right whalo north or rather north west of Bhr- 

 ing's Straits, which had in its body a harpoon be- 

 longing to a ship at that time iu the Greenland 

 seas. As the Arctic right whale is never found 

 below 80 N. hit., it is obvious that it moat 

 havo passed in a very short time across tho 

 open waters north of our continent, and it is 

 not unreasonable to conjecture that in an open 

 sea there, of a temperature such as* would be 

 produced by the coming to the surface of the 

 equatorial current, there may have been its 

 breeding-place. 



The numerous polar expeditions which wero 

 sent out from Germany, Scotland, Norway, 

 Sweden, and Russia, all failed to reach any 

 very high latitudes, or to make or preserve 

 any discoveries of great importance to geog- 

 raphy. This result was due to the exceptional 

 severity of the season, the formation of un- 

 usually large ice-fields, and impenetrable ice- 

 barriers to an approach to the precipitous 

 shores of almost all these lands in the extreme 

 north, especially in their aspects oceonward. 

 Some, finding tho ice-fields so extensive and 

 unbroken, turned back after reaching latitude 

 Y5 N., or thereabout ; others, sailing past long 

 reaches of ice, and attaining to the open ocean, 

 were caught in the ice as they endeavored to 

 approach the land, and, though they reached 

 75 31', were forced southward by tho ice, in 

 one case as far as 61 18'. Of the whole Arctic 

 fleet, consisting of nine vessels, all returned 

 safely, though some of them much battered by 

 the ice, except the Hansa, one of the two 

 vessels belonging to the Petermann Expedition, 

 which sailed from Bremerhaven, June 15, 1869. 

 She was a sailing-vessel of 242 tons, under tho 

 command of Captain Koldewey, who, the pre- 

 vious year, had commanded the little steamer 

 Germania on a similar expedition. The Ger- 

 mania parted company with the Hansa, 

 July 20, 1869, and reached the eastern coast 

 of Greenland, lat. 74 32' N., long. 18 50' W., 

 AugustSth. By September 20th, lat. 75 81'was 

 attained, and the ship was frozen in, in Sabino 

 Bay. During tho winter sledge-journeys were 

 made to 77 1' N. and 18 W., but deep snows 

 defeated every attempt to explore the interior 

 of the land. The greatest cold was 82 

 Reaumur ( 40 Fahr.). July llth the ship 

 was freed from ice bondage, and a new effort 

 was made to push northwestward, lat. 75 20' 

 being reached, where the ice again became im- 

 penetrable. Steaming southward from that 

 point, a deep fjord was discovered August 6, 

 lat. 73 13', into which the ship penetrated 

 seventy-two sea miles, or to long. 26 W. The 

 temperature of the water hero was 4 Return. 

 (41 Fahr.), and of the air 10 Return. (54 60' 

 Fahr.). This inlet branched off in the distance, 

 and in the interior mountains were to bo seen, 



