336 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1871. 



trate a high latitude north of Siberia. There 

 is as yet no report of their discoveries. The 

 French Government were, in the autumn of 

 1871, fitting up the Boreal, one of their naval 

 vessels, for the long-deferred expedition of 

 Captain Lambert ; and meanwhile M. Octave 

 Pavy, a French citizen residing in California, 

 has undertaken, at his own expense, an expe- 

 dition from that city through Behring's Straits, 

 in the hope, by means of the Kuro-Siwo, or 

 Pacific Gulf Stream, of reaching the open 

 Polar Sea. 



Bat, by far the best-appointed and most 

 carefully and amply provided of the arctic 

 expeditions of 1871 was that sent out by the 

 United States Government under the direction 

 of Captain Charles F. Hall, already favorably 

 known as an arctic explorer, and whose eight 

 years of residence in the arctic region, and 

 acquaintance with the language, customs, and 

 mode of life of the Esquimaux, as well as with 

 the climate, qualified him for the enterprise in 

 a preeminent degree. He had a crew of picked 

 men, all of them intelligent and capable of 

 managing the ship. His vessel, the Polaris, 

 formerly the Periwinkle, was a Government 

 steamer, but thoroughly strengthened and pre- 

 pared for the voyage, of about four hundred 

 tons' burden. One of her boilers was supplied 

 with an apparatus for using whale-oil for the 

 generation of steam, as well as for heating the 

 ship. No pains or expense was spared in pro- 

 viding every thing to make the expedition a 

 success ; and the Congress, a noble war-steam- 

 er, convoyed her as far as Disco Island, carry- 

 ing an immense supply of stores of all kinds 

 for the Polaris to draw upon. Her scientific 

 corps included Dr. Emil Bessel, a member of 

 the first and second German expeditions; 

 Sergeant Myers, of the Signal Corps ; and two 

 or three other gentlemen of fine attainments. 

 The Polaris sailed from New York June 29th, 

 and left Godhavn, the port of Disco Island, 

 August 17, 1871. At Upernnvik, where the 

 captain hoped to obtain a large supply of dogs 

 for his sledges, he was only partially success- 

 ful ; but the season being unusually long, and 

 less ice than for many years in both Smith's and 

 Jones's Sounds, he would undoubtedly be able 

 to make a high latitude before going into win- 

 ter-quarters. Though he at first proposed to 

 take the route through Jones's Sound, where 

 as yet no very high latitude has been attained, 

 he was allowed a large discretion, and it was 

 understood, before he left New York, that he 

 would probably make his way up Smith's 

 Sound, following in general the route of Kane 

 and Hays, though better provided for his jour- 

 ney than either. Whether these routes are as 

 well adapted to attain the desired end as the 

 Spitzbergen and East Greenland route, or the 

 route by Behring's Straits, and, indeed, whether 

 the open Polar Sea is a reality or only a myth, 

 are questions which have occasioned an in- 

 finite amount of angry discussion, to which, 

 in the hope of their final solution within a 



year or two, we do not desire to make any 

 addition. 



The German Government, with a due regard 

 to its future position as an important naval 

 power, has been instituting a careful and 

 somewhat thorough exploration of the Baltic 

 Sea. The exploration occupied a considerable 

 part of the months of July and August, 1871, 

 and was performed by the German Admiralty 

 steamer Pomerania. While awaiting a more 

 full and complete report of the results of the 

 exploration, we may note the following inter- 

 esting facts as having been ascertained : The 

 greatest depth of the Baltic between Gothland 

 and Windau was found to be 720 feet, not 

 1,100, as was formerly supposed. At the depth 

 of from 600 to 720 feet the water was, at the 

 end of July, very cold, the thermometer giv- 

 ing from -| to 2 Reaumur. No plants were 

 found at this depth, and only a few specimens 

 of one or two species of worms were brought 

 up with the clay and mud. The cold, prob- 

 ably, prevents fresh-water animals from living 

 at such a depth, while the small quantity of 

 salt which the water contains renders it unfit 

 to support sea-animals. Animal life abounds 

 from the surface to about three hundred feet 

 below it, while plants were seldom found at 

 a depth of more than sixty feet. The Baltic 

 is supplied with salt-water by the Kattegat, 

 through which a deep-water current flows into 

 the Baltic, while the brackish water, which is 

 lighter, streams into the^North Sea by a sur- 

 face current. In the part of the Baltic which 

 lies to the west of Rugen, the difference be- 

 tween the brackish water of the surface and 

 the salt-water of the depths, is far more 

 strongly marked than in the eastern basin, and 

 consequently a number of animals and plants 

 are to be found in the former which are en- 

 tirely absent in the latter part, where the 

 water contains a comparatively small percent- 

 age of salt. Both animal and vegetable life 

 were found to be most abundant on the coasts 

 of Mecklenburg, Schleswig, and Holstein, and 

 in the bay of Lubeck. 



Mr. Jon A. Hjaltalin, the Icelandic geogra- 

 pher, has communicated to the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society of London a very full and 

 interesting account of the celebrated volcano 

 Hecla, which, though not by any means the 

 only one, is the most widely known cf the 

 volcanoes of Iceland. The long intervals be- 

 tween its eruptions, their coincidence with 

 those of Mount Etna, the sympathetic action 

 of most of the Icelandic volcanoes, and its 

 mysterious connection with the sea, are .ill 

 points of peculiar interest in this ice-clad burn- 

 ing-mountain. 



1. Turning to the American Continent, we 

 commence with NOETH AMERICA and with 

 the BRITISH POSSESSIONS IN NORTH AMERICA. 

 The coasts of Newfoundland, the line of the 

 Great Bank, the 'dangerous points in and 

 around Bonavista Bay, and the hitherto un- 

 surveyed portions of the Gulf of St. Law- 



