332 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY IN 1875. 



Sound the following day. Messages from both 

 Captain Nares and Commander Markham re- 

 port the state of the ice and the condition of the 

 weather so favorable, that they expect to reach 

 latitude 85 before putting up for the winter. 

 Later accounts of sailors who have returned 

 from these seas confirm their favorable reports. 

 The latest news from the explorers was brought 

 by Captain Allen Young, who, upon a search 

 for the remains of the Franklin expedition, 

 touched at Carey Islands after they had left, 

 and brought back the records deposited by 

 Captain Nares, reaching England October 16th. 

 The Swedish Arctic Exploring Expedition, 

 under direction of Prof. Nordenskiold, the 

 widely-known explorer and scholar, has effect- 

 ed a discovery of exceeding commercial im- 

 portance ; to wit, a navigable passage by the 

 way of the North Cape to the mouths of the 

 Siberian rivers Obi and Yenisei, thus render- 

 ing the mineral and agricultural wealth of 

 Western and Central Siberia accessible to com- 

 merce. This solves a problem which has occu- 

 ied maritime exploration for ages, and ren- 

 ers the vast domains of Russia in the East 

 now for the first time tributary to Western 

 trade. Prof. Nordenskiold started from Trom- 

 soe on the 8th of June, and crossed the Kara 

 Sea, which has hitherto been deemed impassa- 

 ble on account of the ice, and reached the 

 mouth of the river Yenisei on the 18th of 

 August. He proceeded up the river to Yeni- 

 seisk, and returned to Europe, leaving that 

 place on the 19th, by the great Siberian route 

 via Tomsk, Omsk, and Ekaterinburg, reaching 

 the latter city on the 30th day of October, 

 with Drs. Stuxberg and Landstrom. Concern- 

 ing the country passed through in his voyage 

 up the Yenisei, Prof. Nordenskiold wrote : 



We saw snow only once during our voyage oil the 

 Yenisei, and in man^ places, especially on the islets 

 which during the spring are submerged, vegetation 

 is most luxuriant and beautiful. The great richness 

 of the grass-fields excited jealousy in the mind of 

 one^of our companions, a farmer fisherman. He was 

 envious that God should have given so splendid a 

 country to the Russians a country where there was 

 no one to^ cut the grass. This statement was re- 

 peated daily and hourly, especially when we came 

 to the splendid woods and rich black soil between 

 Yeniseisk and Turnchausk, an almost uninhabited 

 region, which for fertilitv may probably be compared 

 with the best parts of Scania in Sweden, and is of 

 greater extent than the entire Scandinavian penin- 

 sula. Three different Russian expeditions have this 

 summer been dispatched in Siberia to report on the 

 river communication there. When in Yeniseisk I 

 was informed (not officially) that these expeditions 

 Lad resulted in the opinion that for 700,000 roubles 

 the river Angara, a tributary of the Yenisei, might 

 be made sufficiently safe for ships as far as Baikal 

 Sea, without fear of the whirlpools, and that the Obi 

 might be joined to the Yenisei, and the latter to 

 the Lena. The tract of country within the range of 

 these rivers may be tolerably well conceived when 

 Kef remembered that, according to Prof. Baers, the 

 Ubi, Irtish, and the Yenisei, together cover a greater 

 area than the Don Dneiper, Dniester, Nile, Po, 

 Ebro, Rhone, and all the other rivers flowing into 

 the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, and the sea of 

 Marmora. Although north of the polar circle, there 



are here some of the finest timber-woods on the 

 globe. South of these forests are stretches of most 

 fertile soil, waiting only for the husbandman and 

 the plough. 



During the voyage out, soundings were taken 

 frequently, and the bottom dredged. In the 

 Kara Sea an unexpected store of animals, mol- 

 hisks, brushworms, etc., were raised in the 

 dredgings. An interesting collection of fossils 

 was made at Vaygat's Sound. 



An expedition, it is announced, from St. 

 Petersburg, will be fitted out under the con- 

 duct of Prof. Nordenskiold, for the exploration 

 of a commercial route from Northern Russia 

 to Behring's Straits. A Russian has contrib- 

 uted the required fund, and the expedition 

 will sail in the summer. Other large sub- 

 scriptions have been made for an exploration 

 of the sea of Obi and the sea-route to the Si- 

 berian rivers ; Captain Wiggins has been of- 

 fered the command. 



THE OCEANS. The report of the Challenger 

 Expedition, which treats of the temperature of 

 the Sooloo, Celebes, Banda, and China seas, 

 prepared by Staff -Commander Tizard, fur- 

 nishes interesting facts concerning the subject 

 of oceanic circulation. The seas partially in- 

 closed by the Indian Archipelago are shown 

 to be separate basins cut off from the general 

 oceanic circulation by ridges connecting the 

 islands which inclose them. Very deep sound- 

 ings, over 2,000 fathoms, were found in each 

 of these seas. The temperature below a cer- 

 tain degree remained constant ; in the Sooloo 

 Sea, at the depth of 400 fathoms, the lowest 

 temperature, 50.5, was reached ; the minimum 

 temperature of the Celebes Sea, 38.5, was 

 found at a depth of 700 to 800 fathoms; the 

 Banda Sea remains at 37.5 below 900 fathoms. 

 The results of the soundings in the sea of 

 China were not at all uniform; but from a 

 general comparison it would appear that the 

 ridge which parts this sea from the Pacific lies 

 from 700 to 1,000 fathoms below the surface. 



The Challenger sailed from Hong-Kong, Jan- 

 uary 6th, under the command of Captain Frank 

 Thomson, who succeeded Captain Nares, and 

 arrived at Manila on the llth, having found 

 the greatest depth at 2,100 fathoms, with gray- 

 ooze bottom, in latitude 17 54' north, longi- 

 tude 117 14' east, near the centre of the China 

 Sea: they made thermometrical experiments 

 at different depths, finding, at 900 fathoms, 

 the temperature was 36, and continued so to 

 the bottom. Other similar observations in the 

 other Australasian seas prove that they are 

 cut off from the main ocean, as is noticed 

 above. In passing the island of Mindoro they 

 observed few indications of cultivation ; it is 

 said to abound in deer and other game, and to 

 be inhabited by a tribe of Moros, who reject 

 the Spanish rule, and are a wild, untamable 

 people. 



She then took the course to Zebu, and the 

 island of Camiguin. The island of Zebu pre- 

 sented interesting scenery, and showed signs of 



