300 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS. 



crevasses, and steep slopes, while trying to weather 

 the feeder basins of the St. George's and Sherrard 

 Osbourne glacier system, the Hatteras of the North- 

 ern island ice sea. On June 26 we were under the 

 eighty-second parallel, when the land which I had 

 been keeping in view to the northwest fronted me to 

 the northeast, and then to the east, deflecting me to the 

 southeast. After marching four days to the south- 

 east, the land still extending southeast and east, I 

 made direct for it toward a large opening in the 

 mountains, visible over the nearer summits, and land- 

 ed on July 1. 



On July 4, after three days' travel overland, I 

 reached the head of a great bay, latitude 81 37', longi- 

 tude 34, opening east and northeast. I named this 

 Independence Bay, in honor of the day, and the great 

 glacier flowing north into it Academy Glacier. I 

 reached the inland ice again on July 7, with foot-gear 

 cut to pieces and ourselves and our dogs exhausted or 

 dead. We were lame from the hard climbing, sharp 

 stones, and frequent falls we had met. This land, 

 red and brown in color, and almost free of snow, is 

 covered with glacial debris and sharp stones of all 

 sizes. Flowers, insects, and musk oxen are abundant. 

 We shot 5 musk oxen and a large number of birds. 

 Traces of foxes, hares, ptarmigan, and possibly wolves 

 were seen. The surface of the bay was covered with 

 winter's still unbroken ice, imprisoning the icebergs 

 from the great glacier. On July 9 we started on the 

 return, taking a course more inland. In seven days 

 we were struggling through the soft snow and 

 wrapped in the snow clouds of the great interior 

 plateau, over 800 feet above the sea level. We re- 

 mained in the clouds some fourteen days, when we 

 descended from the east of the Humboldt Glacier. 

 Then with the dogs and ourselves trained down to 

 hard pan, we covered over 30 miles a day for seven 

 days till our eyes were gladdened by the deep-green, 

 iceberg-dotted waters of McCormick Bay. 



A relief expedition under Prof. Angelo Heil- 

 prin was sent in the " Kite " to McCormick Bay 

 in June, 1892. When Lieut. Peary and his men 

 returned from their 1,300 miles' journey they 

 found Prof. Heilprin and other members of his 

 party about to set out toward Humboldt Glacier 

 to meet them. One of the party, John M. 

 Verhoeff, who had been left at the station, had 

 gone out on a geological trip, and though the 

 most diligent search was made for seven days, no 

 trace of him was found. It is feared that he 

 perished in one of the crevasses of the glaciers. 

 Provisions were left, however, and a supply of 

 ammunition, and if. as his friends believe, he is 

 still alive, and had only gone farther north to 

 pursue his researches, he will have no difficulty 

 in living comfortably among the Eskimos till an 

 opportunity is afforded for his return. He was 

 the mineralogist of the company. 



Among the discoveries made are the conver- 

 gence of the Greenland coasts above the seventy- 

 seventh parallel, the deflection of the main 

 divide to the northwest above the same parallel, 

 the termination of the continental ice cap below 

 Victoria inlet and the existence of large glaciers 

 in all the great northern fiords. This indicates 

 that Greenland is an island, and does not reach 

 as far north as the pole. Lieut. Peary reached 

 the highest point yet attained on the eastern 

 coast, 82 north latitude, 34 west longitude. 

 The highest point heretofore attained on the east 

 coast is about 75 or 77, and was made by Hold- 

 en, a German. The highest point of the west 

 coast was 83 made by Lockwood and Brainard, 

 of the Greely expedition. 



The expedition brings back much ethnological 



material, including tents, costumes, sledges, kay- 

 aks, and dogs of the northern Eskimo, meteoro- 

 logical and tidal observations, and a large num- 

 ber of photographs of natives, dwellings and 

 costumes, and arctic scenery. 



The eastern coast of Greenland was visited in 

 the summer of 1891 by Lieut. Ryder in the 

 Norwegian steamer " Hecla," who wintered at 

 Hecla Harbor, 70 27' north and 26 12' west. It 

 appears that Scoresby Sound reaches much far- 

 ther to the west than was shown by Scoresby's 

 explorations in 1882. The inner fiords were ex- 

 amined to a distance of 50 miles from the coast. 



Europe. Neusiedler lake, in Austria-Hun- 

 gary, which has attracted attention by its varia- 

 tions, is gradually disappearing, and has scarcely 

 a depth of one metre at its deepest points. The 

 Government therefore designs to drain it entirely 

 by means of a canal connecting with the Raab, 

 and open the bed of the lake to cultivation. 



India. In 1888, Mr. Needham, political resi- 

 dent in Assam, attempted to reach the valley of 

 the Hukong, a tributary of the upper Chindwin, 

 with a view to establishing a direct connection 

 between Burmah and Assam. In the winter of 

 1891-'92 he made a second and successful at- 

 tempt, taking a route southward from the for- 

 mer one, accompanied by a detachment of the 

 Assam police. He crossed the Mu Bun range by 

 a pass 7,200 feet high. Two weeks later he 

 reached Maingkhwon, where he was met by a 

 small detachment of British troops that had 

 been sent up the valley of the Hukong to join 

 him. The route does not promise to be a feasi- 

 ble highway for trade, on account of the difficul- 

 ties offered by the ground to be passed over. 



East Africa. A lake hitherto unknown was 

 discovered by Dr. 0. Baumann in the course of 

 a recent journey from Tanga, northwest to 

 Kadoto, on Speke Gulf, an arm of the Victoria 

 Nyanza. His object was to establish a connect- 

 ing route from German East Africa through 

 the Kilimanjaro region to the eastern shore of 

 Victoria lake. He left Tanga Jan. 15. 

 March 2 he arrived at Umbugwe, a district at 

 the southern end of Lake Manyara. This dis- 

 trict lies in a basin, is thickly populated, and 

 well cultivated. Dr. Baumann, by refusing to 

 pay tribute, fell into a fight with the warlike in- 

 habitants of Tembes. in which he lost 14 men, 

 but captured 150 head of cattle, which supplied 

 his men with food when later they reached the 

 arid lands to the westward. Beyond Umbugwe 

 rises the wall of the Fischer Massai range, or 

 rather, he says, the declivity of the second pla- 

 teau. The Waniaturu live on these heights in 

 the latitude of Umbugwe. A lofty mountain 

 which was described as being in that region and 

 perpetually covered with snow, was afterward 

 seen from a distance, but the summit was envel- 

 oped in clouds. Southward from Umbugwe are 

 the mountains Ufiomi and Gurui. The inhabit- 

 ants of the latter region live in gn\at caves in 

 the earth. None of these regions were visited, 

 the route leading northward along the west shore 

 of Lake Manyara. The water of this lake, which 

 is about 70 by 18 miles in extent, is very salt. 

 On the western side, at the foot of the steep 

 declivity, among volcanic rocks, are a number of 

 hot springs. Passing Mount Simangori, the ex- 

 pedition reached Leilelei, a camping place for 



