138 Mary Somerville. 



1839 ; and the United States of North America took 

 an active part in Arctic exploration. Whether Dr. 

 Kane's discovery of an open polar ocean will ever be 

 verified is problematical ; at all events, the deplorable 

 fate of Sir John Franklin has put a stop to the 

 chance of it for the present ; yet it is a great geogra- 

 phical question which we should all like to see 

 decided. 



Captain Sabine, of the Artillery (now General Sir 

 Edward Sabine, President of the Koyal Society), 

 was appointed to accompany the first expedition 

 under Captains Eoss and Parry on account of his 

 high scientific acquirements. The observations made 

 during the series of Arctic voyages on the magnetism 

 of the earth, combined with an enormous mass of 

 observations made by numerous observers in all 

 parts of the globe by sea and by land, have enabled 

 Sir Edward Sabine, after a labour of nearly fifty 

 years, to complete his marvellous system of terrestrial 

 magnetism in both hemispheres. During that long 

 period a friendship has lasted between Sir Edward 

 and me. He has uniformly sent me copies of all 

 his works ; to them I chiefly owe what I know on 

 the subject, and quite recently I have received his 

 latest and most important publication. Sir Edward 

 married a lady of talent and scientific acquirements. 

 She translated " Cosmos" from the German, and 



