148 



NATURE 



[Dec. 14, 1876 



broad opening exists north of Cape Columbia, and Sir G. Nares 

 firmly believes that it extends at least as far as the Pole. During 

 winter there appears to be a compact mass of ice in the Polar 

 basin, the thinner portions of which are melted by summer heat, 

 leaving open lanes or pools of water, giving sufficient scope for the 

 broken-up permanent ice-mass to drive backwards and forwards 

 according to the wind or current, its main course being towards 

 the channels of outlet, by which a small portion escapes. By 

 the end of September the increasing frost cements together 

 the struggling masses, and young ice forms on the open spaces 

 to about seven feet thick. Thus the pack covering the Polar 

 Sea is a collection of separate pieces of ice, movable among each 

 other during the summer like the pebbles and boulders in a river 

 bed, each piece grinding against its neighbour as the whole body 

 jostles its way along, slowly pressing forwards towards the out- 

 let between Spitzbergen and Greenland. Sir George Nares 

 showed that by calculation an extreme'v small proportion of the 

 Polar ice can escape by the various channels, and that much of 

 what remains may easily be at least lOO years old. Many other 

 valuable observations were made on Polar questions by Sir 

 George, and Captains Stephenson and Markham read interesting 

 papers on "Arctic Winter Experiences" and "Sledge Tra- 

 velling." 



Dr. Petermann has sent us a long letter on the English Arctic 

 Expedition, which he has addressed to the President of the Geo- 

 graphical Society. Dr. Petermann says he has made himself 

 acquainted with the history of every Arctic and Antarctic expe- 

 dition that has ever been undertaken, and it- appears to him 

 "there never was a more able and heroic expedition than that of 

 Capt. Nares. Capt. Nares's expedition may be said to have 

 '■finished,^ as it were, a great portion, say one-third, of the Arctic 

 regions. . . . From Smith Sound to Behring Strait, the region 

 of the Palseocrystic Sea, our knowledge is entirely due to British 

 enterprise and perseverance." Petermann thinks Sir George 

 Nares has exploded the fallacy of the continuous navigability. of 

 the Smith Sound route, and that it required the greatest moral 

 courage to return with results diametrically opposed to what was 

 expected. He thinks that had he been aisle to stay another 

 winter and gone round to East Greenland, he would also 

 have "finished" the Pole. Petermann thinks it has been 

 a triumph of seamans'dp that the commander has been 

 able to bring back the two ships safe and sound, and 

 that if our "enlightened and liberal Government remains true to 

 the P^nglish way of doing things, in a complete way, and not 

 by half-measures, it is to be hoped that these vessels will once 

 more be sent out by a more promising route." He then refers to 

 the six routes to the pole, advocating the Novaya Ztmlya and 

 the East Greenland routes. He believes there is a great open 

 sea all along Northern Siberia, and states that Prof. Nor- 

 denskjold intends in 1878 to sail right across from Norway to 

 Behring Strait. Petermann believes that a high latitude could 

 easily be obtained along the west coast of Franz-Josef Land, and 

 maintains that no proper attempt has been made since Parry's 

 journey in 1827 to push north beyond Spitzbergen. But of all 

 the routes that by East Greenland is the one which he advocates 

 most strongly. He maintains that throughout the summer the 

 East Greenland coast is almost free of ice, and even in winter 

 there is a strong outward drift. He firmly believes that an ex- 

 pedition, like that which has just returned, would have no diffi. 

 culty in sailing direct north, crossing the pole, and coming out at 

 Behring Strait. These views are based on the observations of 

 the whaling captain, David Gray, and on the known drift of the 

 Polar currents. The well-established current by the Smith Sound 

 route brings down much ice, but much more of the Palseocrystic 

 ice must escape by the wide opening between East Greenland 

 and Spitzbergen. The ice-drift must leave an open space behind, 

 and there is therefore good reason to believe that in the Polar 



region will be found an open sea. Petermann is convinced that 

 Sir G. Nares, with the Alert and Discovery, could steam right 

 to the pole by this route, probably in one season. He thinks it 

 possible, moreover, that East Greenland and Franz-Josef Land 

 may approach each other towards the pole, and still maintains 

 the prolongation of Greenland across to Behring Strait, in, how- 

 aver, it appears to us, a somewhat modified and less objection- 

 able form. He considers the central region to be divided into 

 two nearly equal areas of land or islands, the one extending from 

 the shore of East Greenland in about 20° W. long, over Baffin's 

 Bay, Parry Island, and Point Burrow, Behring Strait, and Cape 

 Yak?.n, in about 176° E. long. ; the other half thence all along 

 the Siberian Coast, over Franz-Josef Land, Spitzbergen, to East 

 Greenland. These two regions are in all respects distinct. In the 

 two former, or western, the land prevails, in the latter, sea. " It 

 is not at all unlikely," Petermann states, "that Eskimos will yet 

 be found right under the North Pole." A Swedish and a Dutch 

 expedition have, he assures us, been decided on. He has no 

 hope of anything being done, meantime, to carry out Wey- 

 precht's scheme. The mass of data collected by various expedi- 

 tions has not yet been half worked out. He still maintains : "It 

 might be done, and England ought to do it." We have en- 

 deavoured to give the drift of Dr. Peterma nn's letter, without 

 comment, 



Dr, Petermann has sent us Nos. 123-5, of his valuable 

 s;.ries of papers, "Geographic und Erforschung der Polar 

 Regionen." In these he discusses the results of Nordenskj old's 

 recent expedition, of the Siberian expedition of Finsch, Brehm, 

 and Ziel, and those of the English expedition. As prefatory to 

 an abstract of Nares's report, he describes and discusses some of 

 the observations of previous expeditions, all tending to show the 

 impracticability of the Smith Sound route, and the probability 

 of an open Polar Sea. The papers are accompanied by three 

 maps illustrating the observations and theories referred to, and 

 whatever may be thought of the latter, are a valuable contribu- 

 tion to the polar question. 



M. W. DE Fonvielle writes to us protesting against any 

 scheme of Arctic exploration by means of balloons in the pre- 

 sent state of the aeronautical art. No such scheme is practicable 

 without some certain means of directing a balloon and insuring 

 its progress in any direction independently of air-currents ; and 

 as no method of steering and propulsion has yet been invented 

 that merits consideration, discussion of the subject on existing 

 bases is totally unscientific. 



The German Arctic Exploration Society has received a tele- 

 gram from the Ob Expedition dated Jenisseisk, the 5th instant, 

 announcing that Captain Wiggins has found a good harbour in 

 the Podarala Bay, where he remained several weeks ; he also 

 discovered a large island north of the mouth of the Ob, and a 

 new land route to the Jenissei. He found the water way up the 

 Jenissel to Nurjaha good. 



About two years ago the Registrar- General discontinued the 

 practice of sending, free of charge, to the London Medical 

 Officers of Health, copies of the returns of deaths made by the 

 local registrars. Among the three vestries that still protest 

 against this change for what is public property, is that of St. 

 George's, Hanover Square. For the last two years, therefore, 

 the Medical Officer of Health for St. George's, Dr. Corfield, has 

 been without the>e returns for bis district, and the result is shown 

 in his fourth annual report, just issued. It appears that during 

 the year, according to the Registrar-General's returns, out of 

 ninety-three deaths from scarlet fever, diphtheria and fever, only 

 six were reported to the sanitary inspector. " We had no 

 knowledge," Dr. Corfield states, "of where the other eighty- 

 seven deaths occurred, or what precautions were taken to prevent 



