Oct, 28, 1875] 



NATURE 



557 



of Kara it was found completely free of ice ! " Our course 

 was set towards the middle of the peninsula which sepa- 

 rates the Sea of Kara from the Bay of Obi, and is named 

 Jalmal by the Samoyedes. The wind was very moderate, 

 so that we only advanced slowly — a circumstance by 

 which our patience was in truth sorely tried, but which 

 had this good result, that during our sailing forward in 

 these waters visited for the first time by a scientific 

 expedition, we were able daily to undertake dredg- 

 ings, hydrographic work, &c. The dredgings gave 

 an unexpectedly rich and various harvest of marine ani- 

 mals, among which I will specially mention here several 

 colossal species of Isopoda, {masses of Amphipoda and 

 Copepoda, a large and beautiful Alecto, uncommonly 

 large Ophiurids, beautifully marked Asterids, innumer- 

 able mollusca, &c. The peculiar circumstance here 

 occurs that the water at the surface of the sea, which in 

 consequence of the great rivers which debouch in these 

 regions is nearly free of salt, forms a deadly poison for 

 the animals which live in the salt water at the bottom. 

 Most of the animals brought up from the bottom accord- 

 ingly die if they are placed in water from the surface of 

 the sea. 



" Here, as on the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, 

 were instituted, when opportunity offered, with the ther- 

 mometers by Negretti and Zambra and Casella procured 

 by you during your stay in London last spring, determina- 

 tions of the temperature of the sea, not only at the sur- 

 face, but also at different depths under it. These investi- 

 gations yielded a specially interesting result, and perhaps 

 may be regarded as conclusive of a number of questions 

 regarding which there has of late been much discussion 

 concerning the ocean currents in these regions, the direc- 

 tion of which, in the absence of other data, it has been 

 attempted to determine chiefly by the temperature of the 

 surface water. By means of numerous observations along 

 the west coast of Novaya Zemlya from Matotschkin 

 Scharr to Jugor Sound, and thence past Cape Grebeni to 

 75|° N. lat. and 82° E. long., and on to the mouth of 

 Jenisej, I have obtained indisputable proof that in this 

 sea the temperature of the sea-water at the surface is 

 exceedingly variable and dependent upon the temperature 

 of the air, upon the neighbourhood of ice, and upon the 

 influx of warm fresh water from Obi and Jenesej, but that 

 the temperature of the water at a depth of only ten 

 fathoms is nearly quite constant, between - 1° and 2° C. 

 If, in the northern part of the Sea of Kara, where the 

 water on the surface is almost completely /;v<? of salt, and 

 at this time of the year very warm, a flask filled with 

 water from the surface is sunk to a depth of ten fathoms, 

 the water fr«ezes to ice. There are thus no warm ocean 

 currents here at any considerable depth below the sur- 

 face. A large number of deep-water samples have been 

 taken by the apparatus constructed by Prof. Ekman, 

 which is exceedingly well adapted for the purpose, 

 and I am convinced that at the bottom the content of 

 salt is also constant, which can be ascertained with cer- 

 tainty after the return of the expedition by analyses of 

 the samples of water which have been taken. 



" On the 8th August we landed for a few hours on the 

 north-western side of Jalmal, where an astronomical deter- 

 mination of the position of the place was made. A great 

 many astronomical determinations had previously been 

 made during the expedition along the west coast of 

 Novaya Zemlya and Jugor Sound. Traces of men, some 

 of whom had gone barefoot, and of Samoycde sledges, 

 were visible on the beach. Close to the shore was found 

 a sacrificial altar, consisting of about fifty skulls of the Ice 

 Bear, Walrus, and Reindeer bones, S:c., laid in a heap. 

 In the middle of the heap of bones there stood, raised 

 up, two idols, roughly hewn from drift-wood roots, newly 

 besmeared in the eyes and mouth with blood, also two 

 poles provided with hooks, from which hung bones of the 

 Reindeer and Bear. Close by was a fireplace and a heap 



of Reindeer bones, the latter clearly a remnant of a sacri- 

 ficial meal. After a stay here of several hours, I sailed 

 further north, until further advance in this direction was 

 prevented by impassable masses of great even icefields at 

 75° 30' N. lat., and 79° 30' E. long. Afterwards I fol- 

 lowed the edge of the ice eastwards, and finally steered 

 our course towards the north side of the mouth of Jenisej, 

 where the Swedish flag was hoisted and the anchor was 

 let go on the 15th in the afternoon. We had now attained 

 the goal which great seafaring nations had in vain striven 

 for centuries to reach. 



" The expedition will now, in accordance with the plan 

 agreed upon, separate, inasmuch as I, accompanied by 

 Lundstrdm and Stuxberg, and three men, intend, in a 

 Nordland boat brought with us for the special purpose, to 

 sail or row up the Jenisej, in order to return by Turu- 

 chansk and Jeneseisk to Europe, while the Proven returns 

 hence to Norway, if possible going north of the north 

 point of Novaya Zemlya." 



SCIENCE IN GERMANY 

 {From a German Correspondent.) 



SINCE we possess in the kinetic molecular theory, as 

 founded by Clausius, a mechanical theory based on 

 the atomic conception of gases, it is possible to employ 

 the results of the chemical investigation of these bodies 

 for physical deductions. It is only necessary to suppose 

 for this purpose that the same molecules, which are the 

 bearers of the thermal and mechanical properties of gases, 

 act reciprocally in chemical reactions. We must point out 

 as one of the most important confirmations of this view, 

 that Avogardo's hypothesis, based on general physical de- 

 ductions, and adopted in chemistry as the foundation-stone 

 of its whole recent development, has lately found its me- 

 chanical confirmation in the gaseous theory of Maxwell 

 and of Boltzmann. 



Recently, however, difficulties have arisen in the further 

 investigation of this theory, with regard to the specific heat 

 of gases. The quantity of heat contained in a gas is defined 

 as the total energy of its molecules, and this energy consists 

 solely in progressive motion, if the molecule is looked 

 upon as a mere material point. On the other hand, the 

 pressure of the gas upon the surface-unit equals two- 

 thirds of the kinetic energy of progressive motion con- 

 tained in the volume-unit. If, therefore, we raise the 

 temperature of the gas by one degree, the volume re» 

 maining the same, we can find by calculation the adduced 

 quantity of heat according to the gaseous theory, from the 

 increase of pressure determined by Mariotte-Gay Lussac's 

 law. This quantity of heat in its relation to the mass- 

 unit, is, as is known, called the specific heat of the gas 

 at the constant volume (<"), and calculation now shows this 

 value to be o'6o of the observed one. In close connec- 

 tion with this it was found that the proportion of specific 

 heat at constant pressure {<f) to the specific heat at con- 



stant volume {c), viz. 



c' 



/& is = I '67 according to the 



theory mentioned, but= 1*405 according to observation. 



Clausius has shown that the theoretical value of c is 

 certainly increased, if we take into account that according 

 to the results of chemical researches the molecules of the 

 gases hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen are not material 

 points, but polyatomic, and that they are thus capable of 

 storing, as it were, a certain quantity of energy in the 

 shape of motion relative to a centre of gravity. But when 

 BoUzmann lately investigated the behaviour of polyatomic 

 gas molecules according to mechanical principles, he 

 found c for a diatomic gas (like hydrogen, oxygen, 

 nitrogen) to be i'22 times more than observation shows. 

 He found by calculation k =» 1-33, and this value is 

 smaller than the actual one (r40S). We must remark 

 here that the supposition of a number of atoms larger than 



