NA TUBE 



[March 3, 1910 



NORTH POLAR OCEANOGRAPHYA 



A HANDSOME volume full of useful information 

 has been given to oceanographical science by 

 H.R.H. the Duke of Orleans, the result of a cruise 

 in the Greenland Sea during the year 1905. This is 

 one of a series of Arctic cruises His Highness has been 

 making for a number of years, the last having been 

 during the summer of iqoq. On each of these voyages 

 the Duke of Orleans has carried with him an excellent 

 scientific staff on board his yacht, the Belgica, a vessel 

 already known in Antarctic exploration. Among those 

 who have been with him are Dr. Recamier, who has 

 accompanied the Duke on each of his previous 

 voyages, as well as Captain Adrien de Gerlache, 

 formely leader of the Belgian Antarctic expedition, 

 M. E. Merite, the artist-naturalist, and Mr. E. 

 Koefoed. 



to west over to the Greenland coast in as high a 

 latitude as 75° 30' N., a region which has been inacces- 

 sible to other expeditions trying it. Along this route 

 a complete set of soundings and serial tcmijerature 

 and salinity observations were made. The coast of 

 Greenland was met on July 27, and the Duke landed 

 on an island, rich with Arctic vegetation, just south 

 of Cape Bismarck, and which he named " He Marous- 

 sia." At 8 a.m. on July 28 the Belgica was four miles 

 north of Koldewey and Payer's cairn, the furthest 

 north point of the German expedition of 1870. At 

 noon the Belgica's position was 77° 20' N., 18° 20' E., 

 and in the evening a party landed on a previously un- 

 known island, which was named He de France, the 

 south-east cape of which, in 78° 38' N., 17° 36' W., 

 was named Cape Philippe. Here the French colours 

 were hoisted. Koefoed found nineteen phanerogams, 

 seven mosses, four fungi, and six lichens; hares, 



Fig. I.— The Belgica in land ice on August 4, 1905 (,Lat. 77' 29 N., Long. i8- 31 W.). 



The volume opens with a narrative of the voyage 

 and an extract of the ship's journal, by Captain de 

 Gerlache. The Belgica left Tromso on June 3^ and, 

 passing northward to the west of Spitsbergen, sighted 

 Prince Charles Foreland in exceptionally clear 

 weather, reaching 80° 20' N. in this longitude. From 

 this point the Duke attempted to push westward 

 towards Greenland, not to establish " un vain record," 

 but to carry on serious scientific investigations in an 

 unexplored region of the Arctic Ocean. This attempt 

 was repulsed by heavy ice, which drives southward 

 from the polar basin between Spitsbergen and Green- 

 land. The special object was to verify the hypothesis 

 that a ridge separated the Greenland Sea from the 

 North Polar basin, but though unsuccessful in this 

 attempt, the expedition succeeded in crossing from east 



J. Due d'Orleans. " Croisiere Oceanographique accomplie a bord de la 

 Belgica dans la Mer du Gronland, 1905." Pp. v+568 ; Ixxix plates. 

 (Brussels : Bulens, 1907.) Price 100 francs. 



NO. 2105, VOL. 83] 



ptarmigan, foxes, and lemmings abounded. The re- 

 mains of Eskimo encampments were also found. 



At midnight on July 30 the Belgica was in 78° 16'^ 

 N., 16-^ 48' W., or 167 miles further north than the 

 Germania in 1869. From this point the Belgica 

 pushed eastward, and thirty miles eastward, after 

 getting shallowing soundings of 245, 120, and 5.^ 

 fathoms, struck bottom at 32 fathoms, and named 

 this bank the Belgica Bank. Six miles to the south- 

 east of this point the water deepened again to 109 

 fathoms, de Gerlache suggests tliat there may be an 

 island in the vicinity, noting that two crows and a 

 walrus were seen. After this the Duke returned by 

 more or less the same route so far as Cape Bismarck, 

 and from there in a more or less southerly direction 

 in, and along, the edge of the Greenland pack, which 

 they lost sight of on August 21 in about 67° 30' N., 

 24° E. It is satisfactory to note that at almost the 

 furthest north point reached a well determined position 



