ARCTIC REGIONS AERIAL EXPLORATIONS. 187 



wish that in this matter our American grandchildren may 

 "lick the Britishers quite complete." It will do us much 

 good. 



My views, expressed in the f< Gentleman's Magazine" of 

 July 1880, and repeated above, remain unchanged, except 

 in the direction of confirmation and development. I still 

 believe that an enthusiastic, practically trained, sturdy arc- 

 tic veteran, who has endured hardship both at home and 

 abroad, whose craving eagerness to reach the Pole amounts 

 to a positive monomonia, who lives for this object alone, 

 and is ready to die for it, who will work at it purely for the 

 work's sake will be the right man in the right place when 

 at the head of a modestly but efficiently equipped Polar ex- 

 pedition, especially if Lieutenant Schwatka is his second 

 in command. 



They will not require luxurious saloons, nor many cases 

 of champagne; they will care but little for amateur theatri- 

 cals; they will follow the naval traditions of the old British 

 "sea-dogs" rather than those of our modern naval lap- 

 dogs, and will not turn back after a first struggle with the 

 cruel arctic ice, even though they should suppose it to be 

 "paleocrystic." 



MR. WALTER POWELL. 



Scientific aerostation has lost its most promising expert 

 by the untimely death of Walter Powell. He was not a 

 mere sensational ballooner, nor one of those dreamers who 

 imagine they can invent flying machines, or steer balloons 

 against the wind by mysterious electrical devices or by me- 

 chanical paddles, fan- wheels, or rudders. 



He perfectly understood that a balloon is at #ie mercy 

 of atmospheric currents and must drift with them, but 

 nevertheless he regarded it as a most promising instrument 

 for geographical research. I had a long conference with 

 him on the subject in August last, when he told me that 

 the main objects of the ascents he had already made, and 

 should be making for some little time forward, were the 

 acquisition of practical skill, and of further knowledge of 

 atmospheric currents; after which he should make a dash 

 at the Atlantic with the intent of crossing to America. 



