JixY 4, 1884.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



like the corresponding regions in Mars — or whether, as 

 many geographers suppose, the Arctic regions are occupied 

 in summer by an open ocean, while in the Antarctic regions 

 there is a large continent. 



A new interest was given to inquiries respecting the 

 condition of Arctic and Antarctic regions by the circum- 

 stance that the expedition of the Challenger is expected 

 to bring us information respecting the latter regions, while 

 application has been made for Government assistance to- 

 waids an Arctic expedition. I propose to consider, now, 

 some of the questions which are connected with Antarctic 

 research, and in particular to discuss the probability of the 

 existence of great continental lands within the Antarctic 

 ■circle. 



Before proceeding to consider these points, however, I 

 have a few remarks to make on the question of Govern- 

 ment aid to this branch of geographical research. 



It should be remembered by those who discuss this sub- 

 ject that the first exploration of the polar regions of our 

 earth had a commercial origin. It was supposed that by 

 finding a passage round the northern shores of the 

 American continent communication with China and the 

 £ast Indies would be facilitated. A way had been found 

 round Cape Horn, but the way was long, and the storms 

 which rage in Antarctic seas rendered the route uninviting 

 to the contemporaries of Magellan. The natural supposi- 

 tion in those days was, that voyagers from the great 

 -maritime northern countries — from England, from Spain 

 and Portugal, or from the Netherlands — would find their 

 advantage in sailing northwards rather than southwards. 

 Hence the long and persistent efforts made to discover a 

 north-western passage. Nor were the more directly Arctic 

 voyages of Hudson and Richardson conducted with any 

 other primary purpose. It is indeed manifest, as any one 

 will perceive on examining a terrestrial globe, that a north- 

 -eastem course would avail nearly as well as a north- 

 western for reaching eastern countries from Europe, and 

 that a directly polar course would be better than either, if 

 only (as Hudson hoped) a safe passage might be found 

 through the Arctic seas. 



Gradually, as the hope of finding a north-western 

 passage available for commerce died out, other circum- 

 stances encouraged persistence in the etibrts which had 

 been made to penetrate the regions lying to the north of 

 the American continent. There was much, indeed, in the 

 desire to accomplish what had foiled so many ; and it may 

 be questioned whether this desire had not a good deal to 

 do with the appeals which were made for Government 

 assistance, as also with the ready response of Government 

 to those appeals. Nevertheless, a real scientific interest 

 had become associated with the search after a north-west 

 passage. The magnetic pole of the earth was known to 

 lie somewhere amid the dreary archipelago, with its ice- 

 bound inlets and glacier-laden shores, through which our 

 Arctic seamen had so long attempted to penetrate. There, 

 also, lies one of the northern poles of cold ; while the con- 

 figuration of the isothermal lines (or lines of equal tem- 

 perature) in the neighbourhood, shows how some influence 

 is at work carrying relative warmth from the Atlantic 

 towards the North Pole, and leaving the regions on the 

 west of that course exposed to a degree of cold greatly 

 more intense. To these considerations others connected 

 ■with the whaling trade were added, though I am not pre- 

 pared to say that (so far as the question of Government 

 assistance was concerned) these considerations had very 

 great weight. 



It cannot be denied, however, that at a certain stage in 

 the history of Arctic voyaging, the mere barren ambition 

 to attain or approach the North Pole of the eaith, was set 



in advance of more practical considerations. We find, for 

 instance, that in the case of Parry's " boat and sledge " 

 expedition from Spitzbergen polewards, certain sums of 

 money were set as a reward for reaching such and such 

 northern latitudes, the sum of ten thousand pounds being 

 the prize for attaining the North Pole itself. 



It would not be easy, perhaps, to assign any sufficient 

 reason for the renewal, by a scientific expedition, of those 

 arduous explorations in which Wilkes, d'XJrville, and (espe- 

 cially) the younger Ross, discovered all that is known 

 about the Antarctic ice-barrier. There was much, indeed, 

 in the results obtained by Ross to invite curiosity on the 

 one hand, and on the other to show that the Antarctic 

 regions can be penetrated successfully in certain directions. 

 It seems far from unlikely that other openings exist by 

 which the southern pole may be approached, than that great 

 bay, girt round by steep and lofty rocks, where Ross made 

 his nearest approach to the southern magnetic pole. I 

 shall presently indicate reasons for believing that the 

 Antarctic as well as the Arctic regions are occupied by an 

 archipelago — ice-bound, indeed, during the greater part 

 of the year — but nevertheless not altogether impenetrable 

 during the Antarctic summer. Yet there is little to 

 encourage any attempts to explore this region otherwise 

 than in ships specially constructed to encounter its dangers. 



THE 



(To he continued.) 



INTERXATIONAL 

 EXHIBITION. 



HEALTH 



TI.— WATER AXD WATEE SUPPLIES. 



4 PRELIMINARY inquiry into the nature of water 

 i\ would more become a treatise on chemistry than the 

 present pages ; yet, nevertheless, some definition must be 

 given of this all-important matter to enable our readers to 

 understand exactly what we have to deal with, and how 

 intimately the subject is interwoven with all that concerns 

 our healthy being. 



Pure water, as such, does not come within the scope of 

 our ordinary life ; it only occupies a legitimate place in the 

 laboratory of the experimental chemist, who defines it to be 

 a combination of the elements hydrogen and oxvgen in the 

 proportions of two volumes of the former to one of the latter, 

 or graphically, H — O — H. For further information on the 

 physical properties of pure water, and of its elemental com- 

 ponents, we must refer the reader to the numerous text- 

 books on chemistry now in circulation. A popular lucid 

 account of the subject may be derived from a perusal of the 

 excellent little handbook entitled " Water and Water 

 Supplies," by Professor Attfield, and published under the 

 direction of the Executive Council by Messrs. Clowes ife 

 Sons, in the Exhibition buildings. Chemically, pure 

 water, then, does not come within the field of our obser- 

 vations as inquirers into the usefulness of that medium. 

 What, then, have we to deal with 1 



The water with which we are familiar may be defined as 

 a compound of very variable character. Each sample 

 would have to be analysed before we could pronounce with 

 decision its distinctive attribute. In general, however, the 

 term pure water may be taken to signify water which con- 

 tains in solution and admixture various solids and gases, 

 which, for domestic purposes, are not only harmless, but 

 useful It thus resolves itself into a question of relative 

 utility ; we say relative, because we speak of ourselves as 

 human beings. Certain waters which are eminently suited 

 to the propagation and nutrition of other living thinors, 



