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GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



demands now everywhere becoming recog- 

 nized as imperative since the products of 

 combustion may be conveyed out of the apart- 

 ment, they at once remove one of the most 

 formidable objections to gas-lighting. They 

 also solve the problem of cheap gas, as the 

 doubling of the illuminating power of a given 

 amount of gas is equivalent to halving the 

 price. The introduction of so great an econ- 

 omy in the burning of gas can not but pro- 

 foundly modify the commercial status of the 

 gas industry, and alter greatly its prospects of 

 permanence as an illuminant. 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERT. 

 Arctic Regions. The Arctic campaign of 1883 

 opens a new era, in which investigation is di- 

 rected to the solution of physical problems 

 rather than to discovering new islands or 

 seeking an approach to the pole. The plan 

 of international circumpolar stations was the 

 idea of the late Lieutenant Weyprecht, the dis- 

 coverer of Franz- Josef Land, and was warmly 

 seconded by Count Wilczek, the patron of his 

 famous expedition. After its discussion at the 

 Meteorological Congress at Rome, at the In- 

 ternational Polar Conference at Hamburg in 

 1879, at the second meeting of the same at 

 Berne in 1880, and at the third meeting at St. 

 Petersburg in 1881, it passed into the hands of 

 the governments which promised to establish 

 the several observatories. Prof. "Wild, of St. 

 Petersburg, President of the Polar Commis- 

 sion, announced in May, 1881, that the eight 

 stations required were provided for. The 

 simultaneous observations were to be be- 

 gun as soon as practicable after August 1, 

 1881, and to continue until Sept. 1, 1883. 

 Denmark arranged to establish a station at 

 Godthaab; America took up the northern- 

 most position in Smith Sound, on Lady Frank- 

 lin Bay; Germany chose Cumberland Sound, 

 on the west side of Davis strait; England lo- 

 cated its observers in the center of the Hudson 

 Bay territory at Fort Rae, near the Great 

 Slave lake ; a second American station was 

 established at Point Barrow ; Russia occupies 

 the mouth of the Lena, with a branch station 

 at Moller Bay, in Nova Zembla; Norway se- 

 lected Bosekop, in the Alten Fjord; Holland 

 chose Dickson's harbor; Sweden took Spitz- 

 bergen; and Austria sent observers to the 

 gloomy island of Jan Mayen. The Finnish 

 Government fitted up a meteorological station 

 at Sodankyla, on the Scandinavian isthmus, 

 the Helsingfors Observatory furnishing the 

 magnetic observations. Germany determined 

 to dispatch an observer to the coast of Lab- 

 rador, which extends along the line of mini- 

 mum depression, with the expectation that he 

 would^ obtain the assistance of Moravian mis- 

 sionaries. France undertook simultaneous ob- 

 servations in the Antarctic regions, establish- 

 ing a station near Cape Horn. Germany aids 

 in the investigation of Antarctic phenomena, 

 having sent out an expedition to one of the 

 islands of South Georgia, in 54 30' south 



latitude, and 41 20' 15" west longitude. 

 These two stations in the southern hemisphere 

 are to be aided by the observatories at Cape 

 Town and Melbourne. The investigations of 

 the fifteen principal and branch stations are 

 supplemented by meteorological and magnetic 

 observations taken on the 1st and 15th of 

 every month at various permanent observa- 

 tories in the temperate zone and within the 

 tropics, as well as upon naval and merchant 

 vessels. The English Government co-operates 

 with the International Polar Commission by un- 

 dertaking to tabulate the daily meteorological 

 phenomena of the North Atlantic Ocean as re- 

 ported by seamen, who are invited to send in 

 the data to the Meteorological Office. The sub- 

 jects of inquiry, which are obligatory at all the 

 international stations, are meteorology, mag- 

 netism, the aurora, and astronomy. Magnetic 

 and meteorological observations are taken 

 hourly during the whole time, and on the 1st 

 and 15th of each month magnetic observations 

 are made synchronously at all the stations, 

 every five minutes. The magnetic investiga- 

 tions embrace the three elements of declination 

 or variation, inclination or dip, and intensity. 

 Most of the stations are within the belt, whose 

 pole is at one side of the north pole, that in- 

 closes the region of Arctic magnetic phenome- 

 na, and is the seat of the luminous arc of the 

 aurora. This circle, called sometimes the "au- 

 rora ring," touches the northwest part of Nor- 

 way, passes south of Iceland and Greenland, 

 across the northern part of Labrador and Hud- 

 son Bay territory, emerging into the Arctic 

 Ocean at Point Barrow, touching the Siberian 

 coast only at Cape Chelyuskin, and crossing 

 the northern part of Nova Zembla. Two of 

 the stations, Point Barrow and Bosekop, are 

 on this belt of maximal auroral phenomena, 

 which is believed by many scientists to be the 

 seat of magnetic energy, throwing off electric 

 currents to the north and to the south. The 

 study of the changes in the ice and other phys- 

 ical conditions of the polar basin, is expected 

 by eminent meteorologists to throw much light 

 on the movements of the wind and the circu- 

 lation of the ocean. The fact that there are 

 two focal poiqts of extreme cold, one in Sibe- 

 ria and one in the interior of British North 

 America, instead of a progressive lowering of 

 the average temperature up to the geograph- 

 ical pole, is a recent discovery which gives 

 interest to the comparative therm ometrical 

 readings taken at the international stations. 

 Besides the obligatory observations in the 

 branches mentioned above, the parties are 

 desired to take observations in many other 

 departments of inquiry, including temperature 

 of the soil, snow, and ice, on the surface and 

 at various depths, evaporation, terrestrial mag- 

 netism, galvanic earth-currents, and observa- 

 tions of earth - currents in close connection 

 with magnetic and auroral phenomena, hydro- 

 graphical, spectroscopical, and pendulum ob- 

 servations, as well as observations on atmos- 



