64 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



is the exploration of part of the nearly 2i millions of square 

 miles of unknown lands and waters surrounding the Pole, 

 and to add to our knowledge of the animals, plants, geology, 

 and meteorological, magnetical, and other physical phenomena 

 of that unexplored region of the Northern Seas. Some parti- 

 culars were given regarding the blanks in our knowledge, 

 which the researches of the scientific men attached to the 

 expedition might be expected to fill up. We could not, 

 however, be too careful to moderate our expectations of the 

 greatness of these results; for though everything would be 

 done that skill, courage, and forethought could devise, yet 

 the best arranged plans were checked and controlled by a 

 thousand circumstances which could not be foreseen or pro- 

 vided against in seas so unknown, and where navigation was 

 so much at the beck of the ice-floes. In the Arctic regions 

 the navigator learned, by the schooling of many disappoint- 

 ments, how most truly " On earth there is nothing certain 

 unless that nothing is certain." On the motion of Professor 

 Duns, the meeting recorded ■ its thanks to Dr Brown for his 

 address ; and after a few observations by the President on the 

 work of the past session, the Society adjourned to the third 

 Wednesday in November. 



