June 13, 1901] 



NA TURE 



159 



system of acknowledging sources of information. 

 Another, which strikes an English reader, is the 

 curiously unfamiliar aspect of well-known names of 

 people and places in their Italian form — Giovanni Ross 

 and Giuseppe Wiggins, Terra del Re Guglielmo and 

 San Giovanni de Terranuova require some thinking over. 

 Where so many personal names are foreign to the author, 

 misprints may easily escape detection, and in the index 

 a cursory inspection reveals about a dozen slips, of which 

 the worst are Gordfelow for Goodfellow, and Newes for 

 Newnes. Probably no English author could handle more 

 than 600 foreign names with fewer accidents. Except for 

 a tangle of dates on p. 98, and the necessary baldness in 

 the treatment of some picturesque episodes induced by 

 brevity, the narrative is clear, interesting and, so far as 

 we can test it, correct. Most space is, of course, given 

 to the Arctic regions ; but the history of South Polar 

 voyages is also summarised. 



The members of the Italian Arctic expedition had a 

 magnificent reception in Rome on January 14, the 

 description of which, together with the addresses of the 

 Duke of the Abruzzi and Captain Cagni, occupy practi- 

 cally the whole February number of the BoUcttino of the 

 Italian Geographical Society. The hall was splendidly 

 decorated with flags and Arctic trophies ; and the King 

 and Queen of Italy, with other members of the Royal 

 family, the great officers of State and the Diplomatic 

 Corps, as well as the heads of the scientific bodies in 

 Rome, were present. 



The Duke of the Abruzzi described the equipment of 

 the expedition and the voyage of the famous whaler 

 Jasoti, renamed the S/eUa Polare, toi her winter quarters 

 in Teplitz Bay ; and after Captain Cagni had told the 

 story of his great sledge journey over the ice, H.R.H. 

 resumed the narrative of his sojourn at the base and the 

 return of the party to Europe. 



The following is a brief summary of the facts : — 



The Stella Polarc left Archangel, where she had called 

 for dogs, on July 12, 1899, and, after some delay in the 

 ice, passed Cape Flora, in Franz Josef Land, on the 26th, 

 sailed up the strait named by Jackson the British Channel 

 and along the shore of the Queen Victoria Sea to a point in 

 82° 4', just north of Cape Fligely on Prince Rudolf Island, 

 which was reached on August 8th, after a good deal of 

 trouble from the ice. Teplitz Bay, in 81^ 47', was chosen 

 for wintering the ship ; the dogs and stores were landed 

 there, and the ship, having been damaged on September 9 

 by an ice-pressure, the party was obliged to land and 

 live on shore. During the winter the Duke of the 

 Abruzzi was severely frost-bitten in the hand and was 

 obliged to abandon his intention of accompanying the 

 sledge expedition to the north in spring. The command 

 of this expedition accordingly devolved on Captain 

 Cagni. The sledges used were of Nansen's pattern ; 

 the sleeping bags for the men were made of reindeer 

 skin ; pemmican was the chief food relied on, and 

 petroleum was used for cooking. The expedition was 

 marshalled in three divisions, each consisting of three 

 men and four sledges, on which were placed 180 rations 

 for men and 11 50 for dogs. The provisions of the first 

 division would suffice for the whole party for fifteen days 

 after leaving the island, when the people of that division 

 would return. The provisions of the second division 

 would supply the two remaining groups for fifteen days 

 more and then suffice to allow its members to return to 

 the base, while the third group with their intact store of 

 provisions should be able to push on for fifteen days 

 more, or forty-five days from the base, before requiring 

 to return. 



In some preliminary sledge trips in February a tem- 

 perature descending to - 52' C. ( -62^ F.) was recorded, 

 this being the lower limit of the graduation of the 

 minimum thermometer. The start for the real attempt 

 on the pole was made on March 11, 1900, when the 

 NO. 1650, VOL. 64] 



caravan of three parties struck out boldly across the 

 sea-ice, bound north, Captain Evenson and two sailors 

 accompanying the expedition for two days with a 

 thirteenth sledge. The advance at first was slow, on 

 account of bad weather and rough ice. On March 22 

 the first division, consisting of Lieut. Quirini, the guide 

 Oilier, and the engineer. Stokken, left to return to 

 Teplitz Bay. This party has never since been heard of, 

 and there is little doubt that all three have perished. 

 On March 31 the second group went back, and Captain 

 Cagni continued on his way with three companions, 

 Italian Alpine guides named Petigax, Fenouillet and 

 Canepa. By sending back the other parties some days 

 earlier than was at first intended he was able to retain 

 a larger supply of provisions. Six sledges were taken on, 

 and in spite of the difficulties of the way the party made 

 excellent progress, and by reducing the rations they were 

 able to continue the northward march to 86^ 33' 49" in 

 64^ 30' E., which was attained on April 25. The journey 

 at times was comparatively easy, the ice in places being 

 smooth and covered with firm snow, but frequent pressure- 

 ridges had to be surmounted and proved serious obstacles. 

 In the latter part of the journey, when the temperature did 

 not descend below zero P'ahrenheit, lanes of water often 

 opened with dangerous suddenness and caused great 

 delay, while frequent gales and bad weather of every 

 kind were encountered. The return journey, with rapidly 

 dwindling provisions and diminished strength, was 

 extremely laborious and the steady drift of the ice to the 

 westward was a very serious difficulty, and, despite an 

 increasing easterly component in the direction of march, 

 the first land sighted was Harley and Neale Islands and 

 Cape Mill, fifty miles west by south of Teplitz Bay. It 

 was June 22 before the base was reached, and Captain 

 Cagni had been absent 104 days, making (apart from the 

 loss of the three men in the missing party) perhaps the 

 most successful sledge journey ever accomplished in the 

 Arctic regions, and certainly reaching the highest 

 latitude. 



The S/t'lla Polare, after temporary repairs, was released 

 from the ice with great difficulty, and only succeeded in 

 getting away from Teplitz Bay on August 15, after which 

 a good passage was made to Norway. 



The results of the expedition are touched on slightly. 

 Petermann Land and King Oscar Land, reported by 

 Payer, have been shown not to exist in sight of the posi- 

 tions assigned to them. Cape Fligely (8 1" 5 i') is proved to 

 be the most northerly point of Franz Josef Land, and 

 Cape Sherard Osborn does not belong to the same island, 

 if It has any real existence. Doubt is thrown on the 

 existence of the islands reported by Wellman north of 

 Hvidtenland ; but the maps of the Jackson expedition 

 appear to have been found accurate so far as they could 

 be tested. A year's meteorological and magnetic 

 observations were obtained at Teplitz Bay, and gravity 

 and tidal observations were also carried out. Prince 

 Rudolf Island was found to consist entirely of basaltic 

 rock. Animal life was not found very abundant, polar 

 bears being the only common land mammals, and no new 

 birds appear to have been discovered. 



HAILSTORM ARTILLERY. 

 T N the absence of any recognised English equivalent 

 -'■ for the expressive German term Das Wetterschiessen, 

 I have thought it best in the heading of this article to 

 avoid a literal translation of it lest it should give rise to 

 misunderstanding. " Weather shooting " does not refer 

 to any haphazard or empirical attempts to foretell the 

 weather, but to a practice which has lately come to have 

 great vogue in Styria, Italy and elsewhere of firing oft" 

 charges of gunpowder to protect the vineyards against 

 injury from hail. So popular indeed has the practice 

 become in some districts that there is 'danger of the 



