424 



NA TURE 



[August 30, 1883 



cooperation, the levy on the individual participators would 

 be very small indeed. 



There are in my opinion three points in the Arctic seas 

 which offer, I believe, special advantages as bases for 

 penetrating towards the Pole, and on which particular 

 attention should be concentrated, viz. the north of Spitz- 

 bergen,the north-east of Novaya Zemlya, and the Behring 

 Straits. 



To the north of Spitzbergen, i.e. to the north of the 

 Seven Islands, Norwegian hunters have, in the autumn 

 of certain years, found the sea to the north and north-east 

 so free from ice that they have deemed it a very easy 

 matter to have penetrated with a steamer considerably 

 northwards. Such was, for instance, the state of the ice 

 in the autumn of 1881. And similarly the sea to the 

 north-east of Novaya Zemlya has in certain years been 

 easy of navigation, and finally, judging by researches, it 

 may be assumed that the same is the case with the sea 

 north of the Behring Straits. 



Now, in order to carry out the programme which I 

 have here suggested for a more systematic research of 

 the Polar regions, I advocate that four small but excellent 

 steamers should be provided, of which one should every 

 year be despatched to a station on the north coast of 

 Spitzbergen, another to one at the northern point of 

 Novaya Zemlya, and the remaining two to respective 

 stations north of the Behring Straits. This should be 

 carried out during eleven consecutive years. Then when 

 the state of the ice in certain seasons was very favour- 

 able, the vessels should take advantage of the opportunity 

 and proceed northwards. 



The advantage of this plan is that it would be attended 

 with very little risk, while the object should be not to 

 attempt to force an advance, but rather to wait patiently 

 until the favourable opportunity presents itself, and then 

 to act with boldness and decision. There is on the other 

 hand every reason to assume that the time of the 

 members of these expeditions would be employed through- 

 out in a way beneficial to science. As a matter of safety 

 it would also be advisable to establish fixed stations or 

 depots in suitable place?, to which the expeditions could 

 resort in case of need. 



From the experience we have gained of late it may be 

 safely assumed that the Polar basin is not during any 

 whole summer or autumn covered with continuous ice ; it 

 is in fact evident that the sea shows large tracts of open 

 water during these seasons. The ocean ice north of 

 Spitzbergen is thus always in a constant — at times even 

 exceedingly violent— state of drifting in the most varied 

 directions, according to the currents and winds pre- 

 vailing. At times, too, the ice has been found to drift in 

 a direction contrary to those of currents and winds. 

 North of Spitzbergen there must, therefore, during cer- 

 tain periods of the season be large tracts of open water 

 which are capable of receiving the enormous ice masses in 

 drift. 



As is generally known, Petermann advanced the hypo- 

 thesis that Greenland extended in a more or less broad 

 belt of land towards the Pole, from whence it diverged 

 downwards to Behring Straits. If this is so, the great 

 Polar basin should be divided into two parts with a 

 common outlet into Behring Straits, although distinctly 

 separated from each other by the land belt in question. 

 They would at the other end discharge themselves into 

 two different channels, viz. one in Baffin's Bay and the 

 other in the Greenland and East Spitzbergen ocean. This 

 hypothesis has been supported by many eminent savants, 

 as for instance Parpart, Jager, and Chavanne. 



Without, however, disputing the correctness _ of the 

 reasons for this assumption, it would not be difficult to 

 point out circumstances which would refute the hypo- 

 thesis. And although several things seem to corroborate 

 the assumption that the real Polar basin contains a belt 

 of smaller and larger islands, it is perfectly obvious that 



the climatological and consequently the glacial conditions 

 of these regions would have been quite different from 

 those now prevailing had a large continent of the kind 

 described by Petermann occupied the greater portion of 

 the central Polar basin. I myself believe, judging by the 

 strong motions of the ice north of Spitzbergen and 

 Novaya Zemlya, and certain circumstances attending the 

 same, that the climate of the Polar regions is a sea or 

 insular climate rather than a continental one. In making 

 this assertion, however, I do not say that a continent 

 such as that referred to has not existed there in the 

 Tertiary or early part of the Quaternary period. 



However this may be, the question to be solved is 

 one of preeminent importance to men of science, and 

 I feel certain that a mode of research effected in the 

 manner I have here advocated would certainly result in 

 its solution. Karl Pettersen 



Tromso Museum, July 



NOTES 

 A meeting of the General Committee of the International 

 Fisheries Exhibition was held at South Kensington on Tuesday. 

 Mr. Birkbeck presided, and read the Report of the Executive 

 Committee, which stated that the number of visitors to the 

 Exhibition ha?, up to the present, been very large. The numbers 

 up to Saturday, the 25th inst., were 1,444,515, showing a daily 

 average of 16,050. The juries have, with few exceptions, now 

 completed their 1 ibours, and their reports will be laid before the 

 Special Commissioners, appointed by Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment, for consideration and approval. The Report closes as 

 follows: — "With regard to the future, it is indispensable that 

 the Executive Committee should obtain the necessary powers 

 from the General Committee to announce the closing of the 

 Exhibition on some day to be fixed hereafter, and that they 

 should further be invested with authority to carry out any nego- 

 tiations and make any agreements they may deem necessary for 

 the subsequent utili-ation of the buildings, which have been 

 erected at so great a cost, in order that a fair proportion of the 

 money that has been expended upon them may be recovered. 

 In furtherance of the latter object, the Executive Com- 

 mittee have much pleasure in stating that they have 

 received from Her Majesty's Commissioners of 1851 an 

 intimation that, provided the grounds are u>ed solely for 

 the purposes of holding exhibitions, they would be willing 

 to extend the existing agreement (which expires on De- 

 cember 31 next) for a further period of three years. The Execu- 

 tive Committee have every reason to believe that, with the 

 approval of the Prince of Wales, exhibitions of great importance 

 will be held in each of these years. Under thee arrangements 

 the authorities, which His Royal Highness may be pleased to 

 constitute for carrying out each of these exhibitions, will become 

 tenants of the Fisheries Exhibition, and would accordingly pay 

 a proportion of the original cost as rent for the use of the build- 

 ings. The Chairman said it was a matter of congratulation that 

 the numbers admitted had proved to exceed the most sanguine 

 expectations of the general public, and the Committee had every 

 reason to believe that for the future, especially during the month 

 of September, large numbers of visitors would attend. The 

 most impoitant portion of the Report referred to the future use 

 of the buildings. Next year it was proposed to hold a great 

 international exhibition of horticulture, floriculture, and forestry, 

 and they had every reason to believe it would be successful. 

 There had been some question of the conferences being con- 

 tinued later on. The discussion on the paper by the Duke of 

 Edinburgh was adjourned sine die. and probably, if His Royal 

 Highness was in London at the end of September or the begin- 

 ning of Ootober, he might be disposed to attend. There was 

 also another promise given that there should be a fishermen's 



