August 30, 1883] 



NA TURE 



427 



ever, fine and warm, but with October the storms from the north 

 again came back with cold weather, accompanied by magnificent 

 aurora; of yellow, blue, and sometimes even red colour. The 

 aurora borealis was always seen, and in constant motion, at 

 times covering the whole firmament. On November 12 the 

 I olar night commenced, but the darkness was not appalling, as 

 the ever-recurring aurorce lit up the night. Terrible snowstorms 

 often compelled the members to keep indoors, and not until 

 1 iccember came the ice began to form along the coast, but it 

 \ as often after broken up under terrific storms. During these 

 the spray from the surf on the coast was often thrown several 

 hundred feet inland and coveredevery object with salt crystals, so 

 that fresh water had to be fetched long distances. In January 

 the greatest cold occurred, -35° C, but even during that 

 month southerly winds often brought the glass up to \ 20 C. 

 On January 30 the Polar night came to an end. March was 

 on an average the coldest month, and during the same the station 

 was for a short time snowed up. I luring April and May fresh 

 weather reigned. Early in June a whaler passed the island, but 

 did not observe the station, and by the end of the month no ice 

 was found on the island. Throughout the winter but little 

 stove firing was necessary, and both houses and the provisions 

 fully answered their purpose. During an exploration of the 

 island a grave was discovered which is believed to be that of one 

 of the shipwrecked Dutch sailors who wintered here in 1633, 

 and died through scurvy. The scientific observations of the ex- 

 pedition are, the members state, very valuable, and have been 

 carried out in accordance with the international programme. 

 There was no case of scurvy among the members or the crew, 

 against which every precaution had been taken by the munificent 

 patron of the expedition, Count Wilczek. 



In .September it will be exactly twelve months since the 

 Dijmphna and the Varna were last seen in the Kara Sea, since 

 when no news whatever as to the fate of the two vessels h I 

 obtained. It was hoped 1 ha t the Willem Barents, which has 

 been cruising in the Kara Sea during the summer, would have 

 brought some tidings of the mi-sing vessels, but this expectation 

 ha- failed, as recently stated in Nature, the Dutch exploring 

 vessel neither finding any trace of the same, nor learning any- 

 thing from the Samoyedcs on the coast of Siberia, if the 

 rumour, which was current early in the year, that the Samoyedes 

 had seen the wreck of a large vessel on the east coast of 

 Waigatz Island, is remembered, and which was proved to be 

 incorrect, we may assume that there is as little truth in the 

 recent one to the effect that a vessel had wintered off the east 

 coast of that island, a spot which it is hardly likely that either 

 vessel culd have reached. On the other hand there is little 

 probability of the hope expressed by Hovgaard in his last de- 

 spatch and by Nordenskjold having been realised, viz. that the 

 equinoctial gales of October would set the vessels free and 

 enable them to winter at Port Dickson or adj lining port, as 

 Hovgaard had instructions from Ilerr Gan.el, in such an eventu- 

 ality, to despatch a message thereof to Yakutsk, and if this was 

 done it would have reached us ere now. There is now only the 

 hope left, if no mishap has occurred to the vessels, that they got 

 free early in the spring, as Norwegian smacks found open water 

 in the Waigatz Strait as early as in May last, and have proceeded 



1 Port Dickson, from whence news may now be looked for. This 

 may have been reached in safety, although it seems remark- 

 able that the Dutch Meteorological Expedition should not have 

 returned to Europe instead during the summer in accordance 

 with the instructions of the CircumpoJar Congress, by which all 

 parties were to return in August of the present year. If to this 

 are coupled the circum-tances that the Varna is merely a third 

 class Norwegian coasting steamer of inferior qualities and (he 

 Dijmphna, although strengthened for Polar exploration, an old 

 vessel of no great strength, and that the vessels were la-t seen in 

 a place which is notorious for the terrible pressure and drift of 

 the pack-ice, with sudden hurricanes, there certainly seems 

 ground for the anxiety for the ships which is now becoming 

 manifest in Copenhagen an I Amsterdam. The Dutch have, we 

 learn, taken decided steps to ascertain the fate of their country- 

 men, it having been decided at a meeting in Amsterdam last 

 week immediately to equip and despatch a steamer in s;arch of 

 the Varna from Hammerfest, in Norway. 



The Ellida left Hammerfest last week to try to discover the 

 missing Dutch Expedition. The Meteorological Institution has 

 now contracted with the owners of a second ship, the George, 

 which started on Saturday from Archangel with orders to land 



on the west coast of Waigatz, and to send help overland to the 

 Kara Sea if the entrances by water are closed. A telegram from 

 Utrecht announces that a Dutch gentleman offers a reward of 

 50,000 Norwegian krone to the ship which shall find the Dutch 

 Polar Expedition, last seen in the autumn of last year on board 

 the I 'iirna in the Kara Sea. This expedition had assigned to it 

 the carrying out of the magnetic and meteorological observations 

 at the mouth of the Yenisei, under the command of M. Lamie, 

 a lieutenant in the Koyal Netherlands Navy. 



In the Bolletino of the Italian Geographical Society for 

 Augu-t, Sig. C. de Amezaga gives a detailed account of the Gala- 

 pagos Islands, based on the recent reports of MM. Icaza and 

 Wolf. The- archipelago, which belongs politically to the Re- 

 public of Ecuador, is a sort of No Man's Land, at present almost 

 uninhabited except by cattle, goats, swine, horses, asses, and 

 dogs, placed there early in the present century, which have 

 multiplied exceedingly, and partly [everted to the wild state. 

 The <logs especially are very numerous ami savage — like their 

 wolfish ancestors preying on the goats and cattle. Similar pro- 

 pensities have be n developed by the "bimana" from the main- 

 land, who, at various dates between 1831 and 1878, have at- 

 tempted t 1 establish settlement- on Floriana (Charles Island) 

 and one or two other members of the group, but who generally 

 ended by mutually exterminating each other. The archipelago 

 comprises thirteen volcanic island-, and numerous rocks scattered 

 over a space of about 6000 square miles, but collectively forming 

 scarcely more than 720 square miles of dry land. Within this 

 limited area are represented two remarkably distinct physical and 

 climatic zones, one low, hot, barren, and rainless, extending from 

 the sea-level to an elevation of about 650 feet, the other thence 

 to an extreme altitude of 1435 feet (cone at north extremity of 

 nle Island), subject to tropical rains from February to 

 May, followed by heavy ileus for the rest of the year. Here 

 t lie igne ius rocks have been completely disintegrated, forming a 

 thick la) er of argillaceous clay and humus, on which flourishes 

 a varied and vigorous vegetation, ilut this upland wooded region 

 is of such limited extent compared with the arid lowland-, that 

 probably not more than 60 square mile- altogether are suitable 

 lor cultivation. The native flora, while in general of the 

 American type, ['resents many peculiarities, especially in the 

 phanerogamous plant-, ah of distinct species, which have not 

 been satisfactorily explained by the special climatic and physical 

 conditions. There s also a total absence of liana-, creepers, 

 inu-aee.e, and the other monocotyledonous 



families which form the glory of the Amazonian forests. The 

 indigenous fauna is represented chiefly by reptiles, including four 

 or five species of snake-, none of which are venomous. The 

 huge turtle- nn I land tortoise-, the strange marine ignanas, and 

 other survivals from remote geological epoch--, impart a certain 

 antediluvian aspect to the landscape, especially of the low-lying 

 coastiands, which are little frequented by the animals recentl) im- 

 ported from the mainland. The climate, everywhere healthy, with 

 an average temperature not exceeding 73 or 74" F,, even in the 

 hot zone, is favourable both for stockbreedingand the cultivation 

 of sugar, bananas, and all kinds of vegetables and fruits of tro 

 and temperate regions. There, are, however, no mineral re- 

 sources, and a complete absence of guano, phosphates of lime 

 and carbon, all of which were formerly supposed to abound in 

 the archipelago. On the other hand, there are a few good and 

 easily-accessible havens, such as those of Po-t Office Bay and 

 Black Beach Roads on the east side of Floriana. Hence the 

 Galapagos Group, lying at about 900 miles from Panama on the 

 direct r .ule to Australasia, cannot fail to acquire great economie 

 imijortanee a 3 a provision and coaling station as soon as the pro- 

 jected i - ship canal is constructed. The notice is 

 I by a good chart of the archipelago on a scale of 

 1 : 889,000, shotting elevations, cones (of which two are still 

 active), marine and prevailing atmospheric currents. 



It may be remembered that Baron Nordenskjold, at the 

 moment of leaving Iceland on the present expedition, discovered 

 in the possession of an Icelander an old map of North Europe, 

 which he, judging from his announcement of the discovery 

 through the medium of the Royal Geographical Society, believed 

 to be^very old, perhaps as old as the famous Zeno map, to which 

 reference has previously been made in Nature, and which he 

 appeared to consider further supported his views concerning the 

 Norse settlement- in Greenland. We have, with reference to the 

 map in question, received a communication from an eminent 

 Swedish geographer, informing us that, having had an opportunity 



