194 



NATURE 



[yune 30, I \ 



:i 



Perny's Silk-Moth {Attaciis Pernyi). — Perfect in- 

 sects of this species were on view throughout the month. 

 Fertile eggs were obtained, which commenced to liatch 

 on the 30th instant, and are doing well. Food-plant, oak. 



TussEH Silk-Moth {Atlacus mylitta). — This species 

 commenced to emerge on 28th instant, a beautiful male 

 being bred ; on the following day a male and female 

 emerged. Eggs were obtained, which are probably 

 fertile. 



Great Atlas Moth {Attancs W /to).— Throughout the 

 latter half of the month specimens of this species have 

 emerged, and many fine ones have been preserved. Eggs 

 will probably be obtained later ; there are many more 

 still to come out. 



Indian I\Ioon-Moth {Actias selcne). — This first speci- 

 men of this species emerged on the last day of the 

 month. 



American Moon-Moth {Actias htna). — During the 

 early part of the month specimens of this species 

 emerged. Eggs have been obtained, but it is doubtful if 

 they are fertilised. 



Pro.methean Silk-Moth {Tclca Promethea).~'Y\\(i 

 cocoons of this species have as yet only produced a large 

 ichneumon fly {Ophion), Many visitors have evinced 

 great interest on seeing these large parasites produced 

 from externally perfectly-formed Lepidopterous cocoons 

 and internally stout well-made oval cocoons of the Hy- 

 menoptera. 



Japanese Oak Silk-Moth {Antheraa Yama-mai).— 

 The larvae of this species produced from eggs have done 

 fairly weil ; many are now nearly full fed and about to 

 spin. Food-plant, oak. 



Besides these tine silk-moths, which are in many cases 

 likely to be of economical value, Mr. Watkins has suc- 

 ceeded in breeding during the past month examples of 

 many of the finer European butterflies, such as the 

 swallow-tail, orange-tip, black-veined white, and Apa- 

 tiira ilia, not to mention numerous Heterocera, Hymeno- 

 ptera, and Neuroptera. During the present month also 

 many additions have been made to the series. 



A guide-book to the Insectarium is in preparation, not, 

 as we are assured, with any idea of forcing visitors to 

 buy it, as every object exhibited is fully and perfectly 

 labelled, but rather for the purpose of making the Insect- 

 arium better known, and getting further contiibutions to 

 it from foreign parts. 



DR. BESSELS' ACCOUNT OF THE ''POLARIS" 



EXPEDITION 1 

 r^ EMIL BESSELS, as most of our readers will 

 '-'- remember, was the chief of the scientific depart- 

 ment on board the ill-fated Polaris, which was sent on 

 her memorable North Pole Expedition by the United 

 States Government in 1871. He finished the text of the 

 present work in the summer of 1874, shortly after the 

 return of the expedition, but postponed the publication 

 until after the appearance of the official account of the 

 voyage, which was edited by Rear-Admiral Davis. He 

 had the misfortune to lose the greater part of his journal 

 and many other papers in his luggage during a lailway 

 journey in Scotland. 



The remarkable story of the Polaris Expedition is well 

 known. Including Captain Hall, the commander of the 

 e.xpedition, the entire number of persons on board the 

 Polaris was thirty-three. Of these eight were Esquimaux, 

 consisting of two married couples and their four children, 

 three httle girls often, eight, and three years of age, and 

 a boy of six. Another boy, who was named Polari?, was 

 born during the voyage in Polaris Bay, on board the 

 vessel. Two of those on board, besides Dr. Bessels, 

 were scientific men, namely, Messrs. R. D. W. Bryan, 

 astronomer, and Friedrich Meyer, meteorologist. 



'Di( 



W. Engelmanr, i?79. 



ische NofLpol Expedil 



1 Emil Beisels. Leijz 



The highest point reached by the Polaris was lat. 

 83^ 26' N. at the northern mouth of Robeson Channel. 

 After being beset by ice and having been nipped suffi- 

 ciently to render her extremely leaky, the ship was 

 moored for the winter about forty miles south of this 

 point in Thank God Harbour, on the east side of Robeson 

 Channel, to the north of Petermann Fjord. Several 

 sledge expeditions were made from this point, but without 

 reaching a higher latitude than that attained by the ship. 

 Capt. Hall died on board on November S. In the follow- 

 ing summer attempts were made in vain to push further 

 northward, and it was found the ship leaked so badly that 

 it was necessary to return homewards. The ship became 

 beset in the ice on August 16, and remained thus, drift- 

 ing southwards with the field, suffering constantly from 

 ice-pressure, until October 15, when it was in such 

 jeopardy from the ice-movements that most of the pro- 

 visions and stores of all kinds and all the boats were 

 passed out on to the ice. The ice parted suddenly, and 

 drifted away from the ship with nineteen persons upon it, 

 including all the Esquimaux, whilst fourteen, and amongst 

 them Dr. Bessels, remained on board. This took place 

 at night. The castaways remained upon the ice 196 days, 

 suffering terrible hardships, and having drifted to the 

 coast of Labrador, were there picked up by a sealing- 

 ship, even the children having survived. They saw the 

 Polaris in shore at the commencenient of their long 

 journey, and wondered their comrades did not come to 

 their assistance, not knowing that the ship was practi- 

 cally a wreck, and abandoned. Those left on the ship at 



Fig. I. — Walruses .it rest on lh( 



the parting of the ice, keeping the leaking ship with 

 difficulty afloat, and unable to see anything of those on 

 the ice, got ashore near Cairn Point in the middle of 

 Smith's Sound, and having wintered there in company 

 with some Esquimaux families, built some boats from the 

 wreck, and travelling south partly in these, partly on the 

 drift-ice, were picked up in the west of Melville Bay by a 

 whaler, the Ravcnscraii;, on June 23. Thus all engaged 

 in the expedition, excepting Capt. Hall, got back in safety. 

 All this is related by Dr. Bessels in a most graphic and 

 highly interesting style, and his book is filled besides with 

 interesting accounts of the habits of animals met with, 

 the condition of the vegetation of the region explored, 

 the mode of life of the Esquimaux, meteorological 

 and other scientific observations. We shall touch on a 

 few of these. At Fiskernses, on the south-west Green- 

 land coast, the author turned over some of the kitchen 

 middens of the Esquimau.v, such as are now formed in 

 front of each hut. In a very short time remains of all 

 the eatable vertebrates of the Greenland fauna are to be 

 found in them, and in many cases it would not be difficult 

 to fix the season at which the deposits were mac!e, for in 

 places are found scarcely anything but bird-remains, in 

 other places those of fish, in others those of mussels. 

 Many good dogs' skulls and a number of marrow bones 

 of seals broken for their marrow were found in the 

 middens. At the same place one of the sailors of the 

 Polaris nearly lost his life by attempting to perform the 

 feat which most of the Esquimaux accomplish with such 

 ease, of turning their kajak upside dow n without leaving 



