July 19, 1877] 



NATURE 



225 



THE "POLARIS" EXPEDITION 

 Narrative of the North Polar Expedition U.S. Ship 

 " Polaris," Captain Charles Francis Hall, Commandim;. 

 Edited under the Direction of the Hon. G. I\I. Robeson, 

 Secretary of the Navy, by Rear- Admiral C. I-I. Davis, 

 U.S.N. U.S. Naval Observatory, 1876. (Washington : 

 Government Printing-office, 1876.) 



THIS is a handsome record of one of the moit 

 memorable, and in some respects most successful 

 of Arctic expeditions. Though dated 1876, a note dated 

 March, 1877, is prefixed, stating that the concluding 

 chapters have been prepared by Prof. J. E. Nourse. We 

 have already (vol. viii., 2 1 7, 435 and passim) given so full 

 details concerning this expedition that we need do little 

 more now than notice the publication of this record by the 

 U.S. Government. It contains a full general narrative of 

 the expedition drawn up not only from the official records 

 of the responsible officers, but from thediarieskept bymany 

 of the subordinate officers and men, many of the latter 

 being unusually intelligent. Indeed it formed part of the 

 instructions to the expedition in its outset that as many 

 of the officers and men as were able should keep diaries, 

 which were to be handed over to the U.S. Government 

 on the return of the expediti ', a praiseworthy feature, 

 we think, which might be advantageously copied by all 

 similar expeditions. 



Captain Hall himself is spoken of justly in the narrative 

 in the highest terms of praise. His enthusiasm for 

 Arctic exploration had become almost a religion with 

 him, and had he lived there seems little doubt that much 

 more would have been accomplished than even there was. 

 He had qualified himself by two long residences among 

 the Esquimaux for enduring all the hardships incident to 

 Polar exploration ; and while his main aim was geogra- 

 phical discovery he had a sufficient knowledge of and love 

 for science to induce him to do all in his power to look 

 after its interests in connection with his expedition. To 

 quote the work before us. Hall " possessed judgment and 

 sagacity altogether too large and comprehensive not to 

 be fully alive to the importance of its promotion; and not 

 to know that every accession, whether of law or fact, to 

 its domain, tended to the benefit of mankind." We 

 believe that the narrative of Hall's second residence 

 among the Esquimaux will shortly be published for the 

 first time. 



The present wotk will correct some misconceptions that 

 became current at the time that the news of the fate of 

 the Polaris expedition reached this country. It was 

 stated, for example, that the ship was not well fitted for 

 her work ; but the fact is that everything was done to 

 strengthen her and otherwise adapt her for the special 

 work she had to do that the United States naval authori- 

 ties could suggest. Hall himself said that no better 

 equipped expedition ever set out for the Pole. The expe- 

 dition was in every sense a government one, 50,000 dollars 

 having been appropriated for it, and it was governed by 

 the naval discipline of the United States. True, this 

 latter point does not seem to have been rigidly carried 

 out. Hall himself not having been a naval officer, and 

 perhaps a little too soft to be so strict as he ought to have 

 been. Explicit, but sufficiently elastic instructions were 

 given him, and the scientific instructions prepared by 

 the United States National Academy are given in the 



Appendix. The latter are exceedingly detailed and care- 

 fully drawn up, and embrace every department of science. 

 The scientific results of this expedition are, we beheve, 

 of very great importance, and we are glad to learn that 

 a portion of them, at least, have just been published by 

 the chief of the scientific staff, Dr. Emil Bessels. 



The idea of the expedition was due solely to Capt. 

 Hall, and it was only through his enthusiastic agitation 

 that the United States Government were persuaded to 

 equip it. His death was a great loss to the cause of 

 Arctic exploration, and we may say to science ; and it is 

 a relief to find that after rigid inquiry on the part of the 

 Government it has been concluded that his death arose 

 from purely natural causes. Our readers may remember 

 that a handsome tablet was placed at the head of his 

 grave by our oivn recent expedition. 



The present volume, we have said, is a handsome one, 

 and compares favourably with the unattractive blue-books 

 issued by our own Government in simil.ar cases. There 

 are a large number of attractive illustrations and maps, 

 the former, however, executed by a very roundabout 

 process ; they are wood-engravings painted in oil from 

 original sketches by Mr. Emil Schumann and Dr. Bessels, 

 photographed on wood and engraved. One may be 

 inclined to fear that their truthfulness will be apt to 

 suffer during this long process. A very fine life-like 

 portrait of Capt. Hall forms a frontispiece. 



POLLUTION OF RIVERS 

 A Treatise on the Law Relating to the Pollution ana 

 Obstruction of Watercourses, together with a Brief 

 Summary of the Various Sources of Rivers Pollution. 

 By Clement Higgins, M.A., F.C.S., Barrister-at-Law. 

 (London : Stevens and Haynes, Law Publishers, Bell 

 Yard, Temple Bar, 1877.) 



THE pollution and obstruction of rivers by sewage 

 and the refuse of manufacturing processes is, in 

 a country hke this, densely populated and depending 

 mainly on its manufactures, a matter of the gravest im- 

 portance, justifying indeed, a saying of Earl Beaconsfield's, 

 which has met with a good deal of ridicule, that the 

 motto of his government should be sanitas sani latum 

 omnia sanitas. We have on the one hand to preserve as 

 rigidly as possible the purity of our streams, and on the 

 other to interfere as little as can be with those manu- 

 factures which are so great an element in the production 

 of our national welfare. 



It is now some years since the Government issued a 

 Royal Commission to inquire into the best means of 

 carrying out the problem, and that the matter is now in 

 a fair way to sohition is mainly due to the labours of 

 the late Commission, of which Dr. Frankland was the 

 chemical member. 



The five Reports presented by it to Parliament, take 

 rank, indeed, as a classical research into the subject, and 

 have an interest to countries other than our own. The 

 Rivers Pollution Act of 1876 is based on the recom- 

 mendations of the Commission, and it is not too much 

 to say that without them legislation would have been 

 impossible. 



The Act in question constitutes four classes of offences 

 as follows :— To pass into any stream (i) any solid matter 

 so as to interfere with its due flow, or to pollute its waters ; 



