__ twenty-two days that we spent off that continent, we never 
effected a landing but twice, «nd then, with the greatest 
difficulty, on two small volcanic islets, without a particle 
of vegetation on them, of which one was Possession 
Island (Jan. 13), @ mere rock. The ship was hove to two 
miles off ; with the greatest risk a landing was effected, ona 
beach of large loose stones and stranded masses of ice. It 
was no sooner done than the recall flag was hoisted in the 
ships, which were reached just as a terrific fog came on, 
{plewed by a gale of wind; ten minutes more and all 
ands in the boats would have been lost, for the currents 
ran like sluices between the land, islets, and icebergs. So 
much for Possession Island. (Read Ross’s account of the 
_ landing, i. 188, and especially the paragraph at p. 190.) 
Take a glance at. the meteorological registers in Ross’s 
voyage for the month of January 1841, which was passed 
between S. lat. 66°32’ and 78°. The mean temperature 
was 29"02, max. 415, min. 195. It snowed on sixteen 
days ; overcast, squally and misty was the usual weather, 
blue sky was rarely seen over more than a quarter of the 
- heavens for a yery few hours of the day, and for many 
days not seen at all. a fe 
in March between lat. 77° and 693°, the mean tempe- 
rature was 24°'28, max. 34°, min. 13°. Sky as in January. 
In the following year our vessel went to the same seas. 
We “took the pack” December 17, and after being all 
but wrecked, penetrated it after fifty-six days of ares 
peril, and proceeded to 78° S., never once seeing land. 
During that January within 66° 32’, and 67° 21’ the mean 
temperature was 30°46, max. 405, min. 24°. It snowed 
on eventeen days, and we hardly ever saw blue sky. 
In February between lat. 67° 18’ and 78° 12’, the mean 
temperature was 26°68, max. 35°, min. 16°°5, and it snowed 
on twenty days. Blue sky was seen only on thirteen 
days. In 1842 the weather was worse than ever. In 
that year we fried to get south in the meridian a little 
east of Cape Horn, but never got beyond lat. 713°, and 
then not till March 6th, having left the Falklands on the 
18th December. In January of that year (1842) we were 
between lat. 63°58’, and 64°44’. The mean temperature 
was 30°°9, max. 45°, min.23°°5. It snowed on sixteen days 
—sky as before. 
February— between lat. 61° 37’ and 66° 01’, The mean 
‘temperature was 30°50, max. 35°°5, min. 27°°5. It snowed 
on twenty-four days out of the twenty-eight! Blue sky 
was seen only on seven days, and this on six days over 
one-eighth of the sky, and on the 7th over one-fourth. 
With such a midsummer climate I leave you to guess 
the position of a party in lat. 72°, cag ed up through a 
winter on a rock a few yards long, covered with snow. 
During the third year’s cruise to the southward, Captain 
Crozier ever once went to his cot, and we passed day 
and night with our hearts at the top of our throats. 
The act is, there is no summer or clear weather to be 
had; except by the rarest chance. For days and days 
we worked by Dead Reckoning alone. Storm, wind, and 
snow, are the prevalent summer phenomena. Still some 
seasons are not so bad as others, and Weddell got to 
743 in an open sea in the meridian where we barely 
reached 66°. (Signed) J. D. HOOKER 
Royal Gardens, Kew, March 6 
The following is the account of the landing alluded to 
by Dr. Hooker ; — 
“We found the shores of the mainland completely covered with 
ice projecting into the sea, and the heavy surf along its edge 
forbade any attempt to land upon it; a strong tide carried us 
rapidly along between this ice-bound coast and the islands 
amongst heavy masses of ice, so that our situation was, for some 
time most critical ; for all the exertions our people could use 
were insufficient to stem the tide. But taking the advantage 
of a natrow opening that appeared in the ice, the boats were 
pushed through it, and we got into an eddy under the lee of the 
pacaest of the islands, and landed on a beach of large loose stones 
stranded masses ofice, . . The island is composed 
. 
entirely of igneous rocks, and only accessible on its western 
side. We saw not the smallest appearance of vegetation, but 
inconceivable myriads of penguins completely and densely 
covered the whole surface of the island, along the ledges of the 
precipices, and even to the summits of the hills, attacking us 
vigorously as. we waded through their ranks, which, together 
with their loud coarse notes, and the insupportable stench from 
the deep bed of guano, which had been forming for ages, made 
us glad to get away again, after having loaded our boats with 
geological specimens and penguins. Owing to the heavy surf 
on the beach, we could not tell whether the water was ebbing or 
flowing ; but there was a strong tide running to the south, be- 
tween Possession Island and the mainland, and the Zervor had 
some difficulty to avoid being carried by it against the land-ice. 
Future navigators should therefore be on their guard in approach- 
ing the coast at this place.” 
EARTHQUAKE WAVES 
HE self-registering tide-gauges maintained by the 
United States Coast Survey at different points on 
the sea coast frequently exhibit, superimposed upon the 
tidal fluctuation, a succession of long waves, the origin of 
which is ascribed to distant earthquakes. In two notable 
instances, viz. the earthquake of Simoda in 1854, and 
that of Arica in 1868, the great ocean waves caused by 
the disturbance were distinctly registered in that way by 
the tide-gauges on the Pacific coast, and have been made 
use of for estimating the average depth along the lines of 
transmission. (See Coast Survey Reports for 1855, 1862, 
and 1869.) “ 
Similar fluctuations were registered on the morning of 
November 17, 1872, shortly after local midnight, on the 
tide-gauge at North Haven, on the Fox Island, in Penob- 
scot Bay, Maine. The fluctuations continued from mid- 
night until nearly six o’clock in the morning, at somewhat 
irregular intervals of about seventeen minutes from crest 
to crest, with an average vertical range of nine inches, the 
greatest wave being at three o’clock, with a height of 
twenty inches. oe 
No corresponding earthquake phenomena have come 
to the knowledge of the Coast Survey Office, and it is 
probable that if such was the case, the shock occurred 
somewhere under the Atlantic Ocean, 
THE CHALLENGER EXPEDITION 
M.S. Challenger cast off from the jetty at Ports- 
; mouth at 11.30 A.M. on December 21, with a low 
barometer. A strong south-westerly breeze was blowing, 
and the drum up; so that, especially in a season like the 
present, the prospect was not promising for the first few 
weeks of her voyage round the world. 
The result justified thedrum, and for a week we were 
knocking about the mouth of the Channel, and the Bay 
of Biscay, making slow progress southwards. It was 
perhaps as well to get a good shaking at first. It showed 
at once where there was a screw loose, and gave a chance 
to tighten it up. A sharp cyclone which caught the ship 
on her way from Sheerness to Portsmouth had already 
tested pretty fully the stowing of the apparatus, and 
although the Cha//enger rolls considerably when she is 
put to it (over 35°), not a single instrument shifted, and 
not a glass was broken, either in the zoological work- 
room, or in the chemical laboratory. Just before we got 
to Lisbon the weather improved a little, and we got some 
soundings and took one or two trial hauls with the dredge. 
After leaving Lisbon on January 12 the wind was again 
fresh, but between Lisbon and Gibraltar we made some 
important experiments, and found, among other things, 
that we could work easily and successfully with the 
common trawl down to 600 fathoms. I am now writing 
about 100 miles north of Madeira, and since leaving 
Gibraltar the weather, though at first breezy, has been on 
