220 
fornied by the somewhat abrupt expansion of Kennedy’s 
channel to the northward, and broken by Lady Franklin’s 
Bay on the west, and on the east by a large inlet or fiord, 
twenty-two miles wide at the opening, and certainly ex- 
tending far inland to the south-east. Its length was not 
ascertained, and Mr. Meyer thinks that it may be, in fact, 
a strait extending till it communicates with the Francis 
Joseph Sound of the Germania and Hansa expedition, and 
with it defining the northern limits of Greenland. This 
inlet was called the Southern Fiord. North of it, on the 
same side, is the indentation of the shore called Polaris 
Bay by Captain Hall. 
From Cape Lupton the land trends to the north-east, 
and forms the eastern shore of a newchannel from twenty- 
five to thirty miles wide, opening out of the sound above 
mentioned, to which Captain Hall gave the name of Robe- 
son Straits. North-east of Cape Lupton, in lat. 81° 57’, is 
a deep inlet, which Captain Hall called Newman’s Bay, 
naming its northern point Cape Brevoort, and its southern 
bluff Sumner Headland. From Cape Brevoort the north- 
east trend of the land continues to Repulse Harbour, in 
lat. 82° 9’ north—the highest northern position reached 
by land during this expedition. 
From an elevation of 1,700 ft. at Repulse Harbour, on 
the east coast of Robeson Straits, the land continues north- 
east to the end of those straits, and thence east and south- 
east till lost in the distance, its vanishing point bearing 
south of east from the place of observation. 
No other land was visible to the north-east, but land 
was seen on the west coast, extending northward as far 
as the eye could reach, and apparently terminating in a 
headland and near latitude 84° north. 
Mr. Meyer also states that directly to the north he 
observed, on a bright day, from the elevation mentioned, 
a line of light apparently circular in form, which was 
thought by other observers to be land, but which he 
supposed to indicate open water. 
Of course the full scientific results of the Polaris expe- 
dition cannot be known until that vessel shall have been 
found and brought back with the treasures she has 
gathered, and the records and details of her Arctic 
explorations. But enough is told by the witnesses whom 
we have examined to excite expectation and encourage 
the hope of large and valuable additions to the domain 
of human knowledge. 
Enough has been said to show that the way to the 
North Pole is clear and practicable: it remains for 
Britain to consummate the glory she has already ac- 
quired by sending out an expedition so equipped that it 
cannot fail to return with the solution of the Arctic 
mystery, whose bourne is being pushed further and further 
back every year. We would recommend the Report to 
the Joint Committee of the Royal and Geographical 
Societies now considering the subject of an Arctic 
Expedition. 
SCIENCE AND ANGLING 
Flies and Fly Fishing, with Hints on Minnow and 
Grasshopper Fishing. By Capt. St. John Dick. 
(Hardwicke.) 
hs is doubtful whether much real progress has been 
made in the art of angling since the time of 
Walton, whose “Complete Angler” was published in 
1653. A great improvement has taken place in fishing- 
tackle and implements, and we have much better rods, 
reels, lines, and lures now, than could have been got in 
old Isaac’s time. Of late years the number of rod-fishers 
has enormously increased, and there is quite a plethora 
NATURE 
[Faly 17, iSt3 
of popular treatises on the art of fishing. 
books we have seen, including the one whose title is at 
the head of this notice, there is a striking absence of any 
guiding principles to go by; and notwithstanding the 
marked improvement in the mechanical appliances 
referred to, and the increase1 number and activity of 
anglers, we repeat that it may be ‘fairly doubted whether 
the latter are more successful fishers than their representa- 
tives 200 years ago. The cause of this is pro»ably owing 
to the fact that hitherto attentio1 has been almost exclu- - 
sively directed to the mer2 practice of the art, and that 
angling as a science has been all but completely ignored. 
We have ad nauseam, empiric and dogmatic rules for the 
guidance of the tyro, but few of these are based on suffi- 
cient data, and most of them are quite untrustworthy. 
There is no statement for example, more frequently made 
in books on angling than that if the wind be from the 
east trout will not rise to the fly ; and yet there are lakes 
(notably Loch Leven, Kinross-shire, probably the best 
trouting lake in Great Britain), in which the fish take best 
when the wind blows from that quarter. Another gene- 
rally accepted canon is that fish will not rise freely 
during a thunderstorm, or when “there is thunder in the 
air;” but in our own not very large experience, 
we have again and again proved the falsity of this 
rule. It would be easy to multiply examples of the 
worthlessness of such empiric directions. What is 
wanted is a scientific treatise on angling. A principle in 
Science, some one has said, is a rule in art; and it is 
such rules that are desiderated. The object of this paper 
is rather to indicate this want than to supply it ; and we 
have little hopes of much progress being made in the 
“gentle art” until it is carefully studied and treated 
scientifically. Until this is done there are many difficult 
problems connected with angling which must, we fear, re- 
main unsolved. One day, for eximple, fish will take 
greedily any fly that is offer.d them, for an hour or two ; 
and before or after this, their feeding time, the most 
skilful angler will practise all his wiles in vain, Another 
day, only flies of a particular colour or shape have any 
chance of taking. Again, it does happen occasionally 
that a veteran Waltonian will return from his favourite 
stream or lake, under the most auspicious influences of 
sky, wind, and water, with a very light basket, or it may 
be, an empty one. It is also a fact that the most 
successful day’s fishing is sometimes achieved by going 
dead against all recogaised rules and imitations of 
Nature. These are only a few of the things that require 
to be explained, and in the explanation of which a careful 
study of the nature and habits of fishes—how they are 
affected by atmospheric influences, &c.—would probably 
greatly assist. Of course, there are scientific anglers 
who have picked up their science under difficulties, and 
as they best could ; and their number might be indefinitely 
increased if greater facilities were afforded for acquiring 
scientific knowledge. Such anglers will be sure to have 
the indispensable qualities of patience and perseverance ; 
but they must also be careful observers of Nature, of the 
conditions of the water, of the appearance of the sky, and 
of metcorological phenomena in general ; and in addition 
to all these they will be found to possess an intimate 
acquaintance with some special branch of Natural 
History. 
But in all the 
