Fan. 11, 1883] 
NATURE 
243 
August 6, Sunday—I was at the English church 
this morning. It is a nice little church, and there was a 
congregation composed of the Hudson’s Bay people, 
twenty or thirty. Most of the Hudson’s Bay people are 
Scotch, many coming from the Orkneys. -The Bishop 
Bompas is very pleasant, he is a great traveller, and has 
lived amongst the Esquimaux at the mouth of the Mack- 
enzie River, and he works very hard. 
August 9.—The weather has been stifling hot, 89° in- 
doors, for the last three days, quite like the West Indies. 
Yesterday I went over to see a performance at the Roman 
Catholic Mission of the school children, got up by the 
sisters in our honour. They sang,and acted, and danced 
remarkably well. They have very good memories I am 
told. 
It is curious living together without money, as one does 
in this country, Everything is done by barter, the unit 
of value being a skin ; the average value of a beaver skin 
is said to be worth twenty ducks, or forty white fish, or 
twenty plugs of tobacco, so that fora plug of tobacco (about 
an } 0z.) one can get a duck or two white fish, a large fish 
about two feet long, and very good eating. This place, 
like all other habitations in the north-west, swarms with 
large wolf-like dogs. These are used in winter for draw- 
ing carrioles, and a team of four dogs will draw 500 lbs. 
or more. The Indians use them too, in summer, as pack 
animals. 
The boats have just made their appearance, four black 
specks on the horizon to the north, so we shall be off in a 
few hours. 
THE SWEDISH EXPEDITION TO 
SPITZBERGEN, 1882 
HE results of the researches of the expedition de- 
spatched to Spitzbergen last summer by the Swedish 
Academy of Sciences, under the eminent savan¢s Baron 
G. de Geer and Dr. Nathorst, for the study of the geolo- 
gical and geographical features of the island, are very 
interesting. In the first instance, these gentlemen have 
drawn two maps, showing the exact geographical features 
of the island, as compared with those prepared by two 
previous expeditions. Of these, one shows the outlines 
of the fjords and valleys in the southern part of the 
island, with the boundary of the inland ice, and the other 
the relative depth of the seas around Spitzbergen and 
Scandinavia. From the latter it appears, that these two 
land-formations are really elevated ridges on a compara- 
tively level plateau, which sinks abruptly in the ocean 
west of Spitzbergen. In the second instance, the expe- 
dition has ascertained that the deep fjords and narrow 
valleys of the island have not been formed by upheaval 
of the terrestrial crust or by strong water-courses, but are 
due to the action of glaciers during the Glacial period, 
while from the marks on the rocks of the Beeren Island, 
it may be assumed that the Spitzbergen glaciers extended 
even so far. 
At the close of the Glacial period a sudden subsidence, 
followed by a still greater rising of the shores, both of 
Spitzbergen and Scandinavia, most provably took place, 
which is demonstrated by the discovery, in Scandinavia as 
well as Spitzbergen of old gravel beaches and the shells 
of salt-water mussels far inland. The existence in Spitz- 
bergen of some of the most characteristic species of the 
Scandinavian flora and fauna, may perhaps be ex- 
plicable by migration from Scandinavia, at a period 
when the plateau between the two ridges was above the 
level of the sea, we may assume, shortly after the close of 
the Glacial period. It seems impossible to explain other- 
wise how, for instance, birds, particularly those living on 
land, could have found their way to this island, some 
700 miles distant from the Scandinavian peninsula. 
At the same period, the common Scandinavian “ Blaa- 
musling,” Mytilus edulis, and a few other species 
1 
have, no doubt, also migrated into the island. 
This 
species is now, however, extinct, but the large quan- 
tities of shells found on the shores indicate that at one 
time it must have been common enough. The latter circum- 
stance seems to prove that the climate of Spitzbergen at an 
earlier period was muchmilder thanat present, and corrobo- 
rates alsothe theory of a connection having existed between 
Spitzbergen and Scandinavia about the Glacial period, as 
such a land-barrier would have caused the eastern arm of 
the Gulf Stream, which now flows by the North Cape, to 
have taken a more northerly direction, and thus carried 
the softening elements of a southern clime to the now 
desolate rocks in the Arctic Ccean. Cc. S. 
THE INCREASE IN THE VELOCITY OF THE 
WIND WITH THE ALTITUDE 
(es fact that the upper strata of the atmosphere as a 
rule move more rapidly than those near the earth’s 
surface, has long been inferred on theoretical grounds, 
though little direct evidence beyond the marvellous and 
often unexpected voyages of aéronauts, or casual obser- 
vation of the clouds, has hitherto been furnished in its 
favour. The practical value of this fact is beginning to 
be felt by engineers since the investigations undertaken by 
Mr. T. Stevenson in 1876, and more recently (see Journal 
of Scottish Meteorological Society, vol. v. pp. 103 and 
348), showed that even for moderate heights the old 
notion of assuming the wind to be of uniform velocity at 
all altitudes was seriously in error, and that to rely upon 
it in the case of lofty structures might entail disastrous 
consequences. 
While Mr. Stevenson’s experiments have shown that 
the wind’s velocity increases very considerably, especially 
near the surface, they do not touch the question of the 
increase noticed at great heights, nor can the formulz or 
conclusions derived from them be said to throw any light 
on a matter which evidently contains the germs of many 
important truths for the meteorologist. 
Where the engineer ends in fact the meteorologist may 
be said to begin ; but in this case the engineer ends a 
little too soon, since Mr. Stevenson’s latest experiments 
terminate at the top of a pole only 50 feet high, where he 
leaves us with a formula ‘‘believed to be sufficiently 
accurate for practical purposes,’ and which is said to 
give the velocity for ‘‘eveat heights above sea-level.” 
Whence Mr. Stevenson obtains this formula, or on what 
data he believes it to be approximately correct, we are 
not told, and here the question is left in a state of uncer- 
tainty for greater heights, in which we trust neither 
engineers nor meteorologists will allow it long to remain. 
It might even be advantageous to the former, if instead 
of trusting to a few empirical formule, they would ask 
the meteorologists what they knew about the matter, and 
joined with them in endeavouring to discover a rational 
formula which would yield satisfactory results at all 
elevations. 
Theoretically the main factor at small elevations in 
determining the increase of velocity, would appear to be 
the diminution of friction as we rise above the surface, 
and as this must occur most decidedly near the surface, 
so the velocity must increase in the first few feet “ per 
saltum.” Mr. Stevenson’s experiments and curves show 
this very clearly. Indeed up to a height of 15 feet the 
increase is so sudden, so irregular, and so clearly de- 
pendent on the nature of the surface, that no attempt has 
been made to include this space within a formula. 
There is, however, another factor which acts Positively 
in the same direction, and which, while operating for the 
most part at great heights, where its influence ultimately 
predominates to the exclusion of the friction factor, must 
be felt to some extent at comparatively moderate 
elevations. A } ‘ 
I allude to the general increase in the barometric 
