March 25, 1875] 



NA TURE 



415 



to the Boundary Commission, has been engaged in continuing 

 the examination of the region in the vicinity of the 49th parallel. 

 Prof. Bell has been again engaged during the past summer in the 

 North-west Territories. Mr. Henry G. Vennor spent the greater 

 part of the summer in extending his researches through the rear 

 portion of Lanark County, Ont., and towards the end of the 

 season had succeeded in working out the geological structure of 

 the whole of it. Further details are given concerning laboratory 

 and other work done during the year by various scientific workers, 

 all showing considerable activity in science on the part of the 

 Canadians. 



The following are the probable arrangements for the Friday 

 Evening Lectures at the Royal Institution after Easter : — April 

 9, Sir William Thomson, LL.D., F.R.S. : " Tides." April 16, 

 Trof. Gladstone, F.R. .'^., M.R.L : " Progress of Science in 

 Elementary Schools." April 23, Prof. Ramsay, LL.D., F.R.S. : 

 "The Pre- Miocene Alps, and their subsequent Waste and 

 Degradation." April 30, Walter Noel Hart'ey : "Action of 

 Heat on Coloured Liquid." May 7, M. Cornu (Iicole Poly- 

 technique) : "Velocity of Light." May 14, John Evans, 

 F.R.S.: "Coinage of the Ancient Britons and Natural Selec- 

 tion." May 21, J. Baillie Hamilton : " Application of Wind to 

 Stringed Instruments." May 2S, Col. Lane Fox, M.R.I. : 

 ' ' Evolution of Culture." 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (C^cflftM 

 ntlphurca) from Moluccas, presented by Mr. H. W. Wood ; an 

 Annilated Snake (Lefloilira anmilaia) from Jamaica, presented 

 by Mr. H. B. Whitmarsh ; a Diana Monkey {Ccrcopitlucus diana) 

 from West Africa ; a Common Rhea (Rhea americana), three 

 Snowy Egrets (Ardm candidissima), a Common Boa [Boa con- 

 stridor) from South America, purchased. 



SCIENTIFIC REPORT OF THE AUSTRO-HUN- 

 GARIAN NORTH POLAR EXPEDITION OF 

 1872-74* 



in. 



T~\URING winter the air seemed always to contain particles of 

 ^-^ ice ; this was seen not only by parhelia and parselenas when 

 the sky was clear, but also in astronomical observations. The 

 images of celestial objects were hardly ever as clear and well 

 defined as they are at home, although the actual moisture in the 

 atmosphere was far less. It happened very often that with a 

 perfectly clear sky needles of ice were deposited in great quanti- 

 ties upon all objects. It was quite impossible to determine the 

 quantity of atmospheric deposits, as during the snowstorms no 

 distinction could be made between the snow actually falling and 

 that raised /rom the ground by the storm ; it was remarkable, 

 however, that during the first winter the quantity of snow was 

 small compared with that of the second winter, when the snow 

 almost completely buried the ship {this happened near Franz- 

 Joseph's Land). Th« same proportion was repeated in the 

 quantity of rain during the first and second summer ; in the first 

 only a little rain fell late in the year, while in July 1S74 it rained 

 in torrents for days. 



Clouds are naturally of a very different character from those seen 

 at home ; nimbus and cumulus are never seen. The form of cloud 

 is either that uniform melancholy grey of an elevated fog, or 

 cirrhus ; the latter consists of round but undefined masses of 

 fog at but a small elevation, therefore somewhat different from 

 the cirrhus of the temperate zone. Instead of clouds, fogs are pre- 

 valent, now higher, now lower, and twenty-four hours of clear 

 weather rarely occur during the summer ; generally the sun is 

 seen for a few hours, then to disappear again behind the thick 

 fogs. Melancholy and depressing as the effect of these eternal 

 fogs may be, they are nevertheless necessary for the general 

 conditions of the ice ; they form the binding media for the heat 

 of the sun's rays, and melt more ice than the direct rays. 



Parhelia and parselenae were often observed; they always were 

 certain indications of snowstorms that followed them. A new 



* Die 2. Oesterr.-Ungarische Nord Polar Expedition, unter Weyprecht 

 und Payer, 1872-74. (Petermann's Geogr. Mittheilungen, 1875 ; heft ii.) 

 (Continued from p. 398.) 



phenomer.on was only observed once, when, besides the double 

 system of parhelia, two other mock suns appeared on the same 

 altitude with the real sun. 



On the whole path which the vessel described soundings were 

 made constantly, and the depth of the sea was found to increase 

 towards the east ; on the easternmost point, 73° E. long., there 

 were 400 metres of water, and the depth steadily decreased 

 towards the west. In front of Franz-Joseph's Land there is a 

 bank which seems to reach as far as Nowaja Semlja ; beyond it 

 the depth increases again. The whole area east ot .Spitzbergen 

 rarely exceeds 300 metres in depth. Lieut. Hopfgarten specially 

 constructed an instrument to fetch up dredgmgs, which was fre- 

 quently done. The deep-sea temperatures were measured with 

 Casella's minimum and maximum thermometer, and these mea- 

 surements were continued throughout the winter. They showed a 

 slight increase in the temperature at the bottom. The pcrcen*age 

 of salt in the sea-water at different depths was also determined. 

 Until the ship was blocked up the surface temperatures of the 

 sea were also measured. Lieut. Weyprecht thinks that, as a 

 rule, too much importance is attached to these, as the state of 

 the weather is not taken into account, and it is just that which 

 has the greatest influence upon the surface temperature ; it is 

 quite wrong to imagine the existence of currents from observa- 

 tions of this kind. 



During their drift the explorers made good use of the dredg- 

 ing net ; it was generally kept on the bottom during half a day, 

 and thus areas of several miles' extent were examined. The 

 collection obtained in this way no doubt completely represents 

 the fauna on the bottom of the sea which the explorers visited. 

 At places animal life was so plentiful that the net came to the 

 surface completely filled. Crustacea: were particularly plentiful; 

 un'ortunattly the larger specimens remained in the ship, as they 

 could not be transported. Dr. Kepes has handed the valuable 

 collection to the Imperial Academy of Sciences (Vienna), and 

 specialists are now busily engaged upon it. Other collections 

 had to remain behind, but were not very valuable, as the ex- 

 plorers only touched land during winter, when everything was 

 covered with snow ; they certainly possessed a rather complete 

 collection of birds, but these were all known species, with the 

 sole exception of a Lestris, which Dr. Kepes could not define. 

 Of great value, however, were sixty-seven bearskins, which had 

 already been prepared and well packed ; there were some splen- 

 did skins amongst them, most of them winter skins, which are 

 rarely obtained in trade and are much finer than the summer 

 skins. 



Higher animal life is rather limited in those regions ; the 

 principal representatives are the polar bear and the seal, the 

 former in such numbers that the explorers could never leave the 

 ship without weapons ; he caused them many a disagreeable sur- 

 prise, but was always a welcome guest, as he provided them with 

 a fresh and strengthening repast. The seal, in two species, 

 Phoca barbata and Plioca gro:nlandica, is everywhere where open 

 water appears between the ice, although not in such quantities 

 that seal-hunting would pay. The walrus was only seen once, 

 not far from Franz-Joseph's Land, although the explorers often 

 passed over good walrus-ground. Of whales they only saw one 

 species in the vicinity of coasts, where it was very frequent. 



Birds were very numerous near the land, but the further the 

 ship drifted away the scarcer they became, and during the last 

 part of the explorers' retreat in the ice the appearance of a bird 

 was a rare phenomenon. 



Interesting as all these observations doubtless may be, and in 

 spite of the numerous and long tables they contain, they yet do not 

 possess that high scientific value which might be reached under 

 different circumstances. They only give us a picture of the 

 extreme f^^^j of natural forces in the Arctic districts, but on their 

 causes, the w/iv. we are just as much in the dark as before ; and 

 the reason of this lies in the fact that there are no simultaneous 

 observations in another district for comparison. Only when we 

 possess those shall we be enabled to make correct conclusions 

 as [to the causes, the origin, and the nature of the abnormal 

 phenomena in the Arctic Zone. The keys to many enigmas in 

 nature, which for centuries it has in vain been tried to solve — such 

 as those in terrestrial magnetism, electricity, and the best part of 

 meteorology, &c. — are doubtless hidden near the poles of the 

 earth ; but as long as polar expeditions are nothing more than an 

 international race in honour of one or another flag, having as 

 principal object only to get a few miles nearer to the pole than 

 the last explorers, so long these enigmas will most decidedly 

 remain unsolved. 



Pure geographical research, i.i. Arctic topography, which until 



