in the colony, Prof. Liversidge said that notwithstanding the 
liberality of Parliament an1 the receipt of private end »wments 
for improved instruction in science, many of the arranzem2nts 
for this purpose of the Sydney University are of a very meagre 
and imperfect charaster. The Board of Technical Education is 
now doing good work in spreading elementary, scientific, and 
technical education over the colony by means of science classes 
and itinerant lecturers. The necessity of scientific education is 
also being recoznised ; there is a motion before the Legislative 
Assembly to place the sum of 1o,000/. upon the estimates for 
the establishment of schools of mines in the various mining 
centres, while another motion to be brought proposes to make 
provision for the creation and endowment of twenty scholar- 
ships of the value of 290/, per annum, each tenable for three 
years, at the Sydaey University. The President then referred 
to Prof. Huxley’s remarks in his anniversay address to the 
Royal Society on scientific federation. Prof Huxley said :— 
“‘T have often ventured to dream that the Royal Society might 
associate itself in some special way with all English-speaking 
men of science ; that it might recognise their work in other 
ways than by the rare opportunities at present offzred by elec- 
tion to our foreign fellowship, while they must needs be deprived 
of part of its privileges.” On this Prof. Liversidge remarks 
that though every one will agree as to the desirability of having 
closer bonds of union between the Royal Society and the men of 
science who are scattered over the wide areas of English- 
speaking countries, it does not appear easy to suggest a method 
of bringing it about, Good work in the Colonies, at any rate 
at present, is rarely overlooked by the Council of the Royal 
Society. Prof. Liversidge concluded his interesting address by 
suggesting a federation or union of the members of the various 
scientific societies in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand 
nto an Australasian Association for the Advancement of Scienze, 
on the lines of the British Association, with a view to holding 
the first general meeting in Sydney on the hundredth anniver- 
sary of the founding of the colony. A meetin: of the kind 
during the centennial year would offer a unique opportunity. for 
the exchange of ideas and information, and it would not only 
have an immediate and beneficial effect, but would p:rmanently 
raise the high-water mark of thought in all the colonies, esp2- 
cially in connection with scieatific matters. It would be an 
opportunity to correlate and correct all the scattered and frag- 
mentary geological maps and memoirs relating to the various 
colonies, and to adopt a uniform system of nomenclature, 
colouring, c., for all Australasian geolozical maps. It would, 
pursued the President, be beneficial if botanists were to prepare 
and revise the census of plants for each colony, especially to 
show their distribution, and similar questions could be discussed 
by zoologists for land an{ marine organisms. 
ICE MOVEMENTS IN HUDSON’S BAY? 
IN my report last year I described the ice as consisting of 
three kinds, viz., icebergs, heavy arctic ice and ordinary 
field ice. The icebergs are stated to hive come from Fox 
Channel. This conclusion was based on the report from No. 3 
station made on the homeward voyage of the Meptune, that 
the icebergs passed the bluff from west towards east. This 
report was made on the strength of the few observations which 
the party had been able to make in the interval between the two 
calls of the Meftwn2 at the inlet. Further and more perfect 
observations show conclusively that the current sets in the 
opposite direction and that the icebergs move from east to west. 
If further proof of the existence of this set were necessary, we 
have it in the drift of the 4/ert when fast in the ice off Ashe 
Inlet and invariably carried to the westward. 
In considering the question of the sources from which the ice 
affecting Hudson’s Straits navigation comes, we must first begin 
with the east Greenland ice. All those who have made the 
voyage from any port in Europe to Hudson’s Straits seem to 
agreein the statement that Cape Farewell must not be approached 
nearer than seventy miles in order to keep clear of the east 
Greenland ice which sweeps round the cape in an almost cease- 
less stream, after rounding which it turns to the northward) and 
passes up the south-west shore of Greenland, nearly as high as 
Gothaab, then turns over to the west side of Davis’ Straits, and 
joining the stream of Dayis’ Straits ice runs south with the arctic 
t From the Report of the second Hudson's Bay Expediti 
ommand of Lieut. A. R. Gordon, RN. 1885. le ae 
NATURE 
[Fuly 29, 1886 
current. The limits of the east Greenland ice field, when 
rounding Cape Farewell, vary greatly ; in some years, it moves 
a3 far south as the parallel of 58° N. This ice field can be, 
and is of course always avoided, the rule in making the passage 
being to keep to the south of 58° N. till in longtitude 58° W., 
on which meridian the northing should be made. 
The stream of Davis’ Straits ice flows right across the entrance 
to Hudson’s Straits, and varies in width with the season of the 
year. The first information which I have of it was derived from 
conversation with Captain Watson, of the whaling barque 
Maude of Dundee, owned by Captain Adams. Captain 
Watson had been for many years engaged in the Davis’ Straits 
whale fishing, and for the last few years has commanded his 
present vessel. Their usual routine is to leave Dundee in March, 
and they arrive off the edge of Davis’ Straits ice in the early 
part of April, cruising off the edge of the ice between latitudes 
58° N. and 63° N. Captain Watson told me, that he made the 
ice in April of this year about 58° N. and 120 miles off the 
Labrador coast, and up to the date of our meeting with him, 
June 13, he had not been able to get nearer to Resolution Island 
than thirty-five miles, and as the average southerly set of the 
current is about twenty miles per day, this stream of ice must 
have been flowing uninterruptedly up to June 15, the date on 
which the 4/ert took the pack. An examination of the re- 
cords of the stations at Port Burwell and Nachvak Bay shows 
that at Port Burwell the ice cleared out of the Straits on 
April 9. They remained clear up to the 14th, when the ice 
came in sight again, and was present almost constantly there- 
after until its final disappearance in August. At Nachvak the 
ice swung on and off the shore with the winds and tide, but 
though sometimes out of sight from the ordinary observation 
point, it was always seen upon going to a higher elevation. It 
is therefore certain that during the months of May, June, and 
July, large fields of ice were present in the entrance of the 
Straits, and the question remains, at what date was this ice in 
such a condition as to permit the passage of vessels strengthened 
for meeting the ice, but which could be used as freight steamers. 
For in all questions as to feasibility of the navigation I am not 
considering the date at which one of the Dundee whaling or 
Newfoundland sealing steamers could be forced through, but 
when a strongly built iron steamer, sheathed and otherwise 
strengthened, could make the passage. 
On June 15, when we went into the ice, it was certainly im- 
penetrable by any vessel of the class referred to, and though the 
ice would slacken at the turn of every tide, and sometimes run 
abroad so that it would have been possible to work the ship to 
the westward, distances varying from two to five miles at each 
| of these slack times, I only tried to hold my own, generally 
under canvas; as apart from any question of the injury which 
the ship had received, I deened it more desirable to watch the 
| ice at the entrance of the Straits than to force the ship through, 
when I could only have made at the most ten to twenty miles a 
day. Iam ofopinion that the Straits were passable at the eastern 
entrance about the date that we returned to St. John’s for 
repairs, viz., July 5, but any ship going in at this date would 
still have been subject to these delays, but might have made 
from twenty-five to forty miles a day. 
Proceeding westward, from this date, July 5, the observations 
at Ashe Inlet and Stupart’s Bay show that on the north side of 
the Straits, and from eighteen to twenty miles out, the ice 
was present almost continuously, much as we found it in August ; 
some of the sheets of enormous extent and of great thickness. 
Many of these were, in August, over half a mile long, and 
some which we measured were from twenty to thirty, feet in 
thickness. In the middle of July, Mr. Ashe reports that open 
water is visible beyond the ice, and Mr. Stupart, fog-banks 
and water sky frequently to the north. The two stations at 
the western end of the Straits also report that in the middle of 
July the ice was loose and drifting with the tide. Everything 
goes to show that though there would have been very frequent 
delays still it would have been possible for a steamship to have 
got through the Straits by July 15 or 20. 
Ice would have been met with again, doubtless, in the bay, 
but I do not think there would have been any serious delay in 
reaching either Churchill or York Factory. 
Stations on shore for the purpose of watching the move- 
ments of the ice, though undoubtedly the best system which 
we can adopt, cannot tell us with any degree of certainty how 
soon a vessel might be able to push her way through the 
Straits, but they do tell when it is sufficiently run abroad, or 
—" 
