Sept. 10, 1886] 
what was the thickness of it. The same gentleman, writing 
from Lesser Slave Lake (lat. 55° 33’), remarks that he has never 
come across any indication of perpetual ice during the twenty- 
two years he has passed in the North-West Territory. 
12. Mr. Andrew Flett, writing from Prince Albert, April 21, 
1886, says :—‘‘ Hundreds of wells have been sunk in this settle- 
ment ; one I had sunk myself, beginning of July 1881, 27 feet deep 
—saw no frozen earth. As far as I have noticed on this prairie 
land, when there is a good fall of snow when the winter sets in, 
the frost does not penetrate so deep as when there is no snow 
till late, and in some years very light snow. I had a pit opened 
on the 9th inst. (April) ; the surface was thawed 3 inches; we 
got through the frozen earth at 4 feet 7 inches. On the 11th 
inst. I saw a grave dug in the churchyard at Emmanuel Col- 
lege, one mile from my place, 5 feet deep, and had not got 
through the frost. My place is on higher ground, loam soil.” 
13. Mr. W. Ramsay, settled on the South Saskatchawan, 
thirty-five miles from here, sunk a well 40 feet, May 27, 1884— 
no frost. 
14. Mr. Jos. Finlayson, three miles from here, sunk 
beginning of July 1882, 46 feet. He saw no frost. 
15. Mr. J. D. Mackay, on the same section as the 
sunk a well 27 feet, July 15, 1884, found particles of frozen earth 
at 7 feet deep. 
16. Mr. W. C. Mackay, my next neighbour half a mile west 
of this, sunk a well about June 20, 1884, found particles of 
frozen earth at 54 feet. 
17. Lat. 53° 32’, long. 113° 30’, Fort Edmonton, on the 
Saskatchawan, 2400 feet above the sea.—Dr. James Hector, on 
March 5, 1858, found the soil frozen to a depth of 7 feet 6 inches 
(Fournal R. G. S. vol. xxx. p. 277). 
18. Lat. 51° 14’, long. 102° 24’.—At Yorkton, Mr. J Riaman, 
when digging a well last summer (1885), found the frost at a 
depth of 19 and 20 feet, and continuing for a depth of 30 inches. 
In this case, therefore, the total depth to which frost descended 
was about 22 feet. Mr. J. Tarbotton, of Yorkton, in communi- 
cating the last observation, remarks :—‘‘ The depth to which frost 
penetrates during the winter, varies, I find, with the character 
of the winter itself and with the nature of the locality. I made 
observations in an open unprotected spot, where there was little 
or no snow, and found frost to the depth of 5 feet 9 inches. 
This occurred last July, and the frost was then about 2 feet deep 
(z.e. had descended to 7 feet 9 inches). But in the bluffs near 
my house, I dug a cellar, at the same time, going down between 
8 and 9 feet, encountering no frost at all. 
““This year, however, when digging another well in April, in 
almost the same place, I encouutered frost at 2 feet, and the 
ground continued solid until I had gone down from 43 to 5 feet 
from the surface. From this, and from the information I obtained 
from others, I am safe in saying that the frost penetrates here 
on an average 5 feet, except when we have had a great depth 
of snow in the beginning of winter, in which case it does not 
penetrate nearly so far. The bluffs referred to are groves of 
poplar from 3 to 6 inches in diameter, on the edge of an open 
plain. 
Prof. Charles Carpmael, Director of the Meteorological Ser- 
vice of Canada, to whom most of the above reports were 
addressed, remarks :—‘‘ We can easily imagine that at a depth of 
17 feet at Prince Albert, there might be no frost at all in winter, 
but owing to the slow travelling downward of the wave of cold, 
it might have reached a depth of 17 feet in the early summer. 
“Tt is easily seen that the annual mean temperature of the air 
a well 
might be considerably below the freezing-point without the 
occurrence of permanently frozen soil, for in winter the soil is 
often covered deep in snow, so that the temperature of the soil 
might be but little below 32°, although the temperature of the air 
were 30 or 40 F. below zero. Again, the heat which had 
entered the soil in summer would only be remoyed by slow con- 
duction, whereas the summer heat would not only travel down- 
wards by conduction, but be carried into the soil by percolation 
of the warm water through the surface.” 
19. Lat. 50° 30’, long. 103° 30’, the Bell farm, near Indian 
Head.—Frozen soil is said to have been met with in the summer 
of 1884 at a depth of 124 feet ; details are wanting. 
20. Lat. 49° 53’, long. 97° 15’, city of Winnipeg and the 
neighbourhood.—Mr. Ch. N. Bell reports that frozen soil has 
been found as under in various cemeteries. 
Brookside Cemetery on the open prairie close to the city, 
soil rich black loam, varying in depth from 1 to 2 feet, subsoil 
_ heavy grey clay. 
NATURE 
above, | 
487 
On the Higher On the 
Ground Lower Ground 
Ft. In; Ft In. 
December 23, 1884 Frozen to 0 10 7 9) 
January 3, 1885 ... ... i 1G) 3050 
Marche21.)as5 wie eet I 4 3° 16 
May 6, 56) 5 eac 4 4 5 0 
June 25, 55 None down to 6 o 6 0 
January 14, 1886... ... ‘om 10 I 6 
A further communication of June 1, 1886, states that the 
frost only descended 3 feet 6 inches on the higher ground in the 
winter of 1885-86, and had at that date disappeared. It descended 
5 feet in the lower ground, but had almost disappeared. 
At. St. John’s Cemetery in the city, ‘‘ I am advised by the 
clergyman,” says Mr. Bell, ‘‘that frost has been found at from 
5 to 8 feet depth”; careful investigation will be made there this 
year. 
St. Boniface, a suburb of Winnipeg to the east.—The frost 
penetrates from 5 to 8 feet, according to the season, vary- 
ing locally under the conditions of the exposure, tillage, dryness, 
and heat or frost cracks. During the summer of 1885 frost was 
found at a depth of 5 feet, and down to 7 feet, when the 
work was stopped. ‘This was in July or early in August. The 
locality was probably exposed to the action of the sun. 
21. Lat. 49° to 493°, long., in the valley of the River Pembina 
to the extreme south of the North-West Territory.—Dr. Alfred 
Selwyn, Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, who has 
two sons settled in this region, states that those gentlemen have 
had several wells sunk, the deepest about 40 feet, and have never 
seen any permanently frozen ground. There is similar negative 
evidence from Brandon, a little further north, 
It would be premature to draw any general conclusions from 
the observations thus far collected. ‘There is want of proof of 
the existence of permanent ground ice beyond the district of 
Mackenzie River in the North-West, but frozen soil has been 
shown to exist at a depth of 17 feet at Fort Simpson, at 
Prince Albert, and at Yorkton, and it may be questioned whether 
the wave of summer heat has time to descend to such a depth 
before it is overtaken by the refrigerating influence of the early 
winter. It certainly exists also in the neighbourhood of Hudson’s 
Bay, on the eastern side, and it is evident that under favourable 
conditions frost, without being permanent, may in some cases 
last in the soil all the year round over a wide area, and in other 
years disappear. 
At whatever level we locate the maximum of absorbed heat, 
it must be remembered that when the winter sets in, and freezes 
the surface, which it does rapidly to the depth of a foot or two, 
the heat will then be abstracted in both directions, and its rate of 
descent checked. 
Report of the Committee, consisting of Sir Foseph D. Hooker, 
Six George Nares, Mr. Fohn Murray, General F. T. Walker, 
Admiral Sir Leopold McClintock, Dr. W. B. Carpenter, Mr. 
Clements Markham, and Admiral Sir Erasmus Ommanney 
(Secretary), appointed for the Purpose of Drawing Attention to the 
Desirability of Further Research inthe Antarctic Regions.—Y our 
Committee, after having given full consideration to the great 
importance of effecting a further exploration of the Antarctic 
Polar Sea, desire, in the first place, to express their opinion that 
it would be most essential, before approaching Her Majesty's 
Government with the view of urging the expediency of equip- 
ping such a naval expedition as would be required for the carry- 
ing out an exploration of such magnitude, interest, and import- 
ance, that the requirements for its success and a plan of 
operations should be most carefully considered, and the results 
embodied in a written form for the approval of the Council of 
the Association and for the information of the Government. 
Furthermore, in order to obtain the co-operation which the 
matter requires from eminent men in science, your Committee 
feel it necessary for their body being enlarged by the addition of 
influential members of the Association, and of other bodies 
representing the various branches of science interested in the 
investigation of this comparatively unknown region, and espe- 
cially of the Royal Geographical Society. Your Committee 
have to point out that our knowledge of the South Polar region 
is chiefly confined to the grand discoveries effected by that cele- 
brated expedition under the command of Capt. Sir James C. 
Ross, conducted between the years 1839 and 1843 with sailing- 
ships. Since that period the facilities for effecting a more com- 
plete research have been greatly augmented by the application 
of steam propulsion to vessels better adapted for ice-navigation. 
