Fan. 20, 1870] 
NATURE 
31 
| os 
already crossed the 80th parallel, and was close to the 
station marked (3) ; but thence he again made, by a long 
détour, for the shores of Greenland. -It was after his 
second repulse that he reached his most northerly point 
(3), close to the most northerly limit of the Swedish 
expedition. 
This year, Captain Kéldewey, now in a steamship, has 
~ pursued the same tactics, except that he has been less 
ready to accept defeat, and has persistently sought to 
penetrate the ice-laden seas which surround the Green- 
land coast. The dotted line shows the general course of 
the second expedition ; and it will be seen that when last 
heard of they were close by Greenland, and far south of 
the 75th parallel. Captain Gray, who brought the latest 
intelligence of their doings in this neighbourhood, states 
that on August 1, although the sea was still much en- | 
cumbered with ice, it was becoming rapidly clearer, so | 
that the Germanta was likely to have little difficulty in 
reaching the Greenland coast. I confess, however, that I 
do not share the hopes which have been expressed of the 
successful progress of the expedition this year. The 
result of the expeditions of 1868 seems to point very 
clearly to another course than that which the Geranza is 
now seeking to pursue : and there is nothing in the whole 
history of Arctic expedition to encourage a hope that a 
way can be found so far to the west (at least in latitudes | 
below 80’), to the neighbourhood of the North Pole. 
The figure indicates the course of the mean summer 
and autumn isotherm of 3° Reaumer (about 39° Fahr.), 
in the North Atlantic. Along the course marked by 
arrows a branch of the Gulf Stream has been traced (in 
summer) as far north as latitude 813°; the main stream 
making its way towards Novaia Zemlia.* Does not 
Nature herself seem to point out this track past Spitz- 
bergen as the proper course for North Polar explorers ? | 
Here, in the first place, the mildest temperature is found ; 
and in Arctic voyaging this is a matter of no small im- 
portance. Here also is an assisting current—valeat guan- | 
tum valere debet. But the chief circumstance to be 
noticed is, that the course followed by the Gulf Stream 
- shows that there is open water—ice-encumbered, no doubt, 
but still not ice-bound—in this direction. It is well worthy 
of notice, too, how deep the sea is along this part of the | 
Atlantic. Herr von Freeden remarks, that the whole of 
the Bernese Oberland might be hidden, “its presence 
unbetrayed even by an eddy,” under the ocean to the 
north-west of Spitzbergen. Long ago, indeed, Scoresby 
found no bottom with a two-mile line. Here, then, if any- 
where, a ship might expect to find her way, though ex- 
perience has shown again and again that that way is full 
of dangers. 
Either along this course or along the track suggested 
by Herr von Freeden, the Pole, 1 doubt not, will yet be 
reached. It will be remembered that Sir Edward Parry, 
setting forth from Spitzbergen on his famous “ boat and 
sledge” expedition, was foiled by an unforeseen difficulty. 
The whole mass of ice over which he had tracked his way 
for more than a hundred miles began to drift southward, 
so that, as fast as Parry and his party travelled northwards, 
they were set back by the relentless sea and wind. Now, 
Party’s defeat shows at once the hopefulness of the 
course suggested above, and of Von Freeden’s proposition 
that an expedition like Parry’s should be commenced 
earlier in the season, when the ice is as yet unbroken. 
The very fact that Parry’s great ice-ship floated freely 
shows how wide and deep the seas must be even far to 
the north of the spot he reached. For not only could he 
see no sign of water in front—and the Arctic voyager can 
recognise a “ water-sky ” at a great distance—dwt the point 
* Petermann’s Geog. Mittheilungen, Part vt. The paper on “‘the scientific 
results of the first German North-polar Expedition,” by Herr W. von Free- 
den, in this number of the Mittheilungen, will well repay careful study. In 
Part 1x. the progress and results of this year's expedition, so far as they 
are yet known, are detailed in a seriés of letters from the people on board the 
Germania. 
where he turned must have been a few days before some 
hundred miles at least further north, for he and his 
party had been floated back more than a hundred miles. 
There must then have been, that year at least, a course 
round the floating ice-fields which would have carried a 
daring seaman to an open sea between the North Pole 
and station 1, and far to the north of the latter point. On 
the other hand, the ease with which Parry’s party pursued 
their way northwards shows, as Herr von Freeden justly 
remarks, that it would be no very difficult matter to attain 
the Pole itself over the ice, if the journey were made in 
early summer. RICHARD A. PROCTOR 
IMPROVED ECLIPSE CAMERA 
{tt is to be hoped that shortly, in view of the approaching 
total eclipse in December next—to observe which we 
| trust a Government expedition will be organised—English 
| astronomers will be making arrangements for obtaining as 
valuable a series of photographs as the one which 
rewarded the efforts of the American astronomers last 
year. 
We therefore append a description of the important 
| modifications successfully introduced by Professor Morton, 
| of Philadelphia. 
A B represents the face plate of the camera, to which 
| the eye-piece tube was attached, its other end being 
| screwed to the telescope. The diaphragm plate, D E, 
moved across the axis of the instrument, being drawn 
downwards by the combined spring, C F, The strength 
———— 
a 
i 
i} 
of this spring could be reduced by raising the outer end 
of one or both the upper strips so as to disengage the 
forks at their end from the lower spring, and then turning 
them forward in a direction normal to the front of the box, 
out of the way. 
The spring was attached to the diaphragm plate by a 
swivel hook. 
A number of diaphragm plates were provided, with slits 
respectively of #5, a5, ab and j4 of an inch in width. 
These plates could be readily interchanged, and, in 
combination with the springs, gave a very wide and yet 
delicate series of fixed adjustments for the times of 
exposure. 
