198 REPORT — 1861. 



gress of efFoi-ts to conciliate the Ai-ab chiefs living near the outer ranges of the 

 Kurdish moimtains. The telegi-aph consisted of two distinct wires, one of which 

 was reserved for the exclusive use of the British Government ; and a convention 

 was about to be signed with the Tm-kish Government for the regulation of the 

 respective shares of the expense to be incm'red in keeping the line in working order, 

 for fixing the tarifi' for the transmission of messages, &c. With reference to the 

 Persian section of the line, attention was being more inunediately dii-ected to a 

 continuation of the land-line from Bagdad, through Persia, towards India. Political 

 and physical arguments showed the desirability of taking a northward line, and the 

 author believed that it had been decided to continue the line, in the first instance, 

 directly from Bagdad to Teheran, thence to Khanikeen and Kermanshah. From 

 the latter place it would continue to follow the gi-eat high road fi-om Babylon east- 

 wai-d. At Teheran the liae would joiu another system of telegi'aphs which had 

 been organized in Persia itself. From Bagdad it was proposed to continue the line 

 to Bunder Abbas ; and it was almost certaiti that the Shah would enter cordially 

 into the scheme. The Commissioner in Scinde, the agent for the Government of 

 India, and the Imaum of Muscat had reported as favourably as could be wished. 

 They were working in what he believed; in the present state of oceanic telegraphy, 

 to be the only practicable direction. 



Oil the Sjpitzhergen Current, and Active and Extinct Glaciers in South Green- 

 land. By Colonel Shaitniik. 



In June 1777, ten whaling vessels were beset in the ice about lat. 76° north, 

 between Spitzbergen and Jan Mayen. They endeavoured in vain to escape, were 

 carried by the ice in a south-western direction between Iceland and Greenland, 

 and by degi'ees the vessels were all lost ; only 116 of the 450 men who composed 

 the crews escaping, they having reached the 'South-Greenland coast. Little was 

 known of the loss of these vessels ; but it might be supposed that the floe ice was 

 not compact, and that they were chafed imtil then- hulls were worn, so as to permit 

 the water to enter them. On the 22nd of June, 1827, Captain Parry started on 

 a boat expedition from Spitzbergen towards the North Pole — one of the most 

 hazardous eflbrts known in Ai-ctic annals ; but he was obliged to put back on the 

 24th of the following month, and retm-n to his ship at Spitzbergen, the drift or 

 cun-ent having carried him 14 miles to the south wai-d in the last two days of the 

 journey. South of Spitzbergen and Jan Mayen the ice sometimes spread and came 

 south upon North Iceland, the gales north of Iceland and south of Spitzbergen 

 spreading the ice in detached pieces or small bergs eastwai-d, fi-om 100 to 200 miles 

 fi'om the cmTent track, which rims southward along the Greenland coast. Directly 

 west of Iceland, the floe ice had seldom been seen fi-om the highest moimtains. 

 South of Iceland, the ice-floe was in the direction of Cape Farewell. Timber was 

 often found drifting near the east and west coasts of Greenland. The width of the 

 Greenland ciuTent did not, in his (Col. Shafiher's) opinion, exceed 50 miles ; it 

 carried with it floe ice and berg ice. It was not known that much of the floe ice 

 came from the icy seas north of Russia. The year 1860 was remarkable for the 

 gi-eat quantity of ice brought by the Greenland current, and, added to that brought 

 south by the IBaffin's Bay and other cm-rents of Da\-is's Sti-ait, produced the unusual 

 dangers experienced in navigation from America to Europe in 1861. More ice had 

 been seen in the usual track of the steamers during this year than at any previous 

 period. This was to be expected after the reports from the ' Bulldog ' and ' Fox ' 

 expeditions of 1860. Captains of vessels fi-om Greenland reported that there had 

 been but little ice in the Greenland cim-ent this year ; and it might be expected 

 that navigation between America and Europe would be but little hindered by the 

 ice in 1862. When north-east winds blew, the coast was fi-ee from ice ; a west 

 wind di-ove the ice upon the coast. It might be safe to estimate the velocity of 

 the Greenland current at 10 nautical miles per horn- from north of Spitzbergen and 

 Cape Farewell, and then northwai-d to about latitude 64° north, where it began to 

 spread and join with the northern or Batfin's Bay cun-ent. The length of this 

 cm-rent being about 1600 nautical miles, and supposing its width to be 60 miles 

 during fom- months of the year, they might estimate the decay of ice from 75,000 



