GENERAL MEETING. 9 
Land] had already been explored and exhaustively examined by 
the English expedition of 1875-76.” A refutation of this state- 
ment was not now necessary inasmuch as a retraction had already 
been made; but an impartial examination of Lieut. Lockwood’s 
observations was still required as a basis for our own confidence in 
the latitude attained. 
A description of the equipment of the expedition was given, with 
a sketch of the events of the journey, and extracts from the narra- 
tive report. The weights of the food and equipments drawn by the 
dog team furnished the basis of a discussion as to the value of dogs 
in arctic sledging. The weight ot’ food taken for the support of 
each man was about twice that taken for each dog. Now if a man 
can drag a sufficiently greater amount to compensate for the greater 
weight of his food, it is immaterial whether the motive force used 
be dogs or men. On this expedition the dog sledge was actually 
loaded so as to give a weight of about 100 lbs. to each dog; but the 
maximum weight that can be advantageously drawn by a man is 
only 125 or, perhaps, 150 lbs. The ratio of effective work performed 
to the weight of food consumed is, therefore, materially greater for 
dogs than for men, so that a substantial economical advantage is 
obtained by using dogs instead of men for sledge dragging. This 
advantage seems not to have been appreciated by the English ex- 
pedition of 1875’-76, whose heavy sledges and equipments were all 
drawn by hand. In addition to the more conspicuous causes of 
the failure of Lieut. Beaumont’s expedition on the Greenland coast, 
the neglect to make use of dogs must be added as an important 
element. 
The sextant observations made by Lieut. Lockwood for determin- 
ing the position of his farthest north were shown to be highly 
satisfactory. Sets of circum-meridian observations for latitude were 
made at midnight of May 14th and at noon of May 15th. The 
conditions of observation offer no sufficient reason for giving more 
weight to one set than to the other. The mean of these results 
gives 83° 24’ as the latitude attained by Lieut. Lockwood, and an 
uncertainty not greater than 1’ represent the accuracy of its deter- 
mination. 
The paper closed with the following tribute to the character of 
Lieut. Lockwood as an arctic explorer : 
I cannot close this review of Lieut. Lockwood’s expedition to 
farthest north without turning from the cold discussion of the astro- 
