170 REPORT—1874., 
liarly his own, the “Application of Photography to Military Purposes.” Monsieur 
Maunoir, the Secretary of the French Geographical Society, has forwarded a paper 
‘On the Objects to be obtained by the International Congress,” to be held at Paris 
in the spring of next year, to which I would especially direct your attention ; and an 
interesting communication “On the Ordnance Survey of Ireland” and the “ Uses 
to which the Maps are applied ” has also been received. 
I regret that I am not able to give any definite information on the probability of 
Government assistance to Arctic exploration ; but I understand that the impression 
produced on the members of the deputation which recently had an interview with 
the Prime Minister on the subject was that he was not unfavourable to such 
assistance. 
Admiral Sherard Osborn has kindly forwarded a paper on “ Routes to the North 
Pole ;” and Lieut. Chermside, R.E., who accompanied Mr. Leigh Smith last yearon a 
very remarkable yoyage to Spitzbergen, will read an account of the discoveries 
they were enabled to make. 
The reports of the officers of the ‘ Polaris’ have been published, expressing con- 
tradictory opinions as to the possibility of their having been able to reach a higher 
latitude. As regards the general subject of Arctic exploration, there can, I think, be 
no doubt that that by Smith’s Sound would yield the most important scientific re- 
sults, and would at the same time offer great facilities for reaching the pole itself. It 
should not be forgotten that all recent Polar expeditions sent out from this country 
have been despatched with the special object of ascertaining the fate of Sir John 
Franklin, and that discovery was not a principal object. When, too, we consider 
that in these expeditions Arctic travel was reduced to a very perfect system, that 
the distance from the point reached by the ‘Polaris’ to the Pole is less than has 
already been performed in some of the sledge-journeys, and that no life has ever 
been lost on a sledge-journey, it is impossible to doubt that a well-organized expe- 
dition would be able to reach the polar area. In the words of a well known aretic 
explorer, “ What remains to be done is a mere flea-bite to what has already been 
accomplished.” Morton, the second mate of the ‘ Polaris,’ says, as the result of his 
third voyage, that he is “more than ever convinced of the practicability and possi- 
bility of reaching the Pole;” and if I may express my own opinion, it would be, in 
the words attached to a picture at the last Exhibition of the Academy in London, 
“Tt is to be done, and England ought to do it.” 
The Routes to the North Polar Region. 
By Rear-Admiral Surrarp Oszory, C.B., F.B.S., &e. 
In this paper the additional 120 miles towards the North Pole reached by the 
last American Expedition under the late Captain Hall of the ‘ Polaris,’ »@ Baffin’s 
Strait and Smith’s Sound, were urged as anew and cogent argument in favour of the 
sending out of another Arctic Expedition by the British Government in the same 
direction. Pointing out that the Polar Sea comprised within the 70th parallel of 
latitude leaves a space of 2400 miles wide (about equivalent to the distance from 
England to Halifax), and that a line through the pole from Grinnell Land, in 
America, to Cape Taimyr, in Asia, is only half the distance of the route from 
Spitzbergen to Behring’s Straits, the author relied on the saving of 800 miles of 
unknown land or sea as his chief reason for advocating the former way. As addi- 
tional arguments for this selection of a passage through the American archipelago, 
he remarked that the European Arctic islands may be fairly deemed to end 120 
miles north of the Spitzbergen group, whilst the few Asiatic islands are not known 
to occur nearer than 15° of the Pole; that the northern lands of the western hemi- 
sphere have been traced up to the 84th parallel (or sighted to that supposed distance), 
within 360 miles of the Pole, and with no symptom of termination; and that 
Greenland itself, up to 83° on the western and 77° on the eastern side, has 
been found to abound with animal and vegetable life. He also noticed the long 
and deep channels, mostly north and south or east and west, dividing the Ame- 
rican group—Smith’s Sound (1600 miles, so far as yet explored) being noted as 
the longest strait known, and the continuous southerly motion of ice down the 
