TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 161 



informed from time to time of tlie results of the deep-sea soundings and dredgings of 

 tlie ' Challenger,' but Capt. Davis will supply by far the completest information. 



The Kev. W. Wyatt Gill will give us an account of " Three visits to New 

 Guinea." Mr. Gill, after twenty-two years spent in missionary life in the South 

 Pacific, spent a short time at the mission stations in Torres Straits, and visited the 

 mainland of New Guinea. 



Recent Arctic Explorations. — The Spitzbergen and the Smith Sound routes are 

 tlie two great rival highways of exploration towards the arctic basin, and discovery 

 has alternately pushed nearer the pole by the one and the other. Till recently the 

 Spitzbergen route held the palm, for by it ships had reached to beyond the 81st 

 parallel, whilst on the American side no ship had been able to force a passage 

 higher than the 79th degree of latitude ; but in 1872 the American expedition, led 

 by Capt. Hall, who has perished in the cause, making its way northward by Smith 

 Sound, attained the highest point yet reached by ships, the latitude of 82° 16' N., 

 or to within 420 miles of the North Pole. Two expeditions, one from Austria the 

 other from Sweden, are also in progress on the Spitzbergen side. The Austrian, 

 under the leadership of Weybrecht and Payer, has passed beyond the limits of the 

 remotest traffic into the unknown seas to the north of Siberia, and it is probable 

 that no news of this voyage may reach civilized Europe for many months. The 

 Swedish voyage had for its object to move northward by sledges from the Parry 

 group of islands in the north of Spitzbergen, but has failed completely in this often- 

 tried scheme, and spent the past winter at Morrel Bay, on the coast of the chief 

 island of Spitzbergen. Early in the spring of this year another fruitless attempt 

 was made to go north over the hummocked ice. Desisting unwillingly from these 

 useless cllbrts, the sledge party turned along the coast of the north-east land of 

 Spitzbergen to its extreme eastern point, and thence ascending the high inland ice, 

 made a difficult passage across to Ilinloper Strait, from whence the winter-quarters 

 of the ship were again reached. 



With regard to British enterprise in the Arctic regions there is little to report. 

 Since the termination of the long series of brilliant exploits in the Polar regions at 

 the end of the search after Sir John Franklin, England seems to have abandoned 

 the field to rival nations. A few private expeditions to the Spitzbergen seas, 

 notably those of Mr. Leigh Smith, who has again visited those regions this summer, 

 alone represent British activity in tlie Arctic seas. However, the Roj'al Geo- 

 graphical Society does not allow the matter to .slumber. An endeavour was 

 made last winter to induce the Government to send out another expedition; 

 and at the present time a joint Committee of the Royal and the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Societies is at work formulating a plan of action with a view to 

 representing to Government the urgency of despatching an expedition in 1874. 



Africa. — Of Dr. Livingstone and Sir Samuel Baker no fresh news has been 

 received beyond what has been before the public. Two expeditions are now 

 on their way to Central Africa in search of Livingstone and to cooperate with 

 him. The Congo Expedition at last date (April 3) had reached Bembe, ].30 miles 

 from the coast, in admirable order. The East Coast Expedition had reached 

 Rehenneko, 120 miles, but -(\dth the loss of one of the party, Mr. ISloftat, who died 

 near Simbo. Their plan was to reach Tanganyika, and finish the exploration of 

 that lake, until Livingstone was met with. I had hoped to have seen Sir Samuel 

 Baker here, that we might hear from his own lips and in fuller detail what he 

 has accomplished. I do not quite despair yet; but up to the present hour I have 

 had no communication from him since his arrival at Cairo on his homeward 

 journey. 



On the true Position and Physical Characters of Mount Sinai. 

 By Chakles T. Beke, Ph.D., F.E.G.S. 



The identification of Mount Sinai is still uncertain. Though the great mountain- 

 mass within the peninsula between the Gulfs of Suez and .^kaba is generally 

 looked on as containing the " Mount of God," it has hitherto been found imprac- 



