EDITORIAL. 
THE press announce the auspicious starting of Andrée on 
July 11. The result of this first experiment in Arctic aérial 
navigation will be awaited with unusual interest. If Andrée 
shall succeed in floating at a suitable elevation for even a week 
and shall make good his return, he can scarcely fail to bring 
back data of vital importance. It is of trivial consequence 
whether he passes near the pole or not, and his geographical 
discoveries are uncertain, for his course may not take him over 
new territory, but he will determine the course pursued by the 
body of air in which he floats if he is able to keep his location, 
of which there is little ground for question. The course pur- 
sued by a given body of air in a region which bears such critical 
relations to the whole system of atmospheric circulation is a 
matter of radical importance. Observers at fixed points upon 
the earth can only determine the transient local direction of 
passing bodies of air. They cannot directly demonstrate the 
actual circulation. They can only infer it from a combination 
of local observations. But the actual circulation can be dete1- 
mined by means of the balloon floating with the body of air, 
subject, of course, to certain obvious qualifications, particularly 
those that relate to vertical movements. Andrée’s trip should 
therefore bring forth data of vital consequence to all hypotheses 
relating to polar atmospheric circulation. Among these hypoth- 
eses is one suggested by the ice drift which the writer has never 
seen in print, and which pointedly illustrates the possible value 
of Andrée’s experiment. 
It is now well known that the free ice off the Siberian coast 
drifts westward until it impinges upon the east coast of Green- 
land, when it is diverted to the south, but on reaching Cape 
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