OCTonKK 26, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



appeaieil by tlio ond of June. There hail been no 

 illness, ami the international prograiniue had been 

 perfectly carried ont. In addition to the interna- 

 tional stations, the physical laboratory at I'psala has 

 made simultaneous observations for the year end- 

 ing Aug. 1.5. The Swedish expedition arrived at 



Tromso from Spitzbcrgen, Aug. 28. The year's obser- 

 vations were completed Aug. 2:5. No casualties had 

 occurred among the members of the party, and the rcr 



lieving vessel encountered no ice of consequence. 



The Dutch, party which whitered in the Varna, near 

 Waigatz Strait, arrived at Hanimerfest, Sept. :5. The 

 Varna was nipped Dec. 24, 1882, but did not founder 

 until .luly 24, 1883. One of the crew died diuing 

 the winter. The observations, except those relating 

 to ra.agnetisni. were carried on with success. After 

 the vessel sank, the party was accommodated on the 

 Dimfna, from which it was taken by the steam- 

 er Obi, and carried to Vardo. Hovgaard, in the 

 Dimfna, was confident of getting into open water in 

 August, but intended, if he did not succeed in doing 

 so by Aug. 1 ■), to despatch half the crew under Lieut. 

 Olsen for Yalmal on the Siberian coast, while be 

 remained on the vessel with the other half during 

 the winter. The Dimfna has since arrived at Vardo. 



Xo attempt is to be made to reach Greely's party 



this year, as the season is considered too late. Sever- 

 al Eskimo stories have reached civilization, and have 

 been supposed to refer to that party. It is certain 

 that they are entitled to no credence whatever, in the 

 shape in which they are received, even if originally 



based on some actual fact, which is doubtful. 



The Point Barrow party under Ray has been suc- 

 cessfully relieved, and reached San Francisco, Oct. 7. 

 According to a telegram from Lieut. Ray, all work 

 was accomplished except the pendulum observations. 

 The relieving schooner Leo reached Point Barrow, 

 Aug. 22, but was forced away by the ice the same 

 night; returned on the 24th, but was again forced to 

 retire, with some damage, the next day. On the 27th, 

 however, the party and stores were embarked, and 

 the vessel reached Unalashka, where she was beached 

 and repaired. Lieut. Schwatka and party, who had 

 descended the Yukon from the Chilkat country to 

 the sea, and reached St. Jlichael's safely, were brought 

 to San Francisco by the Leo. — w. ii. i>. [316 



The whaling-season. — Reports from Bering 

 Strait to latest dates still continue to characterize 

 the season as the worst and most icy for many years. 

 No serious casualties had occurred since the loss of 

 the John Ilowland. — \v. ii. D. [317 



Arctic notes.— The death of Admiral Sir Richard 

 Collinson, at the age of seventy-two, is announced. 

 He commanded the Franklin search expedition, 18.50- 

 54, on the Enterprise and Investigator, surveyed Minto 

 Inlet and Prince Albert Sound in 18.52. Part of his 

 command under M'Clure, by walking from their ves- 

 sel in Mercy Bay, over the ice to the Re.solute at 

 De.aly Island, and afterwards sailing for England on 

 the North Star, made the north-east passage from 

 the Pacific for the first and only time. Collinson 

 received the gold medal of the Roy,il geographical 

 society, the order of the Balh, and h.ad been deputy- 



master of Trinity House since 1875. The latest 



news from the polar station at the Lena mouth was to 

 the eftcct that all were well April 3, though the win- 

 ter h.ad been very trying. The lowest temper>iture 

 observed was — .52°.3 F., Feb. 0. The deviation of 

 the magnetic needles was very great, especially dur- 

 ing ' magnetic storms,' reaching 2.5° in azimuth in 

 the declinometer, and 00° for the suspended magnet in 

 observations for horizontal intensity. The news- 

 paper accounts of Lieut. Schwatka's voyage are so 

 confused, and contain so many absolute errors, that 

 it is difficult to know exactly what they are intended 

 to convey. The facts appear to be, that he crossed the 

 portage from the Chilkat River to the Kussooa afflu- 

 ents of the Lewis River, as several parties of pro- 

 spectors have done before him. The descent was then 

 made to the Yukon, at Fort Selkirk, on rafts. Some 

 of the Indians of the parly becoming mutinous, it is 

 reported that three of them were killed by Schwatka; 

 and the party then descended the river from the site 

 of Fort Selkirk to Fort Adams, just below NiiUlfi- 

 kahyet', about longitude 1.52° 30' west, where one of 

 the river-boats used in trading was chartered to take 

 them to the seacoast. It is to be hoped that astro- 

 nomical observations have been made by the party, 

 which, so far as merely traversing the country is con- 

 cerned, has done no more than has been done by dif- 

 ferent parties of prospectors and explorers before ; 

 none of whom, however, obtained any observations 



of precision on the river above Fort Y'ukon. 



Lieut. Stoney, U.S.N., after delivering the presents 

 to the Chukchi of St. Lawrence Bay, which were 

 sent in return for their benevolence to the officers 

 and men of the Jeannette search expedition, on 

 the U.S.S. Rodgers, landed near Hotham Inlet, and, 

 according to newspaper reports, attempted to explore 

 one of the three large rivers which fall into this estu- 

 ary. The information given by the daily press is not 

 exact; but it appears that the chief work accom- 

 plished was the collection of some native reports in 

 regard to one of these rivers, which, in the state they 

 have been made public, are incompatible with the 

 known geography of the region. Doubtless, in this 

 as in the case of Lieut. Schwatka's party, when the 

 official reports are received, they will be found to 

 contain welcome additions to our knowledge of these 

 regions. [318 



BOTANY. 



Color-changes of lung-wort flcwers. — Di-. Mid- 

 ler finds, tluat while occa>ionally insects visit the 

 blue (older) flowers of Piilinoiiaria officinalis, but 

 without benefit to themselves or the plant, the 

 red (younger) flowers are much more frequently 

 visited for pollen and nectar, being at the same time 

 fertilized. One female of Anthophora pUipes, for ex- 

 ample, was seen to visit only red flowers, or those 

 just beginning to change- Another visited, at first, 

 both red and blue flowers, but later, app.arently 

 learning by experience that the blue flowers contain 

 no nectar, confined her visits to the red flowers. A 

 third visited in the following order: sixteen red 

 flowers of Pulmonaria, one blue Nepeta glechoma, 

 twenty-three red Pulmonaria, one Nepeta, twenty- 



