692 



SCIENCE. 



LN. S. Vol. XV. No. a83. 



of the Nansen Meeting of the American 

 Philosophical Society held in 1897, on 

 which occasion Admiral Melville called at- 

 tention to the feasibility of a plan to as- 

 certain the speed of ocean currents in the 

 circumpolar regions by setting adrift a 

 series of especially constructed, spindle- 

 shaped casks in the waters north of Bering 

 Strait and in other parts of the Arctic 

 Ocean. 



This proposed method of studying Arctic 

 currents without endangering human life 

 was brought to the attention of the Geo- 

 graphical Society of Philadelphia and that 

 body determined to undertake the project. 

 Fifty casks of special shape, to escape 

 crushing by ice pressure and covered with 

 a coating of black water-proofing material 

 were made in San Francisco. Messages 

 printed on linoleum paper by a permanent 

 blue-print process, which renders them im- 

 pervious to salt water, were provided. 

 These messages were printed in the Eng- 

 lish, Norwegian, German and French lan- 

 guages and embodied the following partic- 

 ulars: (a) Name of vessel and master as- 

 sisting in the distribution, date, number 

 of cask and latitude and longitude of point 

 where it was set adrift; (&) direction as to 

 filling in record and sealing up tube; (c) 

 blank space for insertion of name of finder, 

 date and locality where cask was picked 

 up; (fZ) clause requesting finder to notify 

 the nearest U. S. Consul or to send direct 

 to the Geographical Society of Philadel- 

 phia. Accompanying each consignment of 

 casks was a set of printed instructions to 

 masters of vessels engaged in their distri- 

 bution. 



In the hazardous work of distributing 

 the casks assistance was rendered by the 

 U. S. Revenue Cutter Bear and the ves- 

 sels of the whaling fleet sailing from San 

 Francisco. Mr. Bryant stated that reports 

 of the accomplishment of the preliminary 

 work have come in rather slowly, owing to 



the length of the whaling voyages. The 

 work of distribution had begun in 1899 

 and reports were still coming in from the 

 whaling captains. To date, thirty-five 

 casks had been launched in the far North 

 and fifteen remained yet to be heard from. 



It has been known for years that no ap- 

 preciable amount of water from the polar 

 ocean escaped through the narrow, shallow 

 outlet of Bering Strait, while the knowl- 

 edge gained from the drift of the Jeannette 

 and Fram points to the existence of a well- 

 defined drift across the circumpolar area 

 to the shores of Franz Joseph Land, Spitz- 

 bergen and Bast Greenland. The presence 

 of quantities of Siberian driftwood in the 

 localities named can be explained by no 

 other intelligent hypothesis, while it is well 

 known that Dr. Nansen based the theory 

 of his voyage primarily on the finding of 

 the Jeannette relics on the west coast of 

 Greenland, three years after the crushing 

 of that vessel in the sea northeast of the 

 New Siberian Islands. 



From the nature of the case, it is diffi- 

 cult to prophesy the time that mil be re- 

 quired to complete the drift, but it is safe 

 to assume that from three to five years will 

 be required by the casks to make the 

 journey across the polar basin. 



Mr. Joseph Wharton, of Philadelphia, 

 speaking of 'The Magnetic Properties of 

 Nickel,' said that this metal is capable of 

 being made permanently magnetic. He 

 made a horseshoe magnet and ship com- 

 passes of nickel for the Centennial Exposi- 

 tion of 1876, and sent compasses to the 

 American, British, French and Russian 

 govermiients for experiment on shipboard. 

 The United States and English officials 

 paid no attention to the matter, but the 

 other countries named made official investi- 

 gations, indicating, among other things, 

 that pure nickel shows a very considerable 

 permanent magnetism— about one half as 

 much as hardened steel. 



