332 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVII. No. 436>| 



the same size and power, but since the distance from Juncal is 

 7,000 metres, against 3,000 metres for Juncal- JuncaUUo, the power 

 available at Calavera for driving the compressors is proportionately 

 less, and only four compressors are driven. 



In the Argentine installation the water-power is derived from 

 the Quebrada Navarro, the water being conveyed to the turbines, a 

 distance of 383 yards, by a single line of steel pipes. Owing to the 

 difficulties of travel upon the Argentine side of the mountains, 

 80 horse-power dynamos were found to be too heavy for transport, 

 and machines of half the power were therefore adopted. At the 

 primary station at Navarro four Girard turbines of 80 horse-power 

 each are used. Each turbine drives two 40 horse-power dynamos 

 directly from its horizontal shaft, one on either side. The machines 

 are in two groups, each of two turbines with four dynamos. One 

 group can be worked independently of the other, should any acci- 

 dent arise, provided it does not affect the source of water supply. 

 The 30 horse-power motors at-Las Cuevas are similar to the dyna- 

 mos at Navarro, and there is about 334 horse-power available for 

 driving the compressors, which are of the same type as those for 

 the Chilian installations. In the three installations, the air is con- 

 veyed from the compressors into large steel reservoirs, and from 

 thence to the drills in wrought-iron pipes. The drills are mounted 

 upon carriages, in groups of six, and are run forward on rails to 

 the work. 



The several stations are connected by telephone, so that, although 

 the works are widely separated, the same initial power which is, 

 by the various processes, converted into active work at the rook 

 face, affords the means of instant and easy communication with 

 all parts of the works. The workshops are lighted by electricity 

 generated by a separate 10 horse-power dynamo. 



THE EXPEDITIONS TO GEEENLAND. 



On June 6 the whaling steamer Kite, which has been chartered 

 for the purpose, left this port for Greenland, having on board two 

 parties of explorers bent on adding to our knowledge of Green- 

 land. 



One of these parties is under the command of Lieutenant Peary, 

 U.S.N., and is known as the North Greenland Expedition. Of 

 their plans we give an account below. The other is known as the 

 West Greenland Expedition, and consists of Professor A. Heilprin, 

 the geologist, who will command; Professor Holt and Professor 

 Benjamin Sharp, zoologists; Professor W. E. Hughes, ornithologist; 

 Dr. W. Burk, botanist; Dr. R. N. Keeley and Frazer Ashurst, 

 surgeons; Professor L. W. Mengee, entomologist, and A. C. 

 Kenealy. The West Greenland expedition wiU, after reach- 

 ing Whale Sound on the Kite, proceed southward either to 

 Upemavik or Disco Bay and finally to Godhaven, from which 

 point the party will journey in the Kite to Ivigut and thence to 

 St. Johns, Newfoundland. This section of the expedition expects 

 to return about the middle of September. 



The plans of the North Greenland Expedition are set forth in a 

 letter from Lieut. Peary to the New York Sun, of which we give 

 the following abstract : — 



" My party will be landed in June or early in July at Whale 

 Sound, latitude 77" 80 north. The remainder of this season will 

 be devoted to hunting for the winter's supply of meat, examining 

 the features of the Whale Sound region, collecting natural objects, 

 and more especially to reconnoissances of the inland ice in various 

 directions. It is anticipated that one of these reconnoissances will 

 be carried across the great tongue of the inland ice covering Prud- 

 hoe Land to the southern angle of Humboldt Glacier, and an ad- 

 vance depot for the main sledge journey established there. The 

 winter will be occupied in making and fitting sledges, clothing, 

 and all travelling equipment, and in snowshoe and skier practice, 

 for which the level surface of Inglefield Gulf (head of Whale 

 Sound) is especially adapted. 



" Early next spring four of five of the party will start over the 

 inland ice to Humboldt Glacier, with full sledges and dogs if prac- 

 ticable. Should favorable advance be made, this party will con- 

 tinue on from Humboldt Glacier to the head of Petermann Fjord. 

 Here a second depot of supplies will be deposited, and from this 

 point the advance party of two or three will push on with full 



sledges, the others returning to Whale Sound, to devote their time ' 

 during the absence of the main party to meteorological observa- 

 tions, collecting, and surveying. The main party will proceed 

 from the head of Petermann Fjord to the head of the Sherard Os- 

 borne Fjord, establish a depot there, thence to the head of De 

 Long Fjord, establish a depot there, thence to the northern ter- 

 minus. This point reached and determined, the main party will 

 retrace its steps to Whale Sound, taking up the various depots, 

 and the entire party will then seize the first opportunity to come 

 out. 



"The salient features of the project are the smallness of the 

 party and the utilization of the great interior ice plateau, the im- 

 perial highway of inner Greenland, as a road, instead of the sea 

 of ice; and the whole theory of the project rests upon the now 

 well-established fact that the interior of south and middle Green- 

 land is covered with an uninterrupted ice cap, and the more than 

 probability (in my opinion) that in north Greenland the conditions 

 are the same, and the ice cap nearly, if not quite, coextensive with 

 the land." 



"My personal impression is that the northern terminus of 

 Greenland is not north of the 85th parallel of latitude, and that 

 the inner ice cap is practically co-extensive with the land; and this 

 opinion is shared by Judge Daly and, I think, by most other emi- 

 nent geographers. But whether this is the case, or whether 

 Greenland extends as an Arctic continent across the pole, or is 

 connected more or less loosely by detached masses of land with 

 Franz Josef Land, or whether the ice cap ends at about the 82d 

 parallel, as in Grinnell Land, I feel confident that in any contin- 

 gency the efforts of my party will result in discoveries of interest, 

 and, I hope, of considerable value to the scientific world. Should 

 the Greenland ice cap terminate at or south of the 82d parallel, as 

 Gen. Greely believes, I shall endeavor to follow its edge to the un- 

 known east coast above Cape Bismarck. 



" The especial advantages of my overland route over all others 

 I regard to be as follows: the possibility of laying a straight course 

 from point to point, with the certainty that no tidal crack or chaos 

 of heaped-up ice will compel a long detour, or stop all further ad- 

 vance; that every foot travelled is a foot advanced, and the com- 

 forting assurance that nothing can happen to out off the retreat ; 

 the even and unvarying character of the surface to be traversed, 

 and the gain in lightness of sledges and equipment, and rapidity 

 of advance resulting therefrom; the length of season (at least sis 

 months) during which sledging may be prosecuted ; the facilities 

 that the ' nunataks, ' or island mountaio-tops, which project above 

 the ' inland ice ' at distances varying from two or three to forty 

 miles from the edge of the ice, offer for forming depots of pro- 

 visions ; and the exceptional value of the elevation of the route in 

 accurately charting the coast and detecting the existence of more 

 northerly land or lands." 



"My base is the one advocated by Kane, Hayes, Hall, Judge 

 Daly, and almost every ''American Arctic authority, — a region 

 having a small and kindly native population, abounding in game, 

 and within easy reach of the whalers which pass Cape York every 

 year on their way to the fishing grounds in Lancaster Sound and 

 adjacent waters. My proposed line of advance is absolutely direct 

 throughout each stage. If it were not desirable to touch at the 

 heads of Petermann, Sherard Osborne, and the other principal 

 fjords which interrupt the northern coast, and determine their 

 length and the characteristics of their heads, the line of march 

 might follow very closely a great-circle course from the head of 

 Whale Sound to beyond Lockwook's ' farthest.' 



" As to the daogers and hardships of an eighteen months' so- 

 journ above the 77th parallel, sentiment and imagination aside, I 

 believe them to be no greater than they would be in northern 

 Norway, Siberia, the higher Alps, or, to come nearer home, in 

 Montana or Dakota in winter. It may be news to many to know 

 that there are now in Greenland, under climatic conditions and en- 

 vironments similar to those of my proposed headquarters, Danish 

 officers with their wives and families, living the same home hfe ■ 

 as the better classes here, with their window gardens, their music, 

 their books, and all the other accessories of culture. I shall en- 

 deavor to collect all the scientific material and make all the ob- 

 servations practicable, but my fii-st and last object will be the at- 



