NORDENSK/JOLD’S LABORS. 351 
was taken of this shows, not a change in the number or arrangement of the 
Fraunhofer lines, but a variation in the strength of the background. These 
modifications in the intensity of the background seem to Prof. Draper to point 
out two things that are occurring: (1.) An absorption of solar light in the equa- 
torial regions of the planet. (2.) A production of intrinsic light at the same 
place. These two apparently opposing statements can be reconciled on the 
hypothesis that the temperature of the incandescent substances producing light at 
the equatorial regions of Jupiter did not suffice for the emission of the more 
refrangible rays, and that there were present materials which absorbed those rays 
from the sunlight falling on the planet. The strengthening of the spectrum in 
the portions answering to the vicinity of the equatorial regions of Jupiter, says Prof. 
Draper, bears so directly on the problem of the physical condition of the planet 
as to incandescence that its importance cannot be overrated.—Sccentific American. 
IBMO Gur Ale tal Ne 
NORDENSKJOLD’S LABORS. 
BY JOHN RAE, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S.. LONDON, ENGLAND. 
Before entering upon the Arctic career—which has recently culminated in so 
grand a success—of the subject of this paper, it may not be out of place to give 
a very brief notice of his previous by no means uneventful life, for all, or nearly 
all, of which I am indebted to ‘‘The Arctic Voyages of Adolf Erick Nordens- 
kjold, 1858—1879,” published by Macmillan & Co., 1879. 
Nordenskjéld is a native of Finland, and was born at Helsingfors, in No- 
vember, 1832, of arace known for many generations to possess great qualities. 
Whilst yet a boy, he was an industrious collector of minerals and insects, and 
accompanied his father, a well-known naturalist, on many of his excursions, 
thus preparing himself, without being aware of it, for his future great work. At 
first he was extremely idle when at school, his free spirit refusing to be under due 
discipline; but when this discipline was relaxed, he became very industrious and 
attentive, and was soon among those who obtained the best reports. 
At this school—the Gymnasium at Borgo—a revolution took place, in 1848, 
among the pupils, in consequence of two of them being subjected to corporal 
punishment, and nearly half the young men had to leave the institution—among 
them Nordenskjéld. 
His chief studies in the University of Helsingfors—which he entered in 
1849—were Chemistry, Natural History, Mathematics, Physics, and, above all, 
Mineralogy and Geology. He had already acquired much skill in recognizing 
and collecting minerals during his father’s tours, so that he was at an early age 
