64 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE, 
this point Wiches Land could be distinctly seen. Hinlopen Straits also seemed 
to be free of ice. On the zoth they anchored at the entrance of Walter Thymen’s. 
Straits—where they took in ballast--which were also clear of ice. On the 22d 
they were off Wales Point, and from there they sailed with a fair wind to Ham- 
merfest, in Norway, which they reached on the 25th of September. From that 
they steamed through the fjords to Tromsoe, and thence to Bodoe. On the way 
from Tromsoe the Eira went ashore, while under the charge of a pilot, on a reef 
at the entrance to Tiel Sound, about 11 o’clock at night and just as they were 
drawing up to the anchorage. The crew made great efforts to release the vessel, 
but in vain, until on the 4th, when the Norwegian steamer Nordsjerne, which 
happened to be passing, towed her off with some difficulty. They left Bodoe on 
the 7th, and, after touching at Lerwick on the 11th, reached Peterhead on 
the 12th of October. In the course of the voyage some enormous icebergs were 
seen, measuring from ro to 12 miles long, having flat ‘‘table lands’’ on the top 
rising to the height of about 200 feet. They shot 15 bears and 27 walruses, and 
saw great quantities of saddle-back seals in the water. No reindeer were seen, 
but snow-hwite foxes were abundant. Careful observations were taken of the 
temperature and other meteorological tests. Mr. Grant also took numerous pho- 
tographs of the places visited, and some very interesting specimens’ of fishes and 
animals were dredged up and preserved for inspection by scientists in this country. 
Efforts were made to capture young walruses, but they were unsuccessful, and on 
one occasion one of the boats was stove in in the attempt. It is gratifying to 
have to state that no serious case of illness occurred during the voyage. The 
Eira is to remain at Peterhead until the opening month of next year, when it is 
understood Mr. Smith will renew his researches. 
THE FRANKLIN SEARCH. 
We announced yesterday the return in safety of the latest Arctic expedition. 
Lieutenant Schwatka, of the United States Navy, and his gallant companions, 
who reached this week the whaling metropolis of Massachusetts, were commis- 
sioned, not to make independent discoveries in the region of the North Pole, but 
to search for relics of the Erebus and Terror. In the process of tracking the foot- 
steps of earlier explorers they have, however, probably undergone as many hard- 
ships and had to face as many new difficulties as if the way had never been 
pioneered before. Expeditions such as this are games of ‘‘ follow my leader,” 
in which no peril may be circumvented which has once been encountered, and no 
easy alternative may be adopted. The common type of Arctic journeys presup- 
poses permanent quarters in ships specially constructed and equipped to repro- 
duce as much as may be the comforts of civilized life and a temperate climate in 
the frigid North. Dr. Kane and other Arctic voyagers have told how possible it 
is, when the ship is arranged for the night, to look around the warm cabin and al- 
most forget the surrounding waste of savage desolation. Dangers and difficulties 
