736 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
exceed, if I remember correctly, six feet in thickness. 
Even were these great compound floes, called Palzeocrystic ice, found at or 
near the Pole, and of only the same thickness as those seen at Grinnel Land—in- 
stead of ‘‘hundreds of feet” —they would not probably have nearly so low an 
average temperatureeall the year round as 20° F. below the freezing point of water, 
because only one-sixth of their mass would be exposed to very low temperature 
for about six months of the year, the surface being during that time protected by 
a more or less thick covering of snow, whilst at least five-sixths of their bulk was 
under water, having a temperature for the whole twelve months of or about the 
freezing point of the sea. The question is, how far the very low temperature of 
an Arctic winter penetrates a mass of, say sixty feet of ice, the surface of which 
is covered with a foot of snow, and fifty feet or five-sixths under water of a tem- 
perature at or above the freezing point of the sea? 
From my experience on a much smaller scale, I do not believe that the at- 
mospheric cold would, under the circumstances mentioned, penetrate to the lower 
surface of ice sixty feet thick; and if it does not do so there would be no increase 
to its thickness during the winter. 
An excellent example of formation of Palzeocrystic ice, or floe-berg is afford- 
ed by the experience of the Austro-Hungarian Expedition under Weyprecht and 
Payer in the Barentz Sea in 1873-4. Their ship was lifted high out of the water 
by the pressure of the floes, which were forced over and under each other to a 
great thickness and extent in a few days. 
The ship and her crew were helplessly drifted about for many months, during 
which the floes were frozen together into one solid mass, and the inequalities of 
the surface in a great measure filled up with snow-drift. Joun Rag. 
4 Addison Gardens, January 29. 
EEOCRAPHICAL NOmES: 
HEATH’S DISCOVERIES IN SOUTH AMERICA. 
PROF. JOHN D. PARKER, KANSAS CITY, MO. 
Since the death of Prof. Orton in South America, his assistant, Dr. Ivon D. 
Heath, and his brother, Dr. E. R. Heath, have both taken a deep interest in 
completing the unfinished work of that expedition. Prof. Orton had formed the 
purpose of conducting his expedition through the unexplored portion of the Beni 
river, over which there has always hung such an uncertainty and superstitious 
fear. But just before he reached this portion of his journey, the soldiers, whom 
he had hired and paid in advance for his whole expedition, intimidated by super- 
stitious fear, suddenly presented their bayonets at the breast of Prof. Orton, 
refused to go any further and returned home. Prof. Orton was, therefore, com- 
