RESCUE OF THE GREEL V EXPEDITION. 175 



resulted in his engagement as surgeon and naturalist on the Gulnare, and his sub- 

 sequent addition to the ill-fated Greely party. The widow of Dr. Pavy is residing 

 at Maryville, Mo., where she has been conducting a select school for young ladies. 

 The deceased had a number of friends in St. Louis, who regret that he came to 

 such a terrible death. A movement was started on 'Change, in St. Louis, by D. 

 R. Francis, Michael McEnnis, Ewing Hill, Seth Cobb and other prominent mer- 

 chants, to raise a fund for the support of the heroic wife of Dr. Pavy, who has 

 been left in embarrassed circumstances. It is urged in behalf of the subscription 

 that Dr. Pavy was the only member of the Greely expedition who resided in Mis- 

 souri, and it would be a graceful compliment to the worthy widow and a mark of 

 respect to the dead, were a liberal sum presented to her with the best wishes of 

 the people of St. Louis and Missouri. 



Until Lieut. Greely's reports are made public this polar expedition cannot 

 be declared a failure, but the disposition is to entertain the belief that nothing 

 can be learned behind the ice barriers of the north that will compensate for the 

 sufferings every polar expedition has entailed and the loss of life all have caused. 



The "open polar sea" is as much of a mystery as ever. A great majority 

 of navigators and men of science are convinced that the northern hub of the 

 universe is surrounded by solid ice, and yet one of Lieut. Greely's dispatches 

 intimate that there really is open water up in that region, as the minority claim. 

 In a year or two, we suppose, after Greely's discoveries have been published and 

 suggested, somebody will propose fitting out another expedition to solve the pro- 

 blem. The scientific results, if any, accomplished by the colony at Lady Frank- 

 lin Bay are yet to be made known. 



As barren and destitute of the means of sustenance as Lieut. Greely found 

 the polar region, there is a well defined theory among scientists that life began at 

 the poles. The theory is that the poles were at first fitted to produce life, which 

 consequently began at the northern and southern extremities of the globe, develop- 

 ing independently, but to a certain extent correspondingly, as the conditions were 

 similar. By the secular cooling of the earth the poles finally became unfitted to 

 support life, and such forms as did not perish in the changes of the earth's sur- 

 face slowly migrated toward the equator, changing in the course of years, and ulti- 

 mately giving rise to a fauna which over the most of the globe consists of a mix- 

 ture of northern and southern forms. 



Many facts derived from the Northern Hemisphere lend support to this 

 theory, and the Southern Hemisphere is adding facts to confirm the theory. 

 The animals of the Northern Hemisphere are almost identical throughout the 

 world's circuit. The same families and eyen the same species of mammals and 

 birds are common to the North in the Old and New World. The elk, reindeer, 

 the beaver, lynx, fox, and wolf, for instance, of the Old World are specifically 

 identified with those of the New. 



Remains of animals now regarded as tropical, such as the elephant, hippo- 

 potamus, lion, etc., are common in the tertiary strata of temperate and even the 

 polar regions. This is proof of a southern migration when the climate changed. 



