March 4, 1887.] 



SCIEJSCJi]. 



211 



ATnerica. 



The Hudson Bay company last autumn com- 

 pleted a steamer for the lower part of the Mac- 

 kenzie River. Trial trips were made on Great 

 Slave Lake, and next summer she will run to Peel 

 River, near the mouth of the Mackenzie. 



The Geographical society of the Pacific at San 

 Francisco announces the recognition of the new 

 monthly journal Kosmos, edited by C. Mitchell 

 Grant, as its official organ. The new periodical 

 will give reports on the meetings of the society. 

 Though its plan includes all branches of science, 

 the first number is largely devoted to geography. 

 We find in it a description of the ascent of Mount 

 St. Ellas by H. W. Seton-Karr, and a paper by 

 Prof. George Davidson on ' Submarine valleys on 

 the Pacific coast of the United States.' The re- 

 suming of publications by the geographical so- 

 cieties of San Francisco and Mexico shows that 

 interest in geography is increasing in America. 



Polar regions. 



Mr. Alexander McArthur, formerly an employee 

 of the Hudson Bay company, left Winnipeg, Feb. 

 13, on an exploring expedition to the polar regions. 

 He intends to go from Winnipeg to Fort 

 Churchill, and to continue his journey along the 

 west coast of Hudson Bay. While Gilder proposes 

 to push north by the way of Fury and Hecla 

 Strait, McArthur prefers to go north-west by the 

 way of King William Land and Boothia Felix, the 

 iU-famed districts of Ross's sufferings in 1839-33, 

 and of the loss of the Franklin expedition. He 

 intends to stay a winter on King William Land, 

 and to go north in the ensuing winter, crossing 

 Lancaster Sound, and following the west coast of 

 North Devon. From there he proposes to cross to 

 the little-known islands of Jones Sound and thus 

 reach the west shore of Grinnell Land, which, he 

 hopes, will prove a safe route north. He expects 

 to be absent some three or four years. This plan 

 of reaching the north pole will undoubtedly be as 

 unsuccessful as Gilder's. Gilder has ample ex- 

 perience in arctic travelling, and consequently 

 does not attempt a route that is even unknown to 

 the Eskimos. The way he intends to go is inhab- 

 ited by natives, and, under favorable circum- 

 stances, he may have a chance to reach Lancaster 

 Sound in the spring of 1889. Whether he will be 

 able to cross Lancaster Sound is doubtful. The Es- 

 kimos travel very rarely across this strait, and the 

 journey can be accomplished only in favorable 

 years when it is frozen over, which does not oc- 

 cur often. As steam-whalers go every year to 

 Smith Sound and Pond's Bay, Gilder's plan can- 

 not be considered a good one, though he might 

 do considerable geographical and ethnological 



work between Fury and Hecla Strait and Pond's 

 Bay. He will have the greatest difficulty in get- 

 ting Eskimos to go along with him across Lan- 

 caster Sound. Food is very scarce on this 

 journey, and many stories of the natives referring 

 to families crossing Lancaster Sound are full of 

 the horrors of starvation and cannibalism. The 

 natives of Cape Isabella are said to be compara- 

 tively well off, and these are the only ones who 

 can help an explorer along. We cannot see 

 any reason why a traveller who intends to ex- 

 plore the extreme north should not start from 

 the nearest available point instead of wasting his 

 time and strength on a hazardous journey for 

 which there is no necessity. Mr. McArthur may 

 succeed in reaching King William Land, as there 

 exist two or three routes to that country which 

 are used by the natives, — one from Chesterfield 

 Inlet, another from Wager River, and a third 

 along the coast of the Gulf of Boothia. Rae and 

 Hall used the last, and Schwatka the second route. 

 As, however, the Eskimos of King William Land 

 and Boothia do not travel farther north than 

 Bellot Strait, and since 1833 do not even visit this 

 part of the coast, and as they are not at all ac- 

 quainted with the more northern parts of the 

 Arctic Archipelago, there is not the slightest 

 chance for McArthur to get along on this route. 

 Explorers like McArthur and Gilder may accom- 

 phsh considerable and valuable work when they 

 confine themselves to a task adequate to their means 

 and the strength of a single man, but the accom- 

 plishment of their plans is almost impossible. The 

 exploration of Jones Sound is one of the most 

 important problems of the geography of arctic 

 America, and it may be accomplished by a few men 

 at a small expense. Gilder is a man of extensive 

 experience in travelling in the Arctic, and we may 

 be allowed to express the wish that he should give 

 up his present plan and apply his energies and 

 skill to this important work which he will be able 

 to accomplish. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Not long ago Nicolaier, working in Fliigge's 

 laboratory, found a bacillus which had the power 

 to produce in animals the phenomena of lock-jaw 

 {tetanus traumaticus). Afterward Rosenbach suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining the same bacillus from the 

 wound of a man who had died of lock-jaw, L. 

 Brieger has recently prepared from flesh a pto- 

 maine which produces in animals the same symp- 

 toms as those which are produced by injecting the 

 specific tetanus bacillus. To the substance he 

 gives the name ' tetanine.' He has, further, found 

 the same substance in human cadaver which had 



