592 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



coast, and, with whatever force it may have left, it escapes, assisted by the south 

 current, on to the coast of Greenland, into the waters of the Atlantic. In other 

 words, I believe there is a current in the Polar basin, acting in the direction of 

 the hands of a watch. A reason for this impression is the fact that around all 

 islands there is such a current, even to small detached islands, and all of the 

 known ocean currents follow the same direction. Under this impression, I sug- 

 gested that, though probably caught in the ice, the Jeannette had been probably 

 carried to the northward and westward, and that, finding this current, DeLong 

 would, if forced to leave the ship, raiher avail himself of its benefit by striking 

 over toward Franz Josef Land than work against if by going to Siberia. The 

 loss of the vessel in the given position affords some support to the theory, and 

 the length of time taken for the boats to reach the main land, and the route sup- 

 posed to have been taken by them, still more. The shortest distance to the 

 main land from their position when crushed was 300 miles, hence an effort would 

 be made to take course. Making their landing at the mouth of the Lena shows 

 they were carried to the westward, and the length of time consumed, nearly 100 

 days, to my mind, is proof of a northerly, indeed, a heavy northerly drift. The 

 distance of the scene of disaster from Franz Josef Land is only about 900 rhiles, 

 and I venture to say that that 900 miles, with a well outfitted expedition, could 

 have been made in at least the same, if not a less, number of days. — Boston 

 Herald. 



TIDINGS FROM THE POLAR EXPLORING COLONY IN LATITUDE 



81 Deg. 44 MiN. 



LETTER FROM DR. OCTAVE PAVY. 



It will be remembered that Dr. Octave Pavy, United States Army, formerly 

 of St. Louis, and who left Washington, D. C, for the Arctic regions on the Gul- 

 nare, in June, 1880, (whi.ch subsequently returned,) remained in Greenland until 

 the arrival of the Government expedition under command of Lieut. Greeley, U. 

 S. A., in July, 1881, which Dr. Pavy joined as Surgeon, U. S. A, and naturalist, 

 at Godhaven, July 22nd, and with which he proceeded to Lady Franklin Bay, 

 the future station of the signal party, and the base of operation for the land ex- 

 ploring party of which he is a member. 



The many friends of Dr. Pavy in St. Louis — particularly the members of the 

 Academy of Sciences — will perhaps be pleased to learn through a brief summary, 

 of the coincidences and results of more than a year's abode in icy Greenland, and 

 of the hopes, more fully counted upon by his past experience, for the coming 

 year's journey toward the pole. 



The Government has made the initiatory move toward Arctic colonization 

 by the establishment of this party on the shore of Discovery Harbor, Lady 

 Franklin Bay, in latitude 81° 44' and longitude 64° 45' W., to which selected 



