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ledge of them extends, than their preservation. He recommends that 

 all smaller articles should be enclosed in tubes of glass, with the ends 

 afterwards melted down so as to become hermetically sealed. For 

 larger articles, such as tubes to be sealed would not receive, he has 

 used glass-stoppered bottles, well ground ; but avoiding all hot appli- 

 cations, which tend to produce the very result that Dr. Boye has no- 

 ticed, namely, a slight extravasation or lifting out of the stopper. 

 After the stopper had been firmly ground in, he applied in the valley 

 between it and the neck of the bottle, a little cold tallow. For still 

 larger articles, books, &c. he has used copper boxes, the edges of 

 which, after enclosing the articles, were hard-soldered down. 



Judge Kane communicated to the Society the reception of 

 intelligence that the American Arctic Exploring Expedition, 

 under the command of his son, Dr. Kane, had safely arrived 

 at Upernavik, and that they were preparing to prosecute their 

 explorations to the northward. 



The Judge referred to information lately received by Capt. 

 Belcher, of the British service, relative to the result of his 

 explorations in the Arctic regions, showing the discovery of 

 an open sea connected by two straits with Baffin's bay, which, 

 in favourable seasons, may be navigable and afford access from 

 that bay to the Polynya or open sea; but which, except under 

 favourable circumstances, will probably be seldom available to 

 navigators. 



Judge Kane narrated some of the operations and adventures 

 of the party under Commodore Belcher, as illustrative of the 

 difficulties and perils to be encountered in the prosecution 

 of Arctic discoveries. He referred to the lamented death of 

 Lieut. Bellot, who fell a victim to his spirit of daring enter- 

 prise, having perished in the hazardous attempt to pass over a 

 broad field of ice, from which he was supposed to have fallen 

 into a narrow slip of open water. 



Mr. Trego, as Reporter, laid upon the table No. 49 of the 

 Proceedings of the Society, recently published. 



VOL. V. — 3 c 



