357 



Annual Report of the Superintendent of the Coast Survey, showing 



the progress of that work during the year ending Nov. 1851. 



With a volume of Maps. Washington. 8vo. — From Prof. A. 



D. Bache, Supt. U. S. Coast Survey. 

 Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 



Vol. VI. No. 11. Sept. Oct. 1853. Philadelphia. 8vo — From 



the Academy. 

 Annales des Mines. V. Serie. Tome III. 2 livraison de 185.3. Paris. 



8vo. — From the Engineers of VEcole des Mines. 



Judge Kane referred to a former communication made by him in 

 relation to the progress of discovery in the Arctic regions, — and ex- 

 hibited a map of that portion of the globe, on which he traced the 

 courses of various expeditions sent thither for exploration. He showed 

 the track of the American expedition under Lieut. Dehaven, to which 

 Dr. Kane was attached, — and noticed the indications observed by 

 them, at several points, of the party under Sir John Franklin having 

 been there. He adverted to the discovery of " Grinnell land," by 

 the American expedition, on which they noticed a mountain, esti- 

 mated at a height of 1500 feet. Eight months after this, a party of 

 British explorers claimed to have discovered the same land, which 

 they named Albert land. He noticed a recent attempt to deprive the 

 American party of the credit of this discovery, by alleging a prior 

 discovery, in an official communication to the British Government, 

 which he showed to be a misconception ; — proving, from the account 

 of Captain Belcher's recent explorations, that the discovery is incon- 

 testably due to the American expedition. The Judge adduced argu- 

 ments in favour of the existence of an open polar sea, and showed 

 the probability of Sir John Franklin's party having passed into that 

 sea, whatever may have been their subsequent fate. He referred to 

 the probable course of operations of the American party now in 

 those regions, since they were heard from at Upernavik. 



Mr. Lea said that when recently in England he had conversed 

 with the Rev. Dr. Scoresby, and other gentlemen well acquainted 

 with the progress of Arctic exploration, and is led to doubt the 

 existence of an open polar sea. Dr. Scoresby, he says, is of the 

 opinion that future explorations must be made by land, if pushed be- 

 yond the limits of present knowledge. Mr. Lea mentioned several 

 circumstances which led him to suppose that an eternal barrier of ice 

 surrounds the north pole, and referred to the currents in those seas, 

 as mentioned by navigators. 



