120 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



that I am aware of, iu the opinions of arctic geographers. So far as 

 inference from our present knowledge may guide us, the probability is 

 that the great waters of the Atlantic and Pacific extend to the poles. 

 The occupation by sea of the wide expanse amid or beyond the scat- 

 tered islands of Nova Zembla, Spitsbergen, Greenland, and. the regions 

 westward of Greenland, has been determined. Aud of the theory so 

 reasonably adduced, the Greenland Sea, embracing a width of 300 to 

 400 miles, extending continuously from the North Sea southward, and 

 expanding without any known limitation by land northward of Spits- 

 bergen, affords the most conclusive example. The inference, therefore, 

 that the straits entered by Penny aud Inglefield are respectively inlets 

 of the Polar Ocean, and that the recent discoveries of Belcher extend 

 actually within that ocean — is a position hardly to be questioned. But 

 this conclusion is totally different from that of popular reception— that 

 the ocean thus approached or entered is so free from ice at certain sea- 

 sons as to afford; a navigable passage uoithward" to the pole. Neither 

 the researches of Captain Inglefield in Smith's Sound, nor as far as the 

 particulars have reached us, the discoveries of Sir Edward Belcher to 

 the northward of Wellington Channel, can be fairly adduced as evi- 

 dences either of a " mild climate " iu the far north, or of the existence 

 of navigable waters immediately around the Pole. As to either of these 

 popular inferences, it is easy to show that the facts referred to prove 

 nothing. The open water and apparently mild climate spoken of, as in 

 my replies to the questions of the Arctic Committee was shown, are 

 the ordinary results of like hyd''ographical ana geographical configur- 

 ations. Of this, amongst a great variety of examples which might 

 be appealed to in respect to the indications from an apparent open sea, 

 a single illustration may suffice. Let any one sail to Hackluyt's Head- 

 land, Spitsbergen, which in June or July will be found attainable in 

 almost any summer, and there, greatly beyond the furthest of the ad- 

 vances by our nort-westward navigators, he will ordinarily find a 

 clear or navigable sea. Let him then ascend the lofty summit — 1 588 

 feet high — of the hill rising from this celebrated headland and (beyond 

 any immediately attached ices of the coast) he may probably perceive 

 an open sea, sometimes quite free from ice, from the N. E. north about 

 to the N.W. extending to the utmost limit of vision, or to s distance of 

 more than forty miles. If the "open seas," of Inglefield, Belcher and 

 Penny, therefore, might be appealed to as evidence of the navigableness 

 of the Great Polar Ocean to the far north, surely much more so the 

 existence of a like open sea in a position from 170 to 180 miles nearer 

 to the pole. But if the open water within the most northern ice, 

 which we have often explored, be found to be merely local, occasioned 

 by the proximity of Spitzbergen, under the action of favouring currents 

 or winds, and succeeded by impermeable ice — how utterly gratui- 

 tous must be the inference that other open seas, as yet unexplored, 

 and lying much further southward, should be appealed to as proofs 

 of the existence of a navigable passage, up to, or near to, the Pole? 



On the question whether the region immediately around the North 

 Pole be one of a mild climate, as popularly assumed, — that is, in com- 

 parison with that within the seventieth and eightieth parallels, — I may 

 safely venture the expression of the decided conviction that such an 

 assumption is equally adverse to the analogies of science and the facts 

 of experience. To these facts, in relation to the highest latitudes yet 

 navigated, I appeal. In the narrow channels or bays, and in places 

 contiguous to laud, or on occasions of bright calm weather in summer 

 among ice, the weather is often comparatively warm, and in sheltered 

 situations within or near land, it may, to the feelings, seem hot. But 

 this is the case in any of the Arctic regions yet reached. It is found 

 to be the case in any of the sheltered bays of Spitzbergen, from Hak- 

 lyt's Headland to Point Look-out, within the parallels of 70 and 80 ; 

 and equally so, or probably in a greater degree, in Scoreby's Sound, 

 Greenland, in latitude 70°. Facts of this kind, therefore, like the 

 "mild climate" asserted in Penny's researches, prove just as little as 

 the statement of Greenland captains quoted by Mr. Petermann, of their 

 finding " in all these instances (where they attained very high lati- 

 tudes) an unexpected high temperature." For mere assertion, ground- 

 ed on personal feelings of warmth, may not reasonably be adduced as 

 proof of such a fact, when very extensive thermometric observation, 

 in the same or proximate regions, and made at the same seasons, deci- 

 dedly contradict it. Near to the land, and particularly within bays 

 and sounds, as I have said, the temperature may be actually warm ; 

 but clear of the land, in the highest attainable latitudes, -laaever expe- 

 rienced out of the sunshine a really warm, much less high, temperature. 

 Thermometric registers, kept and collated for seventeen years (spring 

 and summer), within my own experience, prove the very reverse of 

 what has been assumed to be the real condition of these high northern 

 latitudes ; and these, as to ten of my voyages in which the 80th paral- 

 lel was reached or passed, show a maximum temperature for June and 

 July of only 48°, — such temperature occurring only with a southerly 

 wind, whilst with a steady northerly wind it never reached according 

 to my observation so high as 40°. Capts. Phipps and Parry, indeed, 

 when navigating nearer the shore, experienced higher temperatures. 



[1853 



the former registering a maximum of 58°, — but the general facts stand 

 abundantly supported, that in the months of June and July, as well 

 as in those of the spring, the climate far offshore is not warm, that the 

 temperature in spring and summer is almost always lowest with north- 

 erly winds, aud that the average summer temperature of latitude 80° 

 can t>e shown to be lower than that, of the parallels below it. The oc- 

 currence of a rise of temperature in hard northerly gales in winter I 

 have elsewhere shown to be perfectly consistent with these general 

 conclusions. 



The second error in the notices of my paper referred to at the com- 

 mencement of this article, needs but few words of correction ; nor 

 should I have deemed such a statement as that I had proposed, " a 

 journey overland to the Pole," necessary to be alluded to, had not that 

 absurd error or mistake been very extensively repeated. The project 

 of reaching the Pole by a transglacial journey was originally commu- 

 nicated by me to a learned Society in Edinburgh in the}'ear 1815, and 

 published the same year ; not subsequent to Col. Beaufoy's paper or 

 papers on a question of like nature, as stated by Mr. Simmons, but two 

 years before these papers, or any other publication on such project (as 

 far as I ever could learn ) appeared. The scheme, as is well known, 

 was tried and failed in the year 1827 ; but the gallant officer who com- 

 mand d the expedition now yields his acquiescence in the conviction 

 that such a project is not only not impracticable, but would probably 

 be found "of no difficult attainment it set about in a different man- 

 ner." The expression of this opinion, as given in the "Arctic Voy- 

 ages" of Sir John Barrow, at p. 313, is connected with the proposal 

 of a plan for the transglacial journey to the Pole, which, I may be 

 permitted to add, is substantially the same as (I might almost say all 

 but identical with) that originally proposed by me, whilst yet but a 

 youth, in the year 1815. William Scoeesby. 



Torquay, Nov. 9. 



Eemaeks on the Separation of some Metallic Ox des. — It is not 

 possible to separate zinc and nickel from copper by means ofsulphur- 

 etted hydrogen, the sulphuret of copper always carrying down a per- 

 ceptible quantity of the other substances, even in acid solutions. 



The two following methods, according to Flajolet, permit us to iso- 

 late this metal :— 



First Method. — A solution of hyposulphite of soda is added to the 

 boiling metallic solution, which is acidulated with sulphuric acid ; 

 sulphuret of copper is formed, which is treated in the usual manner. 

 By this process the precipitation of metals of the three first classes is 

 avoided. 



Second Method. — An excess of sulphurous acid is added to the metal- 

 lic solution ; hydriodic acid is then added ; iodide ol copper is form- 

 ed, which may be either weighed directly, or converted into oxide . 

 In this manner copper is separated from manganese, iron, zinc, nickel, 

 cobalt, arsenic, and antimony. 



Separation of Copper and Mercury. — The liquid is neutralised with 

 carbonate of soda, and an excess of cyanide of potassium added. From 

 this solution hydrosulphate of ammonia precipitates mercury alone. 



Separation of Manganese and Cobalt from Nickel and Zinc. — The ex- 

 cess of acid in the solution is neutralised by means of carbonate of so- 

 da ; an excess of cyanide of potassium is then added, and afterwards 

 carbonate of soda. At the temperature of ebullition the maugauese is 

 precipitated alone. It. is sufficient then to destroy the cyanide by an 

 excess of acid to enable the cobalt to be precipitated by carbonate of 

 soda. When copper is determined by means of hydriodic acid, bis- 

 muth, if present, is precipitated with it These two metals are sepa- 

 rated iu the same manner as manganese and cobalt. S. 



Arr-AKATUS for Stopping a Railway Tkai.-j. — A very ingenious con- 

 trivance, consisting of the introduction of a series of transverse rollers 

 under the engine and carriages of railway trains, has been invented by 

 Mr. E. Palmer, of Woodford-green, Essex. The circumference of the 

 rollers is placed at a short distance above the rail, and while the train 

 proceeds in the ordinary manner they remain stationary ; but in the 

 event of the wheels leaving the path, the rollers come into instant ope- 

 lation, sustain the load, and, having a flange ou the inner end. act as 

 a second series of wheels, which, supposing them to be applied to an 

 engine, keep the propelling wheels from the ground ; and, therefore, 

 however quickly they may be revolving, their power ceases on the 

 rollers touching the rails. The same gentleman has also invented a 

 powerful drag carriage, formed by two strong frames, reaching from 

 the rails to a little above the wheels in height, with projecting ends at 

 the base — each having four slauting beams to strengthen the frame, 

 one on each side of each wheel. The lower part of the frame has cut- 

 tings; through which the wheels work on the rails, a forked cutting 

 from end to end to tighten on the rail when required, and attached 

 parallel to each other by cross beams, well screwed in place ; each 

 frame has four iron plates reaching from" the base to the top part (one 

 on each side of the axletrees), and allows the carriage to move up and 



