470 Chronicles of Science. [July 



The question, of course, turns principally on the probability of there 

 being ice or land on the one hand, or water on the other, in the 

 immediate vicinity of the Pole, a question which will probably be 

 specially discussed in this Journal, and which we will, therefore, not 

 touch upon here. 



Spitzbergen affords many conveniences as a place to winter in, 

 both on account of its accessibility and also because of the supplies 

 of game that might be procured there. The route in this direction, 

 too, is decidedly shorter than by Smith's Sound ; but the main diffi- 

 culty that can be foreseen is an impenetrable barrier of ice, after the 

 pack ice and the open sea beyond it have been passed, a difficulty 

 which is known to exist at the Antarctic Pole. The comparative 

 merits of the two routes have been well discussed before the Society, 

 and now the results have been placed before the Government, it only 

 remains to await their decision. 



Colonel Lewis Pelly, whose paper, " On the Islands of Kishin and 

 Ormuz," we noticed in a former number, in a despatch to the Bombay 

 Government, by whom it was communicated to the Society, stated 

 that he was about to visit the capital of the Wahibite kingdom, in 

 company with Lieutenant Dawes and Dr. Colvill. Colonel Pelly, in 

 1861, rode from Teheran to Calcutta in his uniform as a British 

 officer, and the accomplishment of tins difficult task was a fair earnest 

 that he would fulfil his intention on the present occasion. The tele- 

 graphic announcement of his arrival at Bushire on his return has 

 since been received. 



A paper by Mr. Laurence Oliphant, " On the Bayanos river, 

 Isthmus of Panama," draws attention to a spot where the two great 

 oceans approach nearer to each other than elsewhere, but which spot, 

 nevertheless, has been overlooked by surveyors. The distance to be 

 traversed is only fifteen miles, but this has never been accomplished 

 by a white man. The Indians have, as yet, stopped two travellers — 

 Messrs. Wheelwright and Evan Hopkins — but they are said to drag 

 their own canoes across from Chepo, the place visited by Mr. Oliphant, 

 to the Mandingar river. The Columbian Government are endeavour- 

 ing to make a road over the pass referred to in this paper. 



The search for the seeds of the Pitayo cinchona plant for the 

 Government of India, led Mr. Eobert Cross from Chimborazo to 

 Bagota, through the country of the Central Andes. The trees from 

 which seeds could be obtained are fast dying out, but a good supply 

 was obtained, which, it is hoped, will multiply in another part of the 

 world. In passing the bleak plateau of Guanacas, Mr. Cross's mules 

 had a narrow escape from perishing by cold, and the road was strewed 

 with skeletons of men and beasts. 



" The Specific Gravity, Temperature, and Currents of the Seas 

 passed through between England and India," furnished Captain 

 Toynbee with the materials of an interesting paper. The equatorial 

 rains perceptibly affect the specific gravity of the water both of the 

 Atlantic and also the Indian Oceans. The temperature showed the 

 direction of the cold current which sweeps northward along the west 



