$ 
272 General Notes. [April, 
nothing but 2 Ceca fe rocks Pee apace the colossal 
glaciers, while the sun, throwing a red glow, brings the whiteness 
of the snow into startling contrast with the deep shadows.” On 
the 27th they reached their furthest northern point in 80° 18’ N., 
off Verlegen Hoek. After stopping at Amsterdam island to 
erect a memorial slab of granite in the midst of the graves of 
Dutch whalers who died there in 1633-5, and touching at Bear 
island they arrived at Vardo, in Norway, on the 22d of July, and 
then commenced the reconnaisance of the sea of Barentz, sailing 
north along the 45th meridian. Ice was again met on the Ist of 
August at 77° 10’ N., and after proceeding westward and attain- 
ing a point (lat. 77° 44’ N., long. 35° 30’ E.) eighty miles from 
Wyche island, they were driven to the south by heavy gales. To 
the eastward of longitude 38° the ice was found to be thin, level 
and rotten, while to the westward there were heavy floes of 
immense thickness with hummocks thirty feet high. .In the 
beginning of August they appeared to be on the boundary line 
where the warm and cold currents meet. Up to that time they 
found that the temperature of the sea decreased with its depth; 
but here they met with cold and warm currents flowing one over 
the other. The explorers next proceeded to Novaya Zemlya, and 
proceeding northwards along the coast to Cape Nassau, steered 
to the north-west and found the ice-field on September 7th in 78° 
17’ and 55° 14’ E. From here the Willem Barentz made her 
way to Hammerfest, and this successful trip was finally ended at 
- Amsterdam on the 1 3th of October. Experience of the ice 
acquired, a full hourly series of meteorological observations had 
been taken as well as deep sea soundings and magnetic observa- 
tions and very valuable collections in natural history made. Not- 
withstanding almost constant fogs an excellent series of photo- 
graphs was “complete ed. 
Tae Norwecian NorTH ArranTIc Expepition.—During the 
past three summers a Norwegian expedition under the charge of 
Dr. Mohn, Dr. Sars and other scientific men has been exploring 
the sea between Norwa ay, the Ferroe staid Iceland and Spitz- 
bergen. Being well supplied with the most recent inventions for 
dredging, sounding, obtaining sea temperatures, etc., the scientific 
results are stated to be very satisfactory. Their investigations 
have now been concluded. The three summers have yie elded in 
all 375 sounding stations, 113 temperature series, 44 dredgings 
and 42 trawlings. It was ascertained that during June and July 
the minimum temperature of the water off the coast of Norway 
is neither at the bottom nor at the surface, but at some inter- 
mediate strata of considerable say The explanation offered is 
