1 882.] Geography and Travels. 167 



Uppernavik and Proven. Dr. 0. Pavy joined the company at 

 Godhaven. They sailed from Uppernavik through the middle 

 passage to Cape York in thirty-six hours, and, though delayed by 

 a fog for thirty-two hours, were only six days and two hours in 

 reaching Lady Franklin Bay. They stopped at Cary Island and 

 visited the depot of provisions placed there by Captain Nares in 

 1875. They also visited Littleton Island, where they found the 

 English Arctic mail, left by the Pandora in 1876; and the Polaris 

 quarters at Life-boat Cove, where they discovered many relics, 

 including the transit instrument belonging to that unfortunate 

 company. They also stopped at Washington Irving Island and 

 Cape Hawks to inspect depots established by Nares, and landed 

 supplies at Carl Ritter Bay. No heavy ice was met until inside 

 of Cape Lieber, eight miles from their destination. They entered 

 Discovery Harbor on August nth, and when the Proteus left 

 Lieutenant Greely had got the house erected and partly framed 

 and three months' rations of musk cattle secured. About 140 

 tons of coal were landed from the Pro/ens. The Proteus reached 

 St. John's on her return voyage on September 19th. 



The Point Barrow party also safely reached their station early 

 in September. The Golden Fleece returned to San Francisco on 

 November 5th. The station is five miles from Point Barrow and 

 is called Ooglalamie. The observatory was completed when the 

 Golden FUece left on September 17th and the main building 

 begun. Early in the spring Lieut. Ray hopes to explore the 

 valley of the Coppermine and afterwards visit Kotzebue Sound 

 where a vessel is to be sent with supplies. 



Arctic Exploration. — In a paper read by Professor George 

 Davidson before the Geographical Society of the Pacific, Plover 

 Island was described as a low pyramidal rock extending as a cape 

 from the east end of Wrangell Land and connected by a low neck 

 of swampy land covered with grass. 



The Russian expedition to the mouth of !he Lena, to establish 

 one of the stations agreed upon by the International Polar Con- 

 ference, will go bv rail to Nishni Novgorod, thence by sleigh to 

 Perm, by rail to Yekaterineburg, by sleigh to Irkutsk where they 

 are expected to arrive in January and stay until May, to complete 

 their preparations. They will descend the Lena on a barge. 

 Owing to a lack of funds the second Russian station in Novaya 

 Zemlya will not be established at present. 



In a recent work " Die Temperatur Verhaltnisse des Russi- 

 schen Reichs " by Professor Wild of St. Petersburg, the Siberian 

 Pole of cold in winter is transferred from the neighborhood of 

 Yakutsk to a point somewhat further north, King in the Arctic 

 circle about E. long. 125 . At this center of maximum cold 

 round which the isotherms lie in fairly regular ovals, the mean 

 temperature in January sinks as low as — 54° F., the mean tem- 

 perature at Yakutsk being 1 1° higher. 



