182 Petermann and the Franklin Expedition. 



made on the 3d of September ; but was then unsuccessful, on 

 account of the ice. 



Again, on the 28th July 1845, M. Abich made his fourth trial, 

 and reached the top at noon on the 29th. The top corresponds to the 

 most elevated part of the west side of a great crater of elevation. This 

 side has the character of a back, with a gently rounded and undulated 

 surface, and varied with several low hills, running in a line nearly 

 north-east and south-west. The two middle hills are the proper 

 top of Ararat ; the left one was visited by Parrot. 



The neck between the great and little Ararat is low and flat, and 

 includes a perfectly horizontal plain, about 550 yards broad. The 

 debris on the summit of little Ararat consists of fragments of a rock, 

 like the Andesite of South America. — (P. 265. March 3, 1851. 

 American Journal, Vol. xiii., No. 38, Second Series, p. 269.) 



6. Mr Petermann and the Franklin Expedition. — We have just 

 received a copy of an interesting publication, entitled " The Search 

 for Franklin; a Suggestion submitted to the British Public, by 

 Augustus Petermann, F.R.G.S. ; illustrated by a coloured chart of the 

 Polar Basin." We regret, from the late hour when the publication 

 reached us, we are prevented from entering into a detailed notice of 

 Mr Petermann's proposal, for a spring expedition through the open- 

 ing between Spitsbergen and Nova Zembla, as the best entrance 

 into the Polar Basin, in some part of which, Mr Petermann thinks 

 Franklin and his companions may still be found. We recommend 

 this " Suggestion " to the attention of the geographical and general 

 public. 



7- Phenomena of Vision. — The special function with which the 

 retina is endowed being the perception of light, a marvellous range 

 of phenomena is open to the inquirer. It is indeed a wonderful thing 

 to have ascertained beyond doubt, that in perceiving the tint of the 

 scarlet geranium our eyes are affected by undulations recurring from 

 four hundred and eighty-two millions of millions of times in a second : 

 that before we can appreciate the tint of the yellow blossom of the 

 gorse or laburnum, five hundred and forty-two millions of millions 

 of vibrations must have taken place ; and that to discriminate the 

 colour of the violet, not less than seven hundred and seven millions 

 of millions of movements must have been communicated to the fibri- 

 leee of our retina ! Whilst such facts almost transcend the powers 

 of human conception, their establishment is a striking triumph of 

 human intellect. But how great ought to be our admiration of that 

 Omnipotence which has endowed the eye with the gift, not merely 

 of appreciating one colour, but of distinguishing, in all their shades, 

 the inexpressibly complicated vibrations which mark the hues of a 

 parterre of flowers, and characterise the gorgeous plumage of the 

 birds which give animation to a tropical forest. The sense of sight 

 in its ordinary acceptation, may bo defined as the recognition by the 



