478 
THE U.S. METEOROLOGICAL STATION 
AT POINT BARROW.} 
Tue U. S. expedition to Point Barrow, 
Alaska, sent out under the auspices of the 
Signal-service in 1881, was one of the Inter- 
national polar expeditions determined upon by 
the International polar congress, which met in 
Hamburg in October, 1879, and was designed 
to co-operate with the various stations estab- 
lished around the north pole in simultaneous ob- 
servations in the three elements of magnetism 
and in meteorology. Nearly the whole civil- 
ized world was represented in this work; and, 
commencing with the Greely party at Lady 
Franklin Bay, they posted their chain of vi- 
dettes around the pole in the following order: 
Denmark, Upernavik and Godthaab ; Germany, 
Pendulum Island; Austria, Iceland and the 
Island of Jan Mayen; Sweden, Mosel Bay, on 
SCIENCE. 
(Vou. III., No. 63. 
Holland, Dickson Haven ; United States, Point 
Barrow and Lady Franklin Bay. The series 
of international observations proper was to com- 
mence Aug. 1, 1882, and end Aug. 31, 1883. 
_ The little colony for Point Barrow, consist- 
ing of ten persons in all, sailed from San Fran- 
cisco, Cal., in the schooner Golden Fleece, on 
the 18th of July, 1881, and, after a long, 
monotonous voyage across the North Pacific, 
passed into Bering Sea, through the Uni- 
mak Pass, on the 15th of August, and after 
touching at Plover Bay, Siberia, to correct the 
rate of their chronometers by observation on 
that well-established meridian, passed through 
Bering’s Strait on the twenty-seventh day of 
August, and reached their destination on the. 
8th of September, fifty-one days out from San 
Francisco. ‘The vessel returned to the United 
States at once, after discharging her cargo. 
The energies of the party were at first en- 
SIGNAL-STATION AT POINT BARROW, ALASKA UNITED-STATES. 
West Spitzbergen; Norway, Bossekop; Fin- 
land, Sodankyla; Russia, Moller Bay, on 
Spitzbergen, and at the mouth of the Lena; 
1 Communicated by permission of Gen. W. B. Hazen, chief 
signal-officer. 
tirely devoted to housing themselves for the 
winter, and securing their stores; and the Ist 
of October found them with the building nearly 
completed, observatories up, and with three 
years’ supplies well secured, in a condition to 
