att i i 
i as i a hi ne el, A ale 
APRIL 18, 1884.] 
look the future very confidently in the face. 
The instruments were placed, and hourly ob- 
servations in meteorology commenced, on Oct. 
17, and in magnetism on Dec. 1; and this 
work was carried on without a single interrup- 
tion from that time up to the last hour the sta- 
SCIENCE 
479 
at the depth of twenty-six feet, which was 
fourteen feet below the sea-level, was found a 
pair of wooden snow-goggles of the same pat- 
tern as those worn now, showing that this 
region has been inhabited by man for a longer 
period than has generally been supposed by 
RELL LILIA 
WEEN OR RPL TE pope ar 
ICE-ARCH FORMED NEAR POINT BARROW. 
tion was occupied, on the twenty-ninth day of 
August, 1883. In addition to the prescribed 
meteorological observations, the work was ex- 
tended to taking and recording the temperature 
of the sea-water, top and bottom, the sea-ice, 
and the earth, and measuring the terrestrial 
and solar radiation. 
The auroral display of this region was grand 
beyond all description; and nearly every un- 
clouded night from September to May was lit 
up with the dancing light of this strange phe- 
nomenon ;: and, when shut from our view by the 
clouds, the disturbed needle told of its presence. 
The tidal record shows that the adjacent ocean 
is almost tideless; and that there is no influx 
of warm water from the Japan current or else- 
where was shown in the even temperature of the 
sea-water at all depths, from October to June. 
The earth was found to be frozen to an im- 
mense depth. ‘The temperature at thirty-eight 
feet (the lowest depth attained) was + 12° F., 
and the ratio of increase of temperature for 
that distance gives the depth of the frost to be 
nearly three hundred feet. At the lower depths 
attained, the temperature never changes; and 
_ 
ethnologists. The peculiar race inhabiting this 
region would seem to be indigenous to the ice 
period in all latitudes. 
After November we found that all animal 
life disappears from the land; and, except for 
an occasional stray reindeer or white fox, we 
saw no living thing but the Innuit and his dog 
from November until May, and the sea gaye 
us only the arctic cod and small hair seal 
(Phoea foetida). 
Lying between us and the pole was a sea of 
eternal ice, which we believe is an impassable 
barrier between us and latitude 90° north: over 
its rough and broken surface it is impossible 
to travel with any known means of transporta- 
tion. Unencumbered and on foot is the only 
manner in which man can penetrate this un- 
known world: so the distance he can travel 
is limited to the number of days he can carry 
supplies on his back, or by the slow process of 
floating ; and nature is ever crowding him back, 
even where the current sets to the north in her 
process of restoring her equilibrium at the pole. 
We found from long, careful observations, that 
the maximum thickness of sea-ice over still 
