Spitzbergen are of identical value, for either local observations or as a base of operations, having the same investigations in view.

It cannot be that the shores of North Greenland, once gained, would be safer for the parties engaged in subsequent observations, for the coast is peculiarly liable to the dangers arising from drift ice and icebergs, so that months may elapse before assistance could reach the explorers, or that they themselves could escape. A glance at the rugged nature of the packed ice will convince the most incredulous, of the utter impossibility of men on foot, or of sledge parties, aided with dogs, being able to make any real progress over the surface there.

At Spitzbergen, on the other hand, the ice is almost smooth-at all events its surface is only rendered uneven by the scattered ice upon it, and the accumulation of snow which drifts by the force of the wind into little heaps over these trifling objects-there is no iceberg in these seas to render by its advent or departure additional solicitude to the traveller. Parry, in July of 1827, it may be remembered, was so heavily encumbered by boats unsuited for the purpose there is no longer any reason to wonder at his failure in getting further than the highest Arctic latitude yet attained; but the wonder is rather that he got so far

NAVIGATION COMPARATIVELY EASY.

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with the clumsy appliances at his command. Compare his two boats with Nordenskiold's three already mentioned. We ourselves had, it may be recollected, on some occasions to drag our boat, laden with her ordinary sporting and fishing gear, for trifling distances over the ice in our pursuit of game, and we had ample opportunity of gathering from our experience some slight notion of the great explorer's difficulty; but, with the aid of steam, Parry (there can now be no doubt on the matter) would that year have gained the object of his voyage, just as we ourselves might have reasonably hoped to do in our schooner; for the great surface of ice when it begins to experience the action of the warm current of water, and the great heat of the summer sun, soon breaks up, and the riven mass leaves long channels between the floating masses, and by these openings, a steamer properly handled might easily sail into the open water beyond. The ice is easily managed by the expert whalers, and no peculiarity in an Arctic voyage is more startling to the inexperienced naval officer than the ease with which the harpooners deal with what, to such a one, would seem crushing difficulties. Experienced whalers are able to live, and live comfortably, in places where the mere man-of-war's man would assuredly starve. The cunning animals of the North

seem to be endowed with higher qualities of head and heart than animals enjoying a more temperate zone. On the one hand the less gifted are able to escape from their more powerful and more highly organized enemies; and on the other, they demand all the skill the hunter can master in his hunting craft in order to effect their capture. It is stated that the Eskimo found money in plenty, weapons of precision, and suitable ammunition in abundance, lying near the remains of Franklin and his party; but the few feathers that lay scattered about proved to these keenwitted folk that the men must have failed altogether in procuring food for themselves. A fowling-piece in the hands of a blue-jacket is as absurd an anomaly as a sewing-machine would be, and armed with such a weapon he is at all times more liable to do himself or others an injury, than to bring down any food for his party. Nor are the authorities justified in believing that private enterprise is incapable of obtaining valuable results in Arctic exploration. We have the records of all that has been done, and we are convinced that but for the results of private enterprise our Arctic attempts would be the laughing-stock of Europe. To lay out public money, to fritter it away in hopeless waste, has ever been the tendency of scientific enterprise at the expense of the Government.

SMITH SOUND ADVOCATES.

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Who has not looked on with pain akin to shame, at the reckless waste of time and money on so-called scientific expeditions? We trust a change has now come over the feelings of scientific men, and that they feel greater responsibility attaches to the important offices they fill, and that we shall hear no more of such things; but we maintain that private enterprise can and always will produce equal, if not greater, benefits to science than enterprise carried out by Government.

It had been stated that so satisfied were the advocates of the Spitzbergen route on the continent of Europe, of this their favourite project being likely to prove unproductive, that the Swedes and Germans in particular had abandoned their hobby, and that therefore the Smith Sound people were entitled to their fair share of praise for so constantly adhering to their pet scheme; but at the very time this statement was being made in London, Nordenskiold was intently busy upon his project, and night and day he was devoting himself to the task of collecting the money requisite for the venture, and in directing the minutest details for the successful carrying out of the expedition he is now entered upon. Again, if the Smith Sound project is carried out-if, after encountering all the difficulties of approach to the point where the Americans left off defeated; if after they have passed.

far out of the range of reasonable hope that assistance can reach them in case of difficulty (for once the little Danish settlements on the Greenland coast are left, they bid farewell to their last place of call); and if, perhaps, they arrive at the barrier of frozen ice which rises like a wall at the narrow neck of the inlet from the Arctic ocean, they must leave their ships and proceed over the rugged summit of the ice barrier for a distance of some twenty-five miles, to come out, where ? On the coast of the sea they would fain embark upon, far from their supplies, and out of reach of help of every kind, to begin to encounter those difficulties which surely must exist, but of whose nature or importance they are by the circumstances of the case utterly ignorant, to latitudes, the Eskimo tell us, where it is impossible to live.

It must not be supposed that the contributions of various travellers to the easily attained lands of Spitzbergen and its neighbourhood, have by any means exhausted the whole of the Spitzbergen region. So far is this from being the case, we have plenty of evidence to prove that for many a year Spitzbergen will itself afford materials for careful investigation in every department of human inquiry. We have evidence, from specimens torn off the rocks near the various landing-places, of a physical condition of that portion