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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

of the globe in very remote times which would warrant us in concluding that Spitzbergen had its human inhabitants indigenous to the soil, or wanderers from other regions, and it will be curious if in future explorations human remains and implements made by human hands will reward the search of ethnologists. As yet we believe no such discoveries have been made, simply because they have not been attempted. Only this year news has come of the discovery, or rather confirmation, of the actual position of land to the eastward of Spitzbergen, which hitherto has only been indicated on our charts from the vague and by no means accurate reports of such explorers as Altmann. Skipper Nils Jonson, of Tromsö, actually landed on this portion of the earth's crust, having sailed on the 8th of May last from his native port to Novaya Zemba, in pursuit of oil-bearing animals. His vessel was a little yacht called the Lydiana, of thirteen commercial lasts (a little over thirty tons), having on board a crew of nine men.

In June he turned his ship's head towards the west side of the great sea, and towards the end of the month, in a south-easterly direction from Spitzbergen, in the midst of the Polar stream which brought with it an immense mass of ice, towards the east side of Spitzbergen and Behring's Land. In July and August

the ice stream turned more to the East, towards Novaya Zemba, and left their "Farande" (distant water free from ice). During July and August Jonson was busy with his trade on the banks of Spitzbergen, and by the 16th of the latter month he had resolved to go on a voyage of discovery. Arriving at lat. 78° 18′ 46′′ N. and 30° long., he caught sight of land, which for the first time in the year 1617 found a place on our maps under the name of Micha Land. The water along the south and east coast of the land was altogether free from ice, and the following morning he landed, in order to ascend to the summit of a neighbouring mountain, and from this elevation to make a survey of the scene. It was his intention also to go in search of whatever game the land might possess, and to examine what supplies of drift lumber the coast could offer. He soon satisfied himself that Altmann's report of the existence of three separate islands was wrong. Probably the error arose from the survey having been made from the deck of his ship. On the contrary, from this elevated point of view, the land presented the appearance of a vast continent, covered at intervals with high mountain lands, and these united by lower lands, whilst the coast was rocky and abrupt.

The skipper naturally expected to find the interior

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laden with the same glaciers and snow fields that encumber Spitzbergen. Judge then of his surprise to find but one small glacier towards the south, while the mountain sides exhibited the colours of the rock of which they were composed, and several large tracts of water spread out over the surface of the land reflected in their placid bosoms the bright sky above. The shore was completely covered with an immeasurable mass of driftwood, which extended as far as one hundred feet from the vessel, and was heaped up to a height of twenty feet above the level of the water. The length of this land was estimated at forty-four sea miles (240 English miles). The mountain where these observations were made, proved to be in lat. 79° 8', long. 30° 15′. The fauna met with included the ordinary Arctic species. Seals in abundance sported in the sea, herds of reindeer grazed along the sides of the mountains, and in the pastures which made the valleys green. Jonson and his men had never seen fatter or larger deer. Some of these animals were killed, and their great accumulation of fat appeared to them of such interest that means of preserving specimens for the museum at home were successfully taken; these, together with portions of the rocks and fine specimens of fossil plants, were also procured for the same institution, as well as some for