minum boats ashore. They were now obliged to take shelter in a great dog kennel until they were able to build a house from the wreckage. Through a hole which had been made in the

CAPT. ROBERT E. PEARY.

side of the wrecked vessel the party were enabled to save a quantity of coal and other articles. An express party was sent after Mr. Wellman and overtook him at Marlen's Islands. Messrs. Wellman, Dodge, and others returned to Walden island and held a council. Capt. Bottolfsen, Webfeldt, and a sailor volunteered to seek for sealing vessels southward. Mr. Wellman resumed his journey northward on May 31, but Bottolfsen and his party were unable to start on their trip on account of pack ice, and were also detained on the island until June 3, when Sando, Ivoson, Winship, and Heyendahl returned from Mr. Wellman, owing to lack of provisions and to troubles in regard to ice and water, with orders and mails from Wellman, who had gone forward.

In

On June 27 Capt. Bottolfsen and his party started southward in search of sealers, hauling behind them a 22-foot aluminum boat. They passed four terrible weeks of storm and heavy snow, sometimes hauling their boat, and sailing or rowing where there was an open water. this way they traveled 230 miles along the Spitzbergen Islands. They were compelled to throw away nearly all their extra clothing and much of their equipment, as the boat was overloaded. Their passage across Henlopen strait was particularly difficult and dangerous. All the party were wet to the skin, and their sufferings were most severe. In a hut at Mosset Bay they found and repaired an old gig. On July 13 they tried to cross Wijdo bay, but were obliged to return, owing to fog and ice. They made another start on the 15th, but the ice proved too dense, and they were obliged to abandon the gig and proceed, hauling the aluminum boat. Seven Norwegian sailors were seen east of the Norse island, but they failed to respond to signals.

At Morse Bay they found Nordenskiold's hut, where a provision depot was maintained by a Tromsöe skipper. The party had to take their boat around Welcome point. On July 29 they were taken aboard the steamer" Malygen," Capt. Pederson.

Capt. Bottolfsen says that during the journey along the coast his party were able to shoot a few polar bears and reindeer. The dogs he had with him proved useless, becoming sore-footed, and had to be shot.

The remaining members of the party reached Tromsöe Aug. 17. The aluminum boats, though subjected to the hardest usage in the pack ice, came through uninjured.

The Jackson-Harmsworth expedition seems also to have failed of results. It left Archangel Aug. 5, by the "Windward," having a complete equipment, including several ponies, a copper and an aluminum boat with others, 17 sledges, 24 pairs of ski tents, furs, 3 trebly walled houses, partly of wood and partly air-tight canvas and lined with felt, a Russian log house, and a stable made on the circus plan. Many of the scientific instruments taken were of aluminum. About the middle of August the "Windward was seen by Norwegian fishermen trying to make its way through masses of ice in the vicinity of 78° N.; at the end of August it was seen steering northward in a channel between soft masses of ice, at 75° 45' N. and 44° E. The ship had not returned in October. It was to have come back after the landing and building of winter quarters.

All but 3 members of the Peary party left Falcon Harbor Aug. 26. Peary, with Lee and Hanson as volunteers, remain at the headquarters at Falcon Harbor to complete their explorations

sledges, and 92 dogs. Five natives also assisted during the first two or three days of the march.

of Greenland puts forth some hundreds of glaciers. One of the more obvious characteristics of most of the glaciers I studied is their termination in vertical faces, even when they end on the land. Most known glaciers slope down to a thin edge at their extremi

The maximum day's march was 18 miles, when the plague having carried off many dogs, and Entrikin being unfit for travel, and the party so reduced by the hardships they had undergone that the plans for the summer could not possibly be carried out, and only one fourth of the distance to Independence Bay having been accomplished, while it had been expected they would reach that point ten days earlier, it was decided to return. The dogs continued to die on the homeward march, compelling the abandonment of the sledge during last May. On the trip they surveyed and mapped a hitherto unknown coast line to Melville Bay for 100 miles. Messrs. Peary and Lee are the first white men to see, locate, and measure the iron meteorite near Cape York, which they will bring home next year. Lieut. Peary left the ship Tuesday morning, Aug. 28, off Petowik Glacier, 35 miles north of Cape York, in an open whaleboat, with Henson and a crew of 5 natives, bound for Falcon Harbor, 150 miles distant. When last seen the boat was standing on her course under full sail with a fair wind.

A tidal wave on Oct. 3, 1893, destroyed the launch and droys and swept away more than half the oil supply, of which a portion was subsequently recovered.

The auxiliary expedition, despite the fact that the ice was heavier and more general than for many years, accomplished much important work. Communication with Peary was not opened up until Aug. 1, and Falcon Harbor was not reached until the 20th. Carey Islands, Cape Faraday, and Clarence Head were thoroughly searched for the Swedish explorers Björling and Kallstenius. Their death is now regarded as certain. Relics were brought from Carey island, and a skeleton, supposed to be that of a sailor, was properly interred. The ice prevented the proposed explorations on Ellesmere Land, but the auxiliary party gathered many valuable scientific data, made a careful study of many important glaciers, and obtained much new and valuable material in arctic deep-sea dredging.

Prof. Thomas Chamberlain, of the University of Chicago, who accompanied the Peary expedition, says:

The glaciers of Greenland chiefly spring from an ice cap which covers the whole interior. From this ice cap tongues creep out in all directions. Instead of several snow fields gathering to form one glacier, one snow field sends out many glaciers. The great ice cap

cliffs of ice 100 to 150 feet high. The sides also are frequently vertical. By reason of this they reveal many features that are usually concealed. I have never seen glaciers that presented such admirable facilities for investigation as those of this northern region. The most striking structural feature revealed of the basal ice. Not only is the ice definitely bedded, by those vertical faces is the pronounced stratification but the rocky and earthy material which the glaciers carry in their bases is arranged in layers. In some cases the layers are twisted and contorted, and in others they are shoved over each other. The detailed study of these gives many clews to the modus operandi of the ice action. The rate of movement of the ice generally is very slow. On the average it is probably quite safe to say that the movement of the ice is less than a foot a day, probably less than a foota week. It is certain that the ice once extended some distance beyond its present border, but I think I have good evidence that it never completely overwhelmed the coast region, at least not in recent times. I am confident that it never extended across Baffin's Bay

and Davis Straits to the mainland and formed the center from which the glaciation of our country was derived. I discovered a small driftless area on the borders of Bowdoin Bay, a phenomenon which has a very important bearing upon the former extension, or rather nonextension, of the ice. I know of no other region that offers superior or even equal facilities for glacial study.

A party under the lead of Dr. F. A. Cook left New York, July 7, by the "Miranda," having in view the exploration of the coast of Ellesmere Land, a search for the lost Swedish explorers, study of the Greenland glaciers, a visit to the Peary camp, and the return to their homes of the Eskimos who were at the World's Fair. Some of the party were going for pleasure, expecting to hunt for large game in the polar regions. After some minor mishaps, the Miranda" made a landing on the coast of Greenland at Sukkertoppen, in latitude 59 25'. Leaving this port on the morning of the 9th for Disco, the vessel had proceeded about 7 miles at full speed, when she struck with tremendous force on a hidden reef. Three times the high waves lifted the ship and let her down with a crash that shook her from end to end. When she floated off the vessel was soon seen to be settling. The boats were swung off, and everything made ready to abandon the steamer; but the water-tight bulkhead protected the other compartments, and Eskimo pilots having at length come off in their kaiaks, the steamer was gotten safely to harbor, where it was considered unsafe to proceed further. After some trouble a fishing schooner, the "Rigel," was found, and the passengers were transferred to it. The "Miranda" then took the " Rigel" in tow, and left Sukkertoppen on Aug. 10, intending to proceed directly to St. John's, Newfoundland. All went well for two days, but a heavy sea, the second night, weakened the top of the ballast tank and it gave way. The crew were taken aboard the "Rigel," and the "Miranda" went down. All the botanical, geological, and ethnological collections, and all the photographs, probably the finest ever taken in Greenland, went down

with her.

After the Danish Government had decided to

take actual control of the eastern coast of Greenland, and to found there a mission and a meteorological station that might serve for a gathering point for the Eskimos, Commander Holm, who had been leader of an expedition to explore the coast in 1883-'85, was commissioned to establish such a station. He arrived at Tasinsak Bay -called by Nordenskiöld King Oscar HarborAug. 26, built the provisional station by Sept. 5, and returned to Copenhagen Sept. 17.

The "Geographical Journal has the following in reference to the results derived from observations taken from log books of Danish ships covering the period 1876-'90, and published in the volume of " Danish Polar Observations": Separate charts are given for the six months, April to September, and the isothermal lines are drawn from the temperatures computed for 1° squares. One of the most striking features of these charts is the manner in which they show the seasonal changes in the axis of minimum surface temperature running northward from Scotland past the Faroe Islands. This inflection of the isothermals is well defined in the charts of mean surface temperature published by the Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition, and the Danish charts agree in showing that it is most strongly marked during spring, almost disappearing in autumn-facts which seem to indicate that during the former season the southeasterly winds, associated with the Iceland depression," tend to deflect part of the drift current from the Gulf stream in a northwesterly direction, dividing it into two main sections, and leaving an intermediate space to be occupied by colder water. The limits of the East Greenland current are defined with great sharpness, and it would appear that this stream sends a branch round the northeast and east coasts of Iceland, divided from the main body by the warm drift round the western extremity. In every case the minimum surface temperature off the coast of Iceland is found to the east and northeast; and the fact that during July and August the sea is on an average more than 1° F. colder than the air accounts for the high relative frequency of fogs in those regions. The occurrence of this cold area can scarcely be explained by any assumption of up-welling water, and presents another example of the complex interdigitation" arising when two surface currents meet each

other end on.

America. In a paper read before the British Association, Mr. Yule Oldham gave his conclusions drawn from an old map made by Andrea Bianco, of Venice, dated A. D. 1448. Marked on this map are the Portuguese discoveries near Cape Verd, which had been rounded in 1445 by one of the Portuguese expeditions of Prince Henry the Navigator; and at the edge of the map, southwest from Cape Verd, is drawn a long stretch of coast line labeled Atlantic Island," and stating that it stretches 1,500 miles westward. In "The Discoveries of the World," published in the middle of the sixteenth century, Antonio Galvano says that in 1447 a Portuguese ship was carried by a storm westward till an island was discovered, from which gold was brought back to Portugal. This is certainly noteworthy evidence in favor of an earlier discovery than that by Columbus.

Dr. von Wieser, of the University of Innsbrück, has found 3 sketch maps which have every evidence of having been drawn by Columbus himself. They were in a volume of miscellaneous papers belonging to the Strozzi collection in the National Library at Florence. Dr. Peucker writes:

It is well known that the great discoverer on his fourth voyage (1502-1504) made known the whole coast of the Central American mainland from the Gulf of Honduras to the Isthmus of Panama; and the by him in conjunction with his younger brother Barmap of this so-called Veragua coast was then drawn tholomew. The latter, immediately after the death of the admiral, brought such a map, together with a description of the coast, to Italy, and presented both to a certain Frate Hieronymo, who subsequently surrendered map and description to Alex. Strozzi, an enthusiastic collector of accounts of discoveries, the same to whom the National Library at Florence owes the above-mentioned collected volume. Hitherto only the description contained in this in outline has been known to the public, the map belonging to it having been considered as lost. Now it is true that this extract from the text of Bartholomew Columbus

is without any addition in the form of a map; the volume, however, contains another original document on the fourth voyage of the admiral-viz., a letter of the latter from Jamaica of July 7, 1503. On the edge of this letter Wieser has now found the sketch maps in question-only hastily drawn with the pen-which, equatorial zone. They faithfully reflect the ideas of taken together, form a complete ring map of the Columbus, have direct reference to his discoveries, and primarily to the events of his fourth voyage. Columbus was, as is well known, firmly convinced, and this to his dying day, that he had reached the east coast of Asia, and with it the realm of the great Khan of whom Marco Polo had written such alluring accounts. Although the hoped-for passage across to the Indian Ocean had not been discovered, he had still obtained from the natives the certain information that beyond the mountains, but a few days' journey to the west, lay a second sea. This, thought Columbus, must be the "sinus magnus" of the ancient geogra

phers, and from the far coast of the isthmus discovered, the Ganges could not lie at a greater distance than a ten-days' march beyond. These geographical ideas of the great discoverer are plainly reflected in the above sketch and more faithfully than any other cartographic record of the time, on on

alone do the islands discovered on his first voyage appear unmistakably as lying directly in front of that continental coast; and this latter-the region of the present Central American republics-as "Asia," "Sinarum situs" (i. e., South China, with Tonkin), and directly connected with "India extra Gangem," or Farther India. Also the main argument of Columbus for the practicability of his plan of sailing to Asia by the west, the supposition of a relatively very slight

breadth of the Atlantic Ocean (founded on the calculation of Marinus of Tyre, who overestimated the extent of the Asiatic continent by more than 100° of longitude), finds clear expression in a note introduced into the sketch. Respecting the fourth voyage of Columbus also in particular, the map gives many more details than any other-more, e. g., than that of Peter Martyr of the year 1511, or the anonymous map in the Turin Library. The agreement of the map with the description of the coast contained in the volume does not admit of doubt; and, on the other hand, it may be regarded as out of the question that the details were put down simply from the statements of that text. The only remaining conclusion, therefore (since we know that the compiler of the volume possessed a copy of the map prepared by Columbus have in fact a copy of that important and long-missand his brother), is, that in these hasty sketches we ing map-a precious historical relie-the only special map preserved to us relating to the fourth voyage of Columbus, and absolutely the only map which dates back to the great discoverer himself.

An expedition under Prof. Hite, of the University of Pennsylvania, was engaged during the summer in exploring Labrador in the region of Sandwich Bay. This bay lies a short distance

south of Hamilton inlet, and 3 streams-White Bear, Eagle, and Paradise rivers-connect it with the interior. The bay was surveyed and the 3 rivers explored. White Bear river was the first that the explorers ascended, and 40 miles from its mouth falls 60 feet high were discovered. This river had never before been ascended by white men, and the same was true of the Paradise. Prof. Hite describes the country along White Bear river as densely wooded and very mountainous. Thick moss covered the ground, and the undergrowth was almost impenetrable. Back from the coast the forest growth would admit of cutting good lumber, if there were any market for it. The country along the Paradise is described as low and flat. There are many large lakes in the interior, and about 30 of these were surveyed, and collections were made for the university museum.

The country in the region of Lake Mistassini appears, from reports of A. P. Low and those of Archibald Stuart, who in 1893 and 1894 traveled through hitherto unexplored portions of it, to be much less barren than has been supposed. Much of it is well wooded, and there are large tracts of arable land. Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, of the Geological Survey in Canada, made an examination of the Barren Grounds in the summer of 1893. He went in search of a river of which he had heard from the Indians. It was, they said, beyond the height of land, and took a northwesterly course to Hudson Bay, as they supposed. Starting from the east end of Athabasca lake, Mr. Tyrrell's party ascended a small stream named the Black river to Black lake, and followed a tributary of that to its head; there they found a portage route to another stream, believed to be the one described by the Indians. After a winding course of about 800 miles it flows into the head of Chesterfield inlet. They saw also a lake which they took to be the one laid down on some maps as Dubaunt lake.

R. G. McConnell, also of the Canadian Survey, explored Finlay river, which in reality represents the main upper stream of Peace river to the west of the Rocky mountains, the course of which has not heretofore been known definitely. It is now found to follow for about 150 miles the line of the valley that everywhere appears to lie to the west of the Rocky mountain range proper. Farther up its main stream enters this valley from the west, after having pursued a circuitous route to the north from its source through a very mountainous country. Its upper course is very rapid. The Omineca district is drained by a western branch of the Finlay. Gold mining was actively carried on here for a short time, but the impossibility of bringing in appliances for the more difficult and poorer ground

has caused it to fall off. But it is believed that placer mining may be made remunerative in the future in the Finlay valley, while the quartz reefs have not yet been touched.

Mr. J. McEvoy, in examining that part of British Columbia east of the Alaska coast strip, found the course of the Nasse river above tide water to be quite different from that laid down on the maps. A lava flow that has long been reported to exist on the Nasse, and was said by the local Indian tradition to be of comparatively recent date, was examined and found to be not

probably more than two hundred years old. The river at one time was blocked by it, but has since cut through, forming a small cañon. It is announced that the discussion of the horizontal and vertical angles taken by McGrath's party in Yakutat Bay and that vicinity show that Mount St. Elias is not the highest peak near the Alaskan boundary. A group of three snowy summits called Mount Logan appears from these figures to be 19,534 feet high. Mount St. Elias is now placed at 18,023, and Mount Orizaba at about 18,300 feet. This makes Mount Logan the highest summit in North America. Both Logan and Elias are in British territory.

During 1893 the United States Geological Survey had 33 parties in the field, and 35,500 square miles were surveyed. Most of the work was done in the West, the greatest progress being made in Nebraska, Oklahoma, North and South Dakota, Kansas, and Texas. By co-operation of the State legislatures with the General Government, accurate surveys have been made of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island: 5,000 square miles of New York were for the first time surveyed and mapped on the scale of one mile to an inch.

From statistics drawn by H. Gannett from the report of the survey in regard to the average elevation of the United States, it appears that the average altitude of Delaware is 60 feet, that of Louisiana and Florida 100, and that of Rhode Island 200. Thirty-two States have a mean elevation of 1,300 feet. Colorado has the highest average, 6.800 feet; the average of Wyoming is 6,700; of Utah, 6,100: of New Mexico, 5,700; of Nevada, 5,500; of Idaho, 5,000 of Arizona, 4,100; of Montana, 3,400; of Oregon, 3,300; of California, 2,900; of Nebraska, 2,600. These eleven are all whose average exceeds the general average of the country, which is 2,500 feet. These figures are of course not given as exact, but as deductions from the available statistics, which were summarized in a map on which contour lines were drawn at various altitudes.

Much apprehension was caused in November by the report of changes in Mount Rainier or Tacoma, thus described:

The mountain has lately been strangely transformed. The crest of the great monarch of the Cascades has changed, the cone having fallen in, and steam can be seen rising from the crater. There is no eruption, it is believed by those most competent to judge, but great masses of rock seem to have fallen.

The snow-capped cone has disappeared, and a sharppointed peak has risen in its place to the east of the crater. The changed appearance of the mountain is evident from the streets of Seattle, 90 miles distant. and at this season of the year the ascension is an abVery few people have ever ascended the mountain, solute impossibility.

Prior to the present century little curiosity had been displayed as to the place where and the manner in which the Mississippi river took its rise. The French who came to these western confines of New France were mostly satisfied to know that it issued from a marshy region in the distant north, where were large lakes. After the evacuation of the upper country by them, the servants of the English fur companies gradually extended their operations southward to what is now northern Minnesota, and came to believe, or

mouth of the said bay shrank into the present short stream, so that when the lines of the United States land surveys were extended over this region in 1875 only a lake and creek were to be seen, to which the surveyor gave the name of Elk, the abandoned appellation of the parent

5

to pretend to believe, that the river had its origin in Turtle lake-in other words, that the present Turtle Lake river, which runs southeasterly into Cass lake, was the continuation and head stream of the Mississippi. Nor did they long remain ignorant of the other large tributary of Cass lake, the true Mississippi; for that they knew the lake at its head is proved by its appearance on early printed maps under the name of Lac la Biche (Elk lake), though placed very much out of its true position. It is on record that one of them-William Morrison-wintered there in 1803-1804, though no mention of his visit appeared in print until fifty years later. In 1832, Messrs. Schoolcraft and Allen, Government officers, made a hasty journey to Elk lake, thereafter to be universally known as Itasca. They concluded that it was the "true source and fountain of the longest and largest branch of the Mississippi." There was still something beyond, however, for they were informed by their Indian guide that there was a little creek flowing into the southwest bay of the lake, having its source at the base of a chain of high hills which they could see in the distance, near the present borders of Becker, Beltrami, and Hubbard Counties. In 1836, J. N. Nicollet, a private gentleman from France, made a special visit to the lake and its environs, "to take up the exploration of the sources of the Mississippi." In his report he only claimed to come after the explorers of 1832. and to have "completed what was wanting for a full geographical account of these sources." Of the five creeks he noted falling into it (Lake Itasca), there was one that flowed into the west bay and "was remarkable above the others, inasmuch as its course is longer and its waters more abundant." He found that it passed through two minor lakes, beyond the uppermost of which was a third formed by the union of numberless streamlets that oozed from the bases of the hills.

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10

But many years after the decisive voyages of Schoolcraft and Nicollet a spirit of enterprise-or, possibly, a thirst for notorietyexcusable only on the ground of ignorance of these previous examinations-induced men to go into the field again. In this way was brought upon the geographical world an unnecessary perplexity, and an immense amount of writing in the way of newspaper letters, pamphlets, etc. In 1872, a correspondent of the New York "Herald " undertook a canoe voyage to Lake Itasca, and having penetrated the west arm he ascended a creek until he came to a certain lake. In this lake he claimed that "he had found the fountains which give birth to the Mississippi." Nothing resulted from his discovery, however, unless it were mischievous incitement to other similar expeditions, only one of which made any permanent impression. The truth is, this correspondent practically discovered nothing; for his lake represents only the recent shape of what appears on Allen's and Nicollet's maps as a sort of bay. This change in shape is accounted for on the assumption that in the years between 1836 and 1872 the surface of Itasca lake had lowered so much by erosion of the bed of its outlet that the wide

a