THE ARCTIC WORLD.* As a people, we are all interested

in the success of our Arctic Expedition. The history of Arctic exploration is an old one in our annals, but the nations noware running a race for the prize of ulti- mate and final success. and there is not a schoolboy in these islands but hopes it may be the British flag which shall be first hoisted on the somewhat mythical spot we all know as the North Pole. Under these circumstances, the volume before us, with its admirable illustrations, is likely to be a popular one. We have not an idea wbo the careful compiler of its pages may be, but he has set down nothing without reference to adequate authority ; and though we may, we think, venture to assert that he has never been personally engaged in the work of Arctic exploration, he has entered with such eager sympathy into all that has been done, and is so at home with his subject in all its branches, that even without the beautiful engravings with which it abounds, his work would be a valuable one to place in the hands of all the, as yet, uninitiated who are interested in the undertaking. It is an oft- told tale, but we doubt if even yet many minds grasp the full meaning and value of the work in hand. Most of us have rather the child's curiosity as to the closed door. We will know what is on the other side. Here we are only five hundred miles from the point we covet, yet standing on the threshold of a region comprising an area of 2,500,000 square miles, from which we are as much shut out as if it belonged to another planet. The interests of science, as well as of commerce, demand that we should penetrate these dominions of the Frost-King. Lieutenant Weyprecht, who was with the Austro-Hungarian and German expeditions, has well said "that the Polar regions offer, in certain important re- spects, greater advantages than any other part of the globe for the observations of natural phenomena,—magnetism, the aurora, meteorology, geology, botany, and zoology." And he maintains that the scientific results of these expeditions are likely to prove as valuable as anything accomplished by them. He would like to see stations in Novaya Zemlya, 76° ; in Spitzbergen, 80° ; in West or East Greenland, 76°-80° ; in North America, east of Behring's Strait, 70°; and in Siberia, at the mouth of the Lena, 70°,—in fact, "a girdle of observatories around the entire Arctic region." The work before us treats of the supply of material with which investigators would have to deal. Take, for instance, the apparently simple question of the Polar glaciers, and we have at once a wide field for inquiry and research. Professor Tyndall has made clear to the simplest un-

• The Arctic World: its Plants, Animals, and Natural Phenomena. Illustrated. London: J. Nelson and Sons. 1876,

derstanding the nature and origin of the iceberg, has shown how it is in fact the offspring of the glacier ; how the slow movement of those mighty ice-rivers which descend from the mountains in the interior brings its masses at last to the edge of the ocean, falling into which with a sound of thunder, they get broken by the action of the waves and the pressure of their own weight, and drift in enormous masses, some to adjacent shores, others southward into the Atlantic. But, as our author remarks, the vast amount of heat demanded for the liquefaction of ice makes the melting of ice- bergs so slow a process, that they sometimes maintain themselves as much as 2,000 miles from their birth-place. In taking into con- sideration the perils braved by our Arctic seamen, we have to esti- matewhat these formidable icebergs are which rear themselves some- times for more than 200 feet above the level of the sea. We find their capacity or bulk is invariably in a certain proportion to their height; that "from their specific gravity," it has been calculated that the

volume of an iceberg below the water is eight times that of the por-

tion rising above it. The dimensions of one mentioned by Parry and alluded to here were 4,169 yards in length, 3,896 yards in breadth, and 51 feet in height. Its configuration is described as resembling that of the back of the Isle of Wight, while its cliffs recalled those of Dover. Its weight was computed at 1,292,397,673 tons (figures

the mind refuses to grasp), yet this berg was only 51 feet above

the water. Add to this that all ice becomes so exceedingly brittle under the influence of the sun," that a single stroke from the hammer will sometimes suffice to split a huge berg asunder," and we may understand something of the perils of a ship surrounded by these monsters of the North. But the main interest attaching to these icebergs is of another sort. We have called them the offspring of the glaciers, and so they are, and are fresh-water formations, which have descended downwards from high land. Now we find that icebergs are met with on every side of the Southern Pole,

and on every meridian of the great Antarctic Ocean, but that such is not the case in the North. To this statement our

author adds accurate details, remarking that in the 360th meridian of longitude, which intersects the parallel of 70° N., icebergs spread over an extent only of about fifty-five degrees, and this is immediately in and about Greenland and Baffin Bay.

That is, according to Admiral Sherard Osborn, for 1,375 miles of longitude we have icebergs, and then for 7,635 geographical

miles none are met with. And he (the Admiral) suggests that this fact points strongly to the probability that no extensive area of land exists at the North Pole,—a supposition, our author remarks, which is strengthened by the fact that the vast ice-fields. off Spitzbergen show no signs of contact with laud or gravel. It ought, however, to be remarked that Dr. Kane's view of the formation of icebergs does not accord with this theory.

We have before us some splendid illustrations of " pack-ice," the greatest danger, after all, which besets ships in these regions.

A glance at one of these engravings would suffice to show the most unimaginative at what hazard and with what difficulty men like Scoresby and Parry gained the latitudes they reached. Parry, who gained latitude 82° 45', dragged a boat over the ice-fields, and then was " compelled to abandon further attempt, because the current carried the ice southward more rapidly than he could traverse it to the north." Our author gives us a most interest- ing summary of the information furnished by Arctic explorers— in this case more especially by Dr. Hayes—concerning the great

lifer de glace of the Arctic continent. This enormous glacier lies inland from Rensselaer Bay, iu latitude 79° N., and longitude 68° W. We read:— "Dr. Hayes and his party set out on an expedition into the interior, and after passing through a really picturesque landscape, enriched with beds of moss and turf, patches of androtueda, and the trailing branches of the dwarf willow, they emerged upon a broad valley, in the heart of which reposed a frozen lake, about two miles in length by half a mile in width. On either side rose rugged bluffs Immediately in front was a low bill, around the base of which flowed on either side the branches of a stream whose course they had followed. Leaving the river- bed just above the lake, they climbed to the summit of this hillock, and there a sight burst upon them grand and impressive beyond the power of words adequately to describe. From the rocky bed only a few miles in advance, a sloping wall of pure whiteness rose to a broad level plain of ice,Avhich, apparently without limits, stretched away towards the unknown east. It was the great lifer de glace of the Arctic continent."

When we further learn that it was midnight when the explorers came upon this scene, the sun beneath the horizon still affording a faint gleam, while stars of the second magnitude were just per- ceptible, that when within half a mile of the icy wall a meteor fell before them, while a roar like that of distant artillery was heard coming from the depths of the frozen sea, we can picture to our- selves a moment not likely soon to be forgotten by the little band who, thus rewarded, counted little the horrors and privationsof a long Arctic night. One of the most difficult things for the mind to grasp is the size of everything (except man) in these Arctic regions,—the unfathomable, cavernous hollows, the vast cathedrals

of ice. If we glance for one moment at the great glacier of Sermiatsialik (our minds, perhaps, full of the great Rhone glacier, and quite convinced that we understand exactly what it is all like), and then try to imagine " the rapids of the Upper Niagara congealed to their lowest depths, the Falls, the broad river, and the great Lake Erie all frozen into solid icebergs

above the Cataract," diaphanous as purest crystal, reflecting all the hues of heaven, we have even then only "a picture on a reduced scale" of this one glacier of the North.

We have not space to touch adequately upon the pages in the book before us devoted to the question of the formation of snow,—to those beautiful snow-crystals with which Pro- fessor Tyndall has made us so familiar, but which in their infinite variety seem ever fresh. We must pass on to notice other important features in the life and history of these Polar regions. We find in this kingdom of the Frost-King that the ocean waters teem with life. We have to remember that, con- trary to the rule which prevails in the Equatorial seas, "in the Polar ocean we have an increase of temperature from the surface downwards, in consequence of the warmer under-currents flowing from the south northwards, and passing beneath the cold waters of the superficial Arctic current." And there can be little doubt that when the weaker tribes of the Eskimos were driven out by the increasing numbers of their stronger brethren, they settled on the shores of these seas, tempted by the prospect of the abundant means of subsistence they afforded. But apart from food for man, the Arctic waters "literally run riot with life," swarming with those minute organisms which

help materially the formation of the sedimentary deposits. If we turn to the question of vegetable life, we find, beside the mosses which everywhere gladden the heart of the Arctic traveller and often have to satisfy his hunger, in Greenland alone three hundred kinds of flowering plants, all of which are natives of the Seandinatilan peninsula, "exhibiting scarcely any admixture of American types," and our author comments on the probability that

in the warm period which preceded the Glacial Age, the Scandina- vian flora was spread over the entire area of the Polar regions. In contemplating these dreary regions, the mind involuntarily dwells upon those treeless districts, those vast tundras or " barrens " which occupy a section of the Arctic lands larger than all Europe, and in which a few grasses alone maintain a stunted life. The Siberian wilderness, says our author, when speaking on this subject, is more extensive than the African Sahara or the South-American Pampas. But it is pleasant to reflect that of still vaster area are the Arctic forest-regions " which stretch in an almost continuous belt through three-quarters of the world, with a width of from 15° to 20°." These " circumpolar " woods are almost wholly composed of various kinds of fir or pine. Our author quotes in describing them the words of Longfellow, than which nothing could be found more applicable :--

" This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, Blended with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,—

Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms."

The volume before us, on the contents of which we have but briefly touched, is beautifully got-up ; no pains have been spared, either in the printing, the engravings, or the information supplied, to make it worthy to take a conspicuous place in the list of " Christmas gift-books." The subject of Arctic exploration is brought down to the latest possible moment. Those who, like ourselves, care for any human element which breaks the narra- tive of ice, will be glad to know that Hans, the Eskimo, has turned up again,—Hans, whom " Kane loved, and Hayes hated." This man served first in Dr. Kane's expedition, then under Dr. Hayes in 1860. We believe he was also with Hall in the 'Polaris;' and now our last letters from the 'Alert,' dated July 20, speak of his joining our expedition to drive the dog- sledges, by means of which communication is to be kept up with the various depots. We may be sure that ethnological studies will not be neglected by some of the members of the expedition. It is known that North Greenland is being steadily upheaved, but what records of an earlier period may be written on its shores remains yet to be determined. It remains also to be seen how far, with all the appliances science has placed at our disposal, with steam-power, and companion-ships, and ample stores, we shall surpass the conquests of Henry Hudson, in his little cock-boat of eighty tons, "more like an old Surat buggalow than anything that now sails the seas."