Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/875

Rh north as possible, whence advance parties might be sent farther toward the pole. In the summer of 1882 it established a station at Fort Conger, north of Lady Franklin Bay, near the eighty-second degree of latitude, which it abandoned in August, 1883, to come down to Cape Sabine. Of the exploring parties sent out, one, under Lieutenant Lockwood, reached in Lockwood Island the highest latitude yet attained -83° 24·5' and longitude 40° 45', and went a short distance beyond. From a height of two thousand feet, Lieutenant Lockwood discerned in the northeast Cape Robert Lincoln, latitude 83° 35', longitude 38°. Lieutenant Greely, exploring Grinnell Land, discovered Lake Hazen, some sixty miles by ten miles in extent, and ascended Mount Arthur, five thousand feet high. In a subsequent exploration by Lieutenant Lockwood and Sergeant Brainerd, Grinnell Land was found to be bounded by a water, named Greely Fiord, across which was discerned another land, to which the name of Arthur Land was given. The northern and southern parts of Grinnell Land appear to be covered with ice-caps, between which is a belt of open country some sixty miles wide. Hayes Sound was found to extend some twenty miles farther to the west than is shown on Sir George Nares's chart. The lowest temperature observed was 61° below zero. Animal life was abundant around Fort Conger, but scarce on Cape Sabine. The details of the sufferings and privations to which the party were exposed on Cape Sabine, in consequence of the failure of the supply expeditions to deposit stores of provisions where they were expected to be found, are extremely painful.

Relation of Springs and the First Settlements of a Country.—At the recent Conference on Water-Supply, held by the Society of Arts in connection with the London Health Exhibition, Mr. W. G. Topley read a paper showing how the location of the early settlements in England was determined by facility of access to water. The influence of this condition in attracting settlement to the shores of rivers, lakes, etc., is well known, but Mr. Topley showed also that the law operated with force in the case of the less imposing distribution of springs, and how long lines of early villages could be found situated along lines of territory where well-digging is practicable. Springs occur near where a pervious bed overlies or underlies an impervious bed, or where a valley reaches down to the level at which the rock is saturated with water. A soil which allows water to sink into it is a dry soil, and is, therefore, suited for habitation and for agriculture. Hence the main conditions which favor the settlement of a district are found in the same soil, or along the outcrop of the same bed. We thus see that geological structure controls the distribution of population, not only in such great features of the earth's surface as mountain-chains, plains, and valleys, but also in minor divisions of the district. The outcrop of a narrow band of porous rock beneath wide beds of clay is strongly marked by the occurrence of a long line of villages, each of which obtains its water from shallow wells or springs. When rocks rise from beneath a covering of clay, there are often springs at the junction. While the early settlements in England were nearly always controlled by these circumstances, relating to the distribution of springs, the later development of special towns and districts has depended upon a variety of conditions, many of which have become very complicated.

Construction of Stretchers and Ambulances.—Dr. Robert Lawson has given some valuable hints on the construction of stretchers and ambulances for the removal of the sick and wounded. It is most desirable in them to avoid or mitigate as far as possible inequalities and roughness in motion. Field-stretchers are liable to swing with the swaying from side to side of the bodies of their bearers and to a regular series of jolts. With each step he takes, the porter bends his body to the side on which a foot is touching the ground to maintain his equilibrium, and his burden follows him. The swinging may be diminished by causing the bearers to walk out of step, so that the sway of one to the right may be neutralized by the sway of another to the left. The jolts are consequent upon the shortening of the height of the bearer as his body bends over when the foot is set forward to make the next step. They are mitigated by