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128 importance." Our wonder is that the thought of a plan of selection from which this was omitted should have been tolerated for an instant. The primary object of the expedition being to carry out the scientific programme of the Hamburg Polar Conference, the utmost care was given to physical observations. The series began July 1, 1831, at St. John's, Newfoundland, and terminated June 21, 1884, forty hours before the rescue of the survivors. Summaries of them are given in the appendixes to the book, and a chapter is allotted to the description of the manner in which they were taken. Natural history observations and collections were also made, but the collections, of course, in the straits to which the expedition was reduced, could not be brought home. As good provisions as were possible under the circumstances were, however, made for the preservation of the scientific results. They were cachéd, at places which were suitably marked and described, and may possibly be recovered by more fortunate adventurers. A suggestive glimpse of the character of Arctic life during the winter darkness is afforded by the fact that some of the observations and the places for taking them were arranged so as to afford the men reasonable occasions, in going to mark them, for going out-of-doors and taking walks of considerable length. Exercise is as indispensable in the winter of the poles as in more favored regions, and one of the difficult problems for explorers is to manage matters or "sugar-coat" it, so that it shall be taken regularly and in sufficient amount without appearing to be administered as a medicine.

Two important geographical achievements stand to the credit of the expedition: They are the journey of Lieutenant Lockwood, Sergeant Brainard, and the Eskimo Christiansen to the farthest north, and the exploration of Grinnell Land. The itinerary of the northerly journey, as given from the journals of the explorers, is very interesting, and, with the aid of the accompanying maps, is very clear. It was on the 13th of May, 1882, when, having made sixteen miles in ten hours, and worn out by travel through deep snow, the party made their farthest camp at the north end of Lockwood Island, which, by circum-meridian and subpolar observations reduced by Gauss's method, was determined to be in 83° 23·8' north, the highest latitude ever attained by man. The highest latitude reached previous to this was by Markham, on sea, in 1876, 83° 20' 26". Of this event Sergeant Brainard's field-notes say: "We have reached a higher latitude than ever before reached by mortal man, and on a land farther north than by many was supposed to exist. We unfurled the glorious Stars and Stripes to the exhilarating northern breezes with an exultation impossible to describe." So, says Lieutenant Greely, "with proper pride, they looked that day from their farthest vantage-ground of the farthest north (Lockwood Island) to the desolate cape which, until surpassed in coming ages, may well bear the grand name of Washington." Of this party Sergeant Brainard, "without whose efficient aid and restless energy, as Lockwood said, the work could not have been accomplished," is the only survivor. The exploration of Grinnell Land begun by Lieutenant Greely in the spring, whose journey of two hundred and fifty miles of travel in twelve days was marked by the discovery of the large Lake Hazen and the interesting Henrietta Nesmith Glacier, was continued in the summer with the results, as summed up by the author, of the satisfactory, if not complete, determination of the extent of North Grinnell Land; the outlining of the extraordinary and previously unsuspected physical conditions of the interior of that country; and the discovery of numerous valleys covered with comparatively luxuriant vegetation, which afford sufficient pasturage for large numbers of musk-oxen. About five thousand square miles of newly discovered land fell under observation, of which over one half was determined with sufficient accuracy to enable its physical geography to be passed upon. Lieutenant Greely's discoveries accord closely with the opinions of Sir Joseph Hooker; and "the intimate relation between the physical sciences is forcibly illustrated by the ability of a highly trained and accomplished specialist to state from a handful of plants the insularity or continental configuration of a land and its physical condition." Another expedition was made, across Grinnell Land, by Lieutenant Lockwood, who carried out his commander's