Scientific American Supplement, No. 458, October 11, 1884Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 458, October 11, 1884
Various
Science -- Periodicals
In introducing Lieut. Greely, Sir Henry Lefroy, referring to the
persistence of purpose shown by his party in bringing back the pendulum
apparatus, remarked that there was nothing nobler in the annals of
scientific heroism than the determination of these hungry men to drag the
cumbersome box along their weary way.
It was fully two minutes after rising before Lieut. Greely could speak, so
great was the outburst of enthusiasm which greeted him. He remarked that
he was surprised to learn that the ground did not thaw lower at Lieut.
Ray's station, which was ten degrees farther south than his own, where the
ground thawed to a much greater depth--namely, twenty to thirty feet. In
regard to an open polar sea, he differed from Lieut. Ray. He did not
believe there was a navigable sea at the pole, but he was of the opinion
that there was open water somewhere about.
The geographical work of the Lady Franklin Bay expedition covers nearly
three degrees of latitude and over forty degrees of longitude. Starting
from latitude 81 deg. 44 min. and longitude 84 deg. 45 min., Lieut.
Lockwood reached, May 18, 1882, on the north coast of Greenland, latitude
83 deg. 24 min. and longitude 40 deg. 46 min. From the same starting point
he reached to the southwest, in May, 1883, Greely Fiord, an inlet of the
Western Polar Ocean, latitude 80 deg. 48 min. and longitude 78 deg. 26
min. This journey to the northward resulted in the addition to our charts
of a new coast line of nearly 100 miles beyond the farthest point seen by
Lieut. Beaumont, R.N. It also carried Greenland over 400 miles northward,
giving that continent a much greater extension in that direction than it
had generally been credited with.
In a subsequent speech he took occasion to say that a fact had surprised
him. It was the discovery that when the tide was flowing from the North
Pole it was found by his observations that the water was warmer than when
flowing in the opposite direction. He took the trouble to have prepared an
elaborate set of observations showing this wonderful phenomenon, which
would eventually be published. To him these pecularities were
unexplainable, and be hoped that the observations would be studied by his
hearers, and some explanation found in regard to the thermometric
observations of the expedition. He remarked that the mean temperature for
the year of the hourly observations was 5 degrees below zero, which
justified him in saying his station was the coldest point of earth ever
reached.
* * * * *
DIAMOND MINING IN BRAZIL.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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