On the 18th September, 1875, Lieutenant Weyprecht, the colleague of Lieutenant Payer when Franz Josef Land was discovered, delivered an address to a meeting of German savants at Gratz in which he urged that, in the greed for discovery, scientific research was often neglected. The object of Arctic expeditions, he said, should be a nobler one than mapping and naming ice-bound coasts, or reaching a higher latitude than a predecessor. The North Pole, he held, had no greater significance for science than any other point in the higher latitudes. His contention was that meteorological and magnetic observations, to be really valuable to science, must be synchronous, and that they must be taken at selected stations round the Arctic regions, the instruments identical, the instructions identical, and the observations synchronous for at least a year. Lieutenant Weyprecht’s views received respectful attention, and were adopted by an international polar conference at Hamburg in 1879 and by another at St Petersburg in 1882. Proposals were then made to all the countries likely to take part, and finally the following arrangements were made to carry out Weyprecht’s scheme. The United States agreed to station Lieutenant Ray at Point Barrow, and Lieutenant Greely at Lady Franklin Bay, in Smith Sound. The Austrians sent Captain Wohlgemuth to Jan Mayen Island, and the Germans Dr Giese to Cumberland Inlet in Davis Strait. England arranged for observations to be taken at Fort Rae on the Great Slave Lake, Russia established stations at Novaya Zemlya and at the mouth of the Lena, and the Danes sent Dr Paulsen to Godthaab in Greenland. The Swedes were represented by Dr Ekholm at Ice Fjord in Spitsbergen, and the Norwegians observed at the Alten Fjord. The Dutch intended to establish a station at Port Dickson in Siberia, but unfortunately the vessel conveying the observer and his instruments was wrecked. The synchronous observations were commenced at these stations in the summer of 1882, and continued for a year, in accordance with the previously arranged plan. One of these expeditions, the only one which concerns our subject, combined geographical discovery with the main object--that sent up Smith Sound by the United States. It was composed entirely of officers and men of the army, under the command of Lieutenant Greely of the Signal Corps. Under him the officers were Lieutenants Kislingbury and Lockwood, and Dr Pavy as surgeon and naturalist. There were five sergeants belonging to the signal corps, three of infantry, and two of cavalry, altogether ten sergeants, one corporal, nine privates, and two Eskimo hunters. The steamer _Proteus_ was hired to land the party at Lady Franklin Bay, the _Discovery’s_ winter quarters. This was effected on August 18th, 1881, and as soon as the stores and provisions were landed and the house erected, the _Proteus_ departed.