The expedition of Dr. Kane entered Smith's Strait in 1853, and advanced towards the north upon sledges drawn by dogs; the mean temperature, which ranged between thirty degrees and forty degrees below zero, fell at last to fifty degrees. At eleven degrees from the Pole they found two Esquimaux villages, called Etah and Peterovik, then an immense glacier. A detachment, conducted by Lieutenant Morton, discovered, beyond the eightieth degree of latitude, an open channel inhabited by innumerable swarms of birds, consisting of swallows, ducks, and gulls, which delighted them by their shrill, piercing cries. Seals (_phoca_) enjoyed themselves on the floating ice. In ascending the banks, they met with flowering plants, such as _Lychnis_, _Hesperis_, &c. On the 24th of June, Morton hoisted the flag of the _Antarctic_, which had before this seen the ice of the South Pole, on Cape Independence, situated beyond eighty-one degrees. To the north stretched the open sea. On the left was the western bank of the Kennedy Channel, which seemed to terminate in a chain of mountains, the principal peak rising from nine thousand to ten thousand feet, which was named Mount Parry. The expedition returned towards the south, and reached the port of Uppernavick exhausted with hunger, where it was received on board an American ship. Dr. Kane, weakened by his sufferings, from which he never quite recovered, died in 1857. We cannot conclude this rapid sketch of events connected with the expeditions to the Arctic Pole without noting a geological fact of great and singular interest. When opportunities have presented themselves of examining the rocks in the regions adjoining the North Pole, it has been found that great numbers belong to the coal measures. Such is the case in Melville Island and Prince Patrick's Island. Under the ice which covers the soil in these islands coal exists, with all the fossil vegetable débris which invariably accompany it. This shows that in the coal period of geology, the North Pole was covered with the rich and abundant vegetation whose remains constitute the coal-fields of the present day; and proves to demonstration that the temperature of these regions was, at one period of the earth's history, equal to that of equatorial countries of the present day. What a wonderful change in the temperature of these regions is thus indicated! It is, indeed, a strange contrast to find coal formations under the soil covered by the polar ice. Let us suppose that human industry should dream of establishing itself in these countries, and drawing from the earth the combustible so needed to make it habitable, thus furnishing the means of overcoming the rigorous climatic conditions of these inhospitable regions. * * * * *