If a Lesseps were one day to propose to cut a gigantic canal through Europe and Asia, from the shores of the Atlantic to the China Sea; if a well-sinker of genius were to offer to pierce the earth in the hopes of finding and utilizing the beds of silicates supposed to be there in a fluid state; if an enterprising electrician proposed to combine the currents disseminated over the surface of the globe so as to form an inexhaustible source of heat and light; if a daring engineer were to have the idea of storing in vast receptacles the excess of summer temperature, in order to transfer it to the frozen regions in the winter; if a hydraulic specialist were to propose to utilize the force of the tide for the production of heat or power at will; if companies were to be formed to carry out a hundred projects of this kind—it is the Americans who would be found at the head of the subscribers, and rivers of dollars would flow into the pockets of the projectors, as the great rivers of North America flow into—and are lost in—the ocean. It was only natural that public opinion should be much exercised at the announcement that the Arctic regions were to be sold to the highest bidder, particularly as no public subscription had been opened with a view to the purchase, for “all the capital had been subscribed in advance,” and, “it was left for Time to show how it was proposed to utilize the territory when it had become the property of the purchaser!” Utilize the Arctic regions! In truth such an idea could only have originated in the brain of a madman! But nevertheless nothing could be more serious than the scheme. In fact, a communication had been sent to many of the journals of both continents, concluding with a demand for immediate inquiry on the part of those interested. It was the _New York Herald_ that first published this curious farrago, and the innumerable patrons of Gordon Bennett read, on the morning of the 7th of November, the following advertisement, which rapidly spread through the scientific and industrial world, and became appreciated in very different ways:— “NOTICE TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE TERRESTRIAL GLOBE. “The regions of the North Pole situated within the eighty-fourth degree of north latitude have not yet been utilized, for the very good reason that they have not yet been discovered. “The furthest points attained by the navigators of different nations are the following:— 82° 45′, said to have been reached by the Englishman, Parry, in July, 1847, in long. 28° E. north of Spitzbergen; 83° 20′ 28″, said to have been reached by Markham in the English expedition of Sir John Nares, in May, 1876, in long. 50° W. north of Grinnell Land; 83° 35′, said to have been reached by Lockwood and Brainard in the American expedition of Lieutenant Greely, in May, 1882, in long. 42° W. in the north of Nares’ Land.