Great efforts have been made, much money expended and many lives lost in futile attempts to find the North Pole, which when discovered may appear like any other ice field, mountain glacier, or snowdrift of the Arctic Circle. But the thirst for knowledge and the love of adventure and exploration where no financial reward can be expected is creditable to humanity, and shows that the love of knowledge is sometimes above that of sordid gain. The struggle for two centuries has been to reach the North Pole, and it has been approached as near as 700 miles; but recent reports indicate that conditions are more favorable for reaching the South Pole; and a French expedition outfitted this year for the North Pole have changed their destination to the South Pole. One or both poles are likely to be discovered in a few years. There have been many scientific expeditions to various parts of our globe for astronomical observations. One recently sent to Chili from the Lick Observatory should command especial interest since its object is by the study of the southern stars to ascertain where the earth and the solar system is going. We know our sun system is moving swiftly towards the north, in the direction of the stars Vega or Alpha Lyra, at the rate of more than forty-three thousand miles an hour. Each year we are more than three hundred million miles nearer these stars, unless they also are in motion in the same direction. The southern stars have been studied much less than the northern stars, and the testimony of both is desired to determine the direction of the mysterious voyage of the sun and its family of worlds through the unexplored regions of space. We have been watching the stars in front of us for many years, and will now give some attention to the stars in our rear to confirm or disprove many astronomical hypotheses.