Honolulu July 1.
The shark captured by the Vettor Pisani in the Gulf of Panama is Rhinodon typicus, probably the most gigantic fish in existence. Mr. Swinburne Ward, formerly commissioner of the Seychelles, has informed me that it attains to a length of 50 feet or more, which statement was afterward confirmed by Prof. E.P. Wright. Originally described by Sir A. Smith from a single specimen which was killed in the neighborhood of Cape Town, this species proved to be of not uncommon occurrence in the Seychelles Archipelago, where it is known by the name of "Chagrin." Quite recently Mr. Haly reported the capture of a specimen on the coast of Ceylon. Like other large sharks (Carcharodon rondeletii, Selache maxima, etc.), Rhinodon has a wide geographical range, and the fact of its occurrence on the Pacific coast of America, previously indicated by two sources, appears now to be fully established. T. Gill in 1865 described a large shark known in the Gulf of California by the name of "Tiburon ballenas" or whale-shark, as a distinct genus—Micristodus punctatus—which, in my opinion, is the same fish. And finally, Prof. W. Nation examined in 1878 a specimen captured at Callao. Of this specimen we possess in the British Museum a portion of the dental plate. The teeth differ in no respect from those of a Seychelles Chagrin; they are conical, sharply pointed, recurved, with the base of attachment swollen. Making no more than due allowance for such variations in the descriptions by different observers as are unavoidable in accounts of huge creatures examined by some in a fresh, by others in a preserved, state, we find the principal characteristics identical in all these accounts, viz.: the form of the body, head, and snout, relative measurements, position of mouth, nostrils, and eyes, dentition, peculiar ridges on the side of the trunk and tail, coloration, etc. I have only to add that this shark is stated to be of mild disposition and quite harmless. Indeed, the minute size of its teeth has led to the belief in the Seychelles that it is a herbivorous fish, which, however, is not probable.
ALBERT GUNTHER.
Natural History Museum, July 30.
THE GREELY ARCTIC EXPEDITION.
THE GREELY ARCTIC EXPEDITION.—THE FARTHEST POINT NORTH.
Some account has been given of the American Meteorological Expedition, commanded by Lieutenant, now Major, Greely, of the United States Army, in the farthest north channels, beyond Smith Sound, that part of the Arctic regions where the British Polar expedition, in May, 1876, penetrated to within four hundred geographical miles of the North Pole. The American expedition, in 1883, succeeded in getting four miles beyond, this being effected by a sledge party traveling over the snow from Fort Conger, the name they had given to their huts erected on the western shore near Discovery Cove, in Lady Franklin Sound. The farthest point reached, on May 18, was in latitude 83 deg. 24 min. N.; longitude 40 deg. 46 min. W., on the Greenland coast. The sledge party was commanded by Lieutenant Lockwood, and the following particulars are supplied by Sergeant Brainerd, who accompanied Lieutenant Lockwood on the expedition. During their sojourn in the Arctic regions the men were allowed to grow the full beard, except under the mouth, where it was clipped short. They wore knitted mittens, and over these heavy seal-skin mittens were drawn, connected by a tanned seal-skin string that passed over the neck, to hold them when the hands were slipped out. Large tanned leather pockets were fastened outside the jackets, and in very severe weather jerseys were sometimes worn over the jackets for greater protection against the intense cold. On the sledge journeys the dogs were harnessed in a fan-shaped group to the traces, and were never run tandem. In traveling, the men were accustomed to hold on to the back of the sledge, never going in front of the team, and often took off their heavy overcoats and threw them on the load. When taking observations with the sextant, Lieutenant Lockwood generally reclined on the snow, while Sergeant Brainerd called time and made notes, as shown in our illustration. When further progress northward was barred by open water, and the party almost miraculously escaped drifting into the Polar sea, Lieutenant Lockwood erected, at the highest point of latitude reached by civilized man, a pyramidal-shaped cache of stones, six feet square at the base, and eight or nine feet high. In a little chamber about a foot square half-way to the apex, and extending to the center of the pile, he placed a self-recording spirit thermometer, a small tin cylinder containing records of the expedition, and then sealed up the aperture with a closely fitting stone. The cache was surmounted with a small American flag made by Mrs. Greely, but there were only thirteen stars, the number of the old revolutionary flag. From the summit of Lockwood Island, the scene presented in our illustration, 2,000 feet above the sea, Lieutenant Lockwood was unable to make out any land to the north or the northwest. "The awful panorama of the Arctic which their elevation spread out before them made a profound impression upon the explorers. The exultation which was natural to the achievement which they found they had accomplished was tempered by the reflections inspired by the sublime desolation of that stern and silent coast and the menace of its unbroken solitude. Beyond to the eastward was the interminable defiance of the unexplored coast—black, cold, and repellent. Below them lay the Arctic Ocean, buried beneath frozen chaos. No words can describe the confusion of this sea of ice—the hopeless asperity of it, the weariness of its torn and tortured surface. Only at the remote horizon did distance and the fallen snow mitigate its roughness and soften its outlines; and beyond it, in the yet unattainable recesses of the great circle, they looked toward the Pole itself. It was a wonderful sight, never to be forgotten, and in some degree a realization of the picture that astronomers conjure to themselves when the moon is nearly full, and they look down into the great plain which is called the Ocean of Storms, and watch the shadows of sterile and airless peaks follow a slow procession across its silver surface."—Illustrated London News.