"3. It appears very desirable, and so far as scientific preparations are concerned, possible, to commence these Arctic explorations in the year 1877.
"4. The commission is convinced that an exploration of the Arctic regions, based on such principles, will furnish valuable results, even if limited to the region between Greenland and Spitzbergen; but it is also of opinion that an exhaustive solution of the problems to be solved can only be expected when the exploration is extended over the whole Arctic zone, and when other countries take their share in the undertaking.
"The commission recommends, therefore, that the principles adopted for the German undertaking should be communicated to the governments of the States which take interest in Arctic inquiry, in order to establish, if possible, a complete circle of observing stations in the Arctic zones."
It will be observed that the Germans looked forward to occupying the adjacent parts of Greenland and Spitzbergen as their share of a line of outposts to be established by different nations around the Arctic circle. In any such scheme America would necessarily be called on to bear a part, and by Captain Howgate's plan her station would be the line of Smith's Sound and its northern prolongations. This is certainly her natural field, and is not only the roadway by which most of our explorers have made their attempts to reach the pole, and therefore hallowed by their historical struggles, but it is also that portion of the Arctic region which lies nearest us. It is emphatically a home field to us.
Twenty-seven meteors fell in the United States, and two earthquake shocks were experienced, in February.
When the Great Eastern was recently cleaned 300 tons of barnacles were scraped from her bottom, an area of more than 52,000 square feet.
During the hurricane of January 30 the waves in the British channel were forty feet high as measured by a mareograph.
In December, while the snow was blocking the roads of this country, Australia enjoyed a temperature of 110 to 116 in the shade.
Search has again been made for the planet Vulcan, the existence of which is indicated by Leverrier's calculations, but without success.