with pardonable vanity, that the feat was never done before. The view revealed from the top of the island was a veritable apocalypse. There was something unique about the desolate grandeur of the novel surroundings that would cause a man of the Sir Charles Coldstream type to say there "is something in it," and the most hackneyed man of the world would acknowledge a new sensation. It was midnight, and the sun shone with gleaming splendor over all this waste of ice and sea and granite; on one hand Wrangel Island appeared in well-defined outline, on the other an open sea extended northward as far as we were able to make out by the aid of strong glasses. From our position about the middle of the island the two extreme points of Wrangel island bore southwest and west-by-south respectively. In shape, Herald island is something like a boot with a depression at the instep, and at the westernmost extremity, near which it may be climbed with considerable ease, are found a number of jagged peaks and splintered pinnacles of granite, some of which resemble the giant remains of ancient sculpture, all the worse for exposure to the weather. On a promontory 1,400 feet high at the northeast point of the island I placed in a cairn a bottle containing written information of our landing and a copy of the New York Herald of April 23.[1]

Beyond the extraordinary bird life, no signs of life appeared, except a small fox, and a Polar bear. The latter put in an appearance just after we had returned on board at three o'clock in the morning, and the circumstances attending his slaughter, which were about as enlivening as shooting a sheep, put an end to this episode of our mission.

After great difficulty in getting out of the ice we ran all day on Sunday, July 31, along the edge of the pack with Wrangel Island in sight, but were unable to find a favorable lead that would take us nearer the land than twelve or fifteen miles. The principal events that go to make up the record of our cruise for the next ten days were the finding of a ship's lower yard; the fabulous numbers of eider ducks seen off the Siberian coast, and the usual encounters with fogs, bears, and ice.

On the morning of August 11, we were so near the unexplored land that we were most sanguine about getting ashore, although it seemed as if a journey would have first to be made over the ice. In the afternoon the chances were so good that I volunteered to go ashore on the ice on the morning of the 12th in company with Lieutenant Reynolds, Engineer Owen, and two men. Preparations were made accordingly; the skin boat, rations, etc., being got ready, and we spent a restless night in anticipating the events of the coming day. We were called at five o'clock on the morning of the 12th, and while eating a hurried breakfast the ship steamed inshore. We were fully prepared for the undertaking; but finding the leads in the ice more favorable than on the preceding evening, the little steamer jammed and crashed along in a labyrinthine course not without great difficulty, for at times she was completely beset by great masses of ice, which she steamed against at full speed for several minutes before they showed sign of giving way, and it seemed that all endeavors to get out of the pack would be futile. Happily, all these difficulties yielded, and a clear way being seen to a water hole just off the mouth of a river, we anchored in ten fathoms near some grounded floebergs, about a quarter of a mile off shore. A boat was then got away, and on the calm bright morning of August 12, 1881, the first landing on Wrangel Island was accomplished!

On the beach, composed of black slaty shingle, we found the skeleton of a whale from which the baleen was absent; also a quantity of driftwood, some of it twelve inches in diameter; a wooden wedge; a barrel-stave; a piece of a boat's spar and a fragment of a biscuit-box. The river, which we named Clark river, was about one hundred yards wide, two fathoms deep near the mouth, and rapid. From the top of a neighboring cliff, four hundred feet high, it could be seen trending back into the mountains some thirty or thirty-five miles. The mountains, devoid of snow, were seen under favorable circumstances through a rift in the clouds, and appeared brown and naked, with smooth rounded tops. During a tramp of some miles over a muddy way, composed of argillaceous clay and black pebbles, I observed fragments of quartz and granite. Several specimens containing iron pyrites were also found. The cliffs in the vicinity of our landing are composed of slate, and the land over which I travelled seemed almost as barren as a macadamized road; but on searching closely several species of hyperborean plants were found, such as saxifrages, anemones, grasses, lichens and mushrooms. The mosses and lichens were but feebly developed, and the phanerogamous plants were in the same state of severe repression. The following plants were collected; and I am indebted to Professor John Muir for their names:

• Saxifraga flegellaris, Willd.
• stellaris, L. var. cornosa, Poir.
• sileneflora, Sternb.
• hieracifolia, Waldst. & Kit.
• rivularis, L. var. hyperborea, Hook.
• bronchialis, L.
• serpyllifolia, Pursh.
• Anemone parviflora, Michx.
• Papaver nudicaule, L.
• Draba alpina, L.
• Cochleria officinalis, L.
• Artemisia borealis, Willd.
• Nardosmia frigida, Hook.
• Saussurea monticola, Richards.
• Senecio frigidus, Less.
• Potentilla nivea, L.
• frigida, Vill. ?
• Armeria macrocarpa, Pursh.
• vulgaris, Willd.
• Stellaria longipes, Goldie, var. Edwardsii, T. & G.
• Cerastium alpinum, L.
• Gymnandra Stelleri, Cham. & Schlecht.
• Salix polaris, Wahl.
• Luzulu hyperborea, R. Br.
• Poa arctica, R. Br.
• Aira cæspitosa, L. var. Arctica.
• Alopecurus alpinus, Smith.

I made a collection of several spiders and of some larvæ. The spider, it appears, is an "undescribed species of Erigone," and the larvæ are probably lepidopterous. A small shrike was also secured as a specimen. We saw several species of gulls, a snowy owl—which by the way was very shy—a few lemmings, and the tracks of foxes and of bears.

Microscopic examination of mud obtained from the bottom, in the vicinity of our anchorage, revealed some shells of foraminifera. The density of the sea water, and the dip of the magnetic needle were ascertained here, as well as at other points in the Arctic; and as the observations are entirely new, I give the results in the accompanying tables. The water densities are from observations of Mr. F. E. Owen, Assistant Engineer of the Corwin.

The instruments used in obtaining the results were a thermometer and a hydrometer. Water was drawn at about six feet below the surface and heated to a temperature of 200° F., and the saturation, or specific gravity is shown by the depth to which the hydrometer sank in the water. As sea water commonly contains one part of saline matter to thirty-two parts of water, the instrument is marked in thirty-seconds, as 1⁄32, 2⁄32, etc., and the densities are fractional parts of one thirty-second: