On the other hand, it may be that ranges of mountains covered with perpetual snow, and valleys piled up with huge glacial accumulations, extend all the way to the Pole, and thus give to our globe an Arctic ice-cap like that displayed on the planet Mars. This, however, is very improbable, for, if it were the case, we ought to find a circumpolar ice-wall like that of the Antarctic regions, and the Arctic Ocean beyond the North Cape should be crowded with icebergs instead of being open and iceless all the year round. With such a configuration the ice-wall should reach Spitzbergen and stretch across to Nova Zembla; but, instead of this, we have there such an open stretch of Arctic water, that in the summer of 1876 Captain Kjelsen, of Tromsö, sailed in a whaler to lat. 81° 30' without sighting ice. He was then but 510 geographical miles from the Pole with open sea right away to his north horizon, and nobody can say how much farther. These problems may all be solved by the proposed expedition. The men are ready and willing; one volunteer has even promised £1,000 on condition that he shall be allowed to have a seat in one of the balloons. All that is wanted are the necessary funds, and the amount required is but a small fraction of what is annually expended at our racecourses upon villanous concoctions of carbonic acid and methylated cyder bearing the name of "champagne." Arrangements are being made to start next May, but in the mean time many preliminary experiments are required. One of these, concerning which I have been boring Commander Cheyne and the committee, is a thorough and practical trial of the staying properties of hydrogen gas when confined in given silken or other fabrics saturated with given varnishes. We are still ignorant on this fundamental point. We know something about coal gas, but little or nothing of the hydrogen, such as must be used in the forthgoing expedition. Its exosmosis, as proved by Graham, depends upon its adhesion to the surface of the substance confining it. Every gas has its own speciality in this respect, and a membrane that confines a hydrocarbon like coal gas may be very unsuitable for pure hydrogen, or vice versa. Hydrogen passes through hard steel, carbonic oxide through red-hot iron plates, and so on with other gases. They are guilty of most improbable proceedings in the matter of penetrating apparently impenetrable substances. The safety of the aëronauts and the success of the aërial exploration primarily depends upon the length of time that the balloons can be kept afloat in the air. A sort of humanitarian cry has been raised against this expedition, VOL. CCXLVII. NO. 1795. I on the ground that unnaturally good people (of whom we now meet so many) should not be guilty of aiding and abetting a scheme that may cause the sacrifice of human life. These kind friends may be assured that, in spite of their scruples, the attempt will be made by men who share none of their fears, unless the preliminary experiments prove that a balloon cannot be kept up long enough. Therefore the best way to save their lives is to subscribe at once for the preliminary expense of making these trials, which will either discover means of travelling safely, or demonstrate the impossibility of such ballooning altogether. Such experiments will have considerable scientific value in themselves, and may solve other problems than those of Arctic exploration. Why not apply balloons to African exploration or the crossing of Australia? The only reply to this is that we know too little of the prac tical possibilities of such a method of travelling when thus applied. Hitherto the balloon has only been a sensational toy. We know well enough that it cannot be steered in a predetermined line, ie. from one point to another given point, but this is quite a different problem from sailing over a given surface of considerable area. This can be done to a considerable extent, but we want to know definitely to what extent, and what are the limits of reliability and safety. With this knowledge and its application by the brave and skilful men who are so eager to start, the solution of the Polar mystery assumes a new and far more hopeful phase than it has ever before presented. W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS. 115 A SCOTCH HOLIDAY. `ARE'S fardel flung away-how sweet CA To climb once more a slate-jagged mount, Mistwrapped, and muffled at its feet In ruddy firs, to track the fount Of some torn river from the moor The sense of liberty, the breath From wind-swept peak and dew-dashed flowr's— These animate that living death Which holds in bondage our best hours, And then the gleaming thread which flings He was not wrong, that Attic sage, Who bade men search for Beauty's self, My father! on this ruder shore Thy scholar thanks thee for the lore! The poet with his eyes unsealed Feasts where a common mind finds nought, And mountain mysteries revealed To him creative wealth have brought; Nature for him grave knowledge keeps, E'en we more humble wooers joy- The smiles her wilfulness may deign; At eve by Tummel's roar to stray, To watch Schehallion's mist-wreathed crown, Or greater giants in shadowy grey, That o'er their sleeping brethren frown; An old renown broods o'er this land; Mute guardians of the gallant tale Here Peace has fixed her stable throne On rocks as firm, and discontent With Scotland's kindly voices blent ; Where heath-tufts blaze or trout-stream runs ; And bare-legged lads, and lassies shy, A stranger oft must thank this land; To Scotland; nor can words now tell Adieu! my holiday is dead! Its wild-flowers will not bloom anew ; The loved hills fade in tender blue; M. G. WATKINS. 117 FOR TABLE TALK. ‘OR many reasons—among which may be counted the fact that a different course would convert into a mere obituary the pages now assigned to Table Talk-I do not ordinarily chronicle the death of men of eminence. So closely connected, however, during a long and honourable life, with the kind of studies it has been a special object of the Gentleman's Magazine to foster, with the magazine itself and with those responsible for its management, was the late James Robinson Planché, that some allusion to his life and labours is demanded. Foremost among modern antiquaries, not only in research and in that exactitude which it is the special province of antiquarianism to inculcate, but in the power of co-ordinating details and in the quality of quickening into vitality what in other hands is mere archæological lumber, Mr. Planché did much to fix the bases of modern research, and supplied materials out of which, with little or no acknowledgment, more than one high-class reputation has been established, To the knowledge of heraldry which he acquired in early years, he owed his successive appointments in the Herald's Office, the final dignity awarded him in that mysterious branch of the public service being Somerset Herald. To the public generally he was best known as a dramatist, the list of his plays approaching in length that of Heywood or some other writer of the Shakespearean epoch. During many consecutive years he supplied the stage with a series of extravaganzas which, in elegance of diction, happiness of treatment, and quaintness and pleasantness of humour, have never been surpassed. Besides these works, which constitute a class in themselves, he wrote, adapted, or translated comedies without number, and he even succeeded in the remarkable feat of rendering acceptable to the English play-goer a drama of "Aristophanes." His long life enabled him, in a period which most men assign to repose, to see through the press the three works by which he is likely to be best remembered, the "Recollections," for the production of which he was specially fitted by his social popularity, no less than by his curious experiences and his fine memory; the collection of his Ex |