On July 15, the whaler Alken took a carrier pigeon bearing the following message: "July 13th, 12:30 o'clock noon. Lat 82° 2′, long. 15° 5′ east. Lat 82° 2′, long. 15° 5' east. Good speed eastward, 10° to south. All well on board. This is the third pigeon-post.

"Andrée."

The authenticity of this message was vouched for by Mr. Jonas Stadling, who accompanied Andrée to Dane's Island, knew the kind of paper to be used, and was familiar with Andrée's handwriting. It is difficult to understand how such little progress was made in about 44 hours, for a strong wind was blowing. When we consider that thus two days of the precious fifteen or twenty that the balloon could remain afloat were used with little effect and that at the time of sending the message they were going in a direction a little south of east, it seems fair to conclude that the balloon never crossed the Pole, and that the practicality of Andrée's theory of the utilization of aerial currents for arctic transportation has not been demonstrated. A party sent in search of Andrée returned having found no traces of him. Expeditions in 1898.—In 1898 five Arctic expeditions were undertaken.__ Mr. Frederick Jackson, an Englishman, having returned in the fall of 1897 from Franz

PEARY AND WELLMAN.

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Josef Land, planned another northern voyage which he began in the summer of 1898. His route was along the western coast of Greenland and through Jones Sound, his intentions being to explore the unknown lands supposed to be to the north and west. Captain Otto Sverdrup, who was with Nansen, having secured the loan of the Fram and a subsidy from the Swedish government, sailed from Christiania, June 24. In the expedition were a number of European scientists who proposed to make observations along the coasts of Greenland and Grinnell Land. Although Captain Sverdrup intended to go north through Smith Sound, it was said that he did not expect to reach the Pole. Another Swedish expedition also went north under the com

(By courtesy of Review of Reviews.)

ARCTIC EXPLORATION.-I. Mr. S. A. Andree. 2. The "Fram" leaving Norway. 3. Wellman's "Ragnvald Jarl" crushed by ice. 4. Arctic sledging. 5. Dr. Fridtjof Nansen. 6. Mr. Walter Wellman. 7. Andree's balloon.

mand of Dr. A. G. Nathorst, who accompanied Nordenskjöld in his Greenland expedition of 1883. The Arctic expedition of Mr. Walter Wellman sailed from Tromsö, Norway, June 26, in the ice-steamer Fridtjof with a crew of nine men. Mr. Wellman, who is an American from Ohio, has for years been interested in Arctic discovery, and in 1893 tried to reach the Pole, but his ship was crushed in the ice and he returned in 1894. The expedition of 1898 was a repetition of his former attempt, the base of supplies, however, being in Franz Josef Land instead of Spitzbergen. Mr. Wellman's chief purpose was to find the Pole, but he also hoped to see some trace of Andrée, while the scientists accompanying him, among whom were Professor Gore of the Columbian University, and Lieutenant Baldwin of the Weather Bureau, expected to make surveys and scientific investigations, especially in gravity and magnetism. The expedition, having taken supplies and Siberian draft dogs at Archangel, put about for Cape Flora, expecting to reach there between August I and 15. At this point a supply station was to be located. The scientists were to go no further north, but Mr. Wellman with five others, all of whom were probably Norwegian seal and walrus hunters, expected to go on, wintering near Cape Fligely, which is 550 statute miles from the Pole. In the spring of 1899 the dash for the Pole would be made.

The Peary Expedition.-It is likely that Lieutenant Robert C. Peary's expedition will prove to be the most important of the year. Lieutenant Peary's account of his Arctic explorations. Northward Over the Great Ice, was published in the spring of 1898. A résumé of these expeditions may enable one better to understand the plans and purposes of the great voyage of this year. His first Greenland expedition was made in 1886, while the most important hitherto are those of 1892 and 1895. From '93 to '95 he made a number of unimportant excursions with three or four persons beyond the ice-cap. His attempt in '95 to make a sledge journey across northern Greenland, though successful, was attended with great suffering and was SO disastrous that Peary was two years in recovering from its effects. In 1896 he made a sixth voyage to Greenland for the purpose of bringing back the 100-ton meteorite at Cape York but on account of the ice he was unsuccessful.

The experience gained in these years of Arctic exploration led Lieut. Peary to introduce new and successful methods of procedure. The important features are the utilization of the inland ice as the road, with but two or three in the party, the supplies being carried on sledges by quite a large number of Eskimo dogs. A large proportion of these dogs are gradually fed to the others. Lieut. Peary says that the maximum value of this plan would be, "that the two men would subsist during the last four or five days of their return march upon the flesh of their last dog, he previously having eaten all his comrades. This maximum value was nearly reached in my 1895 journey." In this journey of 1895, he exhausted the possibilities of his overland method in Greenland, having reached the northern land limits. On account of this he planned his great expedition of 1898 across the ice of the Polar Sea north of Greenland, still adhering to the methods already developed, with the exception of the inland-ice route, but ready to modify them as occasion might demand. From the fact that Jackson and Nansen, returning from their expeditions, announced that Franz Josef Land was not an Arctic continent but rather a small archipelago, and from the fact that the Fram in drifting three years through the Siberian segment of the polar basin came in sight of no land to the northward, Lieut. Peary concluded that the Pole could be reached only in some other way. As the land north of the mainland of Greenland was the most northern known, hè determined to make this his base, his route being through Smith Sound, Kane Basin, Robeson Channel, and along the northwestern coast of Greenland. He planned to force his way by ship to Sherard Osborn Fiord or farther, land his people and stores, and send the vessel back; by advancing northward as soon as the freezing of the ice would allow sledge travel, he expected to be at the northern terminus of the North Greenland Archipelago with his party and most of his supplies in the early spring of 1899. This is in latitude about 85° or 330 statute miles from the Pole. From this point the last stage of the journey would be made over the frozen sea with two Eskimos, picked dogs, and light equipment. Should the ice conditions, however, prove unfavorable, he would be prepared to wait a year or a number of years; while the ship would return each summer, or every other summer, with supplies. While waiting for favorable conditions, a detailed survey of the Archipelago could be made. The special points in favor of Lieut. Peary's plan are: The employment of native Eskimos, who have learned to know and love Peary and in whom he can trust; a fixed point of return, rather than Nansen's plan of a drifting ship, and stores at each prominent headland; the assurance of the possibility of retreat without help from the ship.

In the spring of 1897 Lieut. Peary secured a five years' leave of absence from the Navy Department, and in the summer made a preliminary voyage to confer with the tribe of Smith Sound Eskimos and have them prepare to help him in 1898. The

Hope sailed from Boston, July 19; Peary touched at Cape York and took aboard the great meteorite that he had failed to obtain the previous year. He brought it to New York. The Eskimos, selected for the colony at Sherard Fiord, showed much childish enthusiasm to undertake the expedition, and were all tried men personally known by Lieut. Peary. The fact that he determined to work as simply as possible, to follow in the main the customs of the Eskimos, to live in snow houses, and to make the last stage of his journey with "the smallest party with lightest equipment and the fewest necessities," leads one to await the result of this expedition with no small degree of expectancy and hope. Lieut. Peary has the endorsement of the Royal Geographical Society of London, the Royal Scottish Geographical Society of Edinburgh, and the American Geographical Society.

ARGENTINA, a republic on the Atlantic coast of southern South America, comprises fourteen provinces and nine territories, whose aggregate area is estimated at 1,778,195 square miles, and whose population according to the census of 1895 was 3,954,911. There are about 30,000 Indians. There has been a steady increase of the population since the year 1869 (4.6 per cent. per annum) and the statistics of immigration since 1892 would seem to show that the rate of increase is growing. In the consular report of January 1898, a letter from the minister of the United States to Argentine Republic, bearing date of September 22, 1897, gives some important data regarding the immigration into the Argentine Republic during 1896. The total was 164,218, of whom 75,204 were Italians, 18,051 Spaniards, 3,486 French, 1,039 Germans. The other nationalities in the order of their importance were Austrians, Turks, Swiss, Russians, English, Belgians, and Moors. The number of immigrants from other nations was in each case less than 200. In religion the great majority of the immigrants were Roman Catholics and in profession a great majority were agriculturists. The immigration since 1873 has fluctuated considerably. In the five year period 1873-77 the immigrants numbered 253,965. In the period from 1888 to 1892 they numbered 652,526. The foreign inhabitants of Argentina in 1895 numbered 1,004,527. The largest and most populous province is Buenos Ayres, which, exclusive of the city of the same name, has an area of 63,000 square miles and a population of 921,168. The province Jujuy is the least populous (49,712), averaging 1.8 a square mile. The largest and least populous district is the territory Santa Cruz, whose area is 182,500 square miles and whose population is placed at 1,058, or .005 a square mile. In 1897 the capital, Buenos Ayres, had a population of 726,917, of whom over 346,000 were foreigners. Other cities of importance, with populations for 1895, are Rosario, 94,025; Cordoba, 47,609; La Plata (which is the new capital of the province of Buenos Ayres and was founded in 1884), 45,410; Tucuman, 34,300; Mendoza, 28,709; Santa Fé, 24,755; Paraná, 24,261; Salta, 16,600; Corrientes, 16,129; San Juan, 10,410.

Government. According to the constitution which was adopted in 1853 and modified in 1860, and which with a few exceptions is like that of the United States, the executive authority is vested in a President chosen for six years by an electoral college representing the fourteen provinces and having twice as many members as there are Senators and Deputies combined. He is commander-in-chief of the army. He is assisted by a ministry, appointed by himself, and which with himself is responsible to Congress, consisting of five departments, namely, the Interior, Finance, War, Foreign Affairs, Justice, and Agriculture. The President in 1898 was Don Julio A. Roca. The legislative authority devolves upon a Congress of two houses, a Senate and a House of Deputies. The members of the former number 30, two being elected by the legislature of each province, and two by special elections at the capital. The Deputies, elected by popular vote, are 86 in number. Deputies are chosen for four years and Senators for nine. The latter must have an annual income of 12,000 pesos. Congress meets each year from May 1 to September 30. The provinces elect their own legislators and governors and may contract loans on their own responsibility. Each State has its own judicial system, but the constitution provides for trial by jury in criminal cases. There are local and inferior courts, and a court of appeal, known as the Supreme Court, consisting of five judges and an attorney-general. Finance.-The revenue and expenditure of Argentina have been as follows: