Every Arctic navigator of experience agrees with Melville's dictum that, even if built solid, a vessel could not withstand the ice-pressure of the heavy polar pack. Even if the strength of the ship should be such as successfully to resist the pressure, or if her lines would enable her to rise unharmed above the closing floes, yet the dangers are nearly as great from the disruption of the pack, or from the pressure of overhanging ice masses which Back experienced in the "Terror" and Hall in the "Polaris."

But it may be said that the experience of the "Terror" in Hudson Strait and of the "Polaris" in Thank God Harbor need not be feared in the proposed route, since Nansen reassuringly states that "along the Siberian coast as well as in the sea north of Bering Strait, the ice is always comparatively thin (seven to ten feet)." One needs only to consult Melville's "In the Lena Delta" to see how fully the actual experience of the "Jeannette" refutes the opinion of Dr. Nansen. Melville, giving an account of the gale in January, 1880, says:

*

...

"The placid and almost level surface of ice suddenly heaved and swelled into great hills. . . . Giant blocks pitched and rolled. . . . Sunk in an amphitheatre, above five eighths of a mile in diameter, lay the ship, the great bank of moving ice, puffed in places to a height of fifty feet, gradually inclosing her on all sides. . . . Certain it is that had the 'Jeannette' been two hundred yards in any direction out of the exact spot she then occupied on the floe, she would have been overwhelmed and destroyed by the grinding masses, as readily as a 'sojer crab' on the beach is buried beneath the roll of the surf."

In another place,† describing a scene where the "Jeannette" duplicated the experience of the "Terror," Melville says:

"Huge floe-bergs as large as churches bobbed up and down like whales. There was imminent danger of the hummocks and bits weighing from twenty to fifty tons toppling over, as they were on all sides crushing or burying her. . . . Suddenly the floe split along the port side, parallel with the keel, leaving a long lane of open water, with the starboard side still imbedded in the ice as in a mould. . . . Should the floe pieces come together again and overlap or under-run, the Jeannette' would be crushed like an egg-shell. . . . The ship became entirely surrounded by the towering, telescoping hills of ice."

The "Hansa" of the second German Arctic expedition, Cap

WILL DR. NANSEN SUCCEED?

tain Koldewey, had lines which enabled her to rise, but she was wrecked nevertheless. The account runs:

"But soon some mighty blocks of ice pushed themselves under the bow of the vessel, and although they were crushed by it, they forced it up, slowly at first, then quicker, until it was raised seventeen feet out of its former position on the ice."

Lastly, all drift experiences have entailed terrible hardships and dangers, even when the explorers have been floating toward daylight and warmth, as in the boat journey of the “Polaris” in Baffin Bay and in that of the "Hansa" on the east coast of Greenland. Note one instance only after the loss of the "Hansa ":*

"The floe surrounding us split up; a heavy sea arose. to break on all sides. On the spot between our house and the piled-up Our field began store of wood, which was about twenty-five paces distant, there suddenly opened a huge gap. Washed by the powerful waves, it seemed as the piece just broken off was about to fall upon us, and at the same time we felt the rising and the falling of our now greatly reduced floe. All seemed lost. From our split-up ice-field all the firewood was drifting into the raging sea. And in like manner we had nearly lost our boat 'Bismarck'; even the whale boat was obliged to be brought for safety into the middle of the floe. The large boat, being too heavy to handle, we were obliged to give up entirely. All this in a temperature of -9.5° C. (+15° Fahr.) and in a heavy storm, was an arduous piece of work. The community was divided into two parts. We bade each other good-by with a farewell shake of the hands, for the next moment we might go down."

Equal dangers could be quoted from the record of the "Polaris” drift, and from my own experiences—but enough. Imagine, if one can, the horrors which a drift-journey in boats would entail, even in latitude 84°, with five months of unbroken night and continuous cold of extreme severity. Even if the travellers were spared by the ice-pack, disability of a single man from frost bites, scurvy, or other disease would, in a critical situation, necessitate, as in DeLong's case, sacrifice of the main party, or the heartless abandonment of a comrade.

Arctic exploration is sufficiently credited with rashness and danger in its legitimate and sanctioned methods, without bearing the burden of Dr. Nansen's illogical scheme of self-destruction. A. W. GREELY.

"The German Arctic Expedition," Capt. Koldewey, p. 131.

FINANCIAL.

THE CAUSES OF GOLD EXPORTS.

THE shipment of 60 millions of gold to Europe in the short space of a few months, the most of it in less than two months, is an event in finance so notable, as in its causes to be well worth the study of every one interested in the public good.

The magnitude of the movement first arrests attention. What do 60 millions represent? Let us reflect that the entire coin held by the Bank of England, in ordinary times, is only about 100 millions, and that this amount serves mostly for the reserve, not only of that bank itself, but also for all the great banks of London and is, in fact, the pivot on which turn the great commercial transactions of the world of which London is the settling centre. Again, 60 millions is about all the gold remaining in the vaults of the associated banks of New York, the reserves of which play so important a part in the business activities of the United States. This amount, then, is of immense importance, and is so especially at the present time, when the public mind is so sensitive, in view of the great flood of depreciated silver which is being poured into our circulation. Let us, then, look with care into some of the causes of this transfer from our shores of this great amount of the representative of the world's wealth.

The condition of fiscal affairs abroad for some months past has been one of disturbance and apprehension; the great failure of the Barings led prudent men the world over to pause and to prepare for other storms which might follow. Especially did it direct attention to the small reserves of the English banks-relatively much less than our own. Mr. Goschen wisely chided this weakness of those banks in one of his public speeches during the last winter. Distrust on the Continent contributed to similar action on the part of the bankers and brokers there, and we thus witness a strengthening, all along the line, of the reserves of the great institutions of Europe. At the same moment, the great Russian bear reaches out his paw and gathers into his own sub-treasury, called the Imperial Bank, his great deposits of cash, estimated by some as high as 100 millions of dollars.

This concerted scramble for the precious yellow coin strikes at the hoards in the United States in some ways which it will now be of interest to consider. Immense amounts of American securities have been sent to Europe in years past and have been largely marketed there. They have also served as collateral to large loans made by bankers and others, and have thus served to even up, till now, any

balances of trade made against us. We witness now a cessation of such shipment of securities and a calling in of such loans, which have now to be made in our own market. At the same time currency bonds held by European investors have, to some extent, been sent back to be sold; and the proceeds, if not reinvested in bonds payable in gold, have been remitted to the owners. Again, the great importations of the past year, in view of the change in the tariff, have been distributed throughout the country, and every dollar's worth of them, wherever sold, has to be remitted for to New York, where the money makes but a short stop in its transit to Europe. There, heavy importations have continued into the present year, and they are now supplemented by the great tide of American travel, which always plays so important a part in our foreign exchanges. It should be remembered that if the number of travellers is 60,000, and each one spends $1,000, our amount of 60 millions is accounted for at once.

The spring, again, is the time when we have less produce to send abroad, and this is specially felt the present year in consequence of the poor crops of the last year. It is at this season, also, when the rate of exchange is high, that our bankers are in the habit of drawing against their credits, and such drafts, with perhaps one renewal, mature when a lower rate of exchange enables the bankers to repay at a handsome profit. Such drafts, however, at the present time are not, it is supposed, wanted for discount in the great money centres of Europe, and hence gold has to take their place.

It is not improbable, also, that distrust of the currency of our own country has contributed its share to driving from our midst this large stock of the precious metal. Heretofore we have sent abroad annually a large quantity of silver, which now has to be bought and put into circulation at home, and gold has to take its place in the adjustment of our debit balances abroad. The fear of a silver basis on the part of many timid people has led to the locking up of more or less gold; and why should foreign fears be less than our own? It is known, also, that large amounts belonging to the great Canadian banks are usually loaned in this market. It would be easy to transfer some part of such loans to Europe, where it is certain that they would remain gold, and where gold has for the most part, of late, been available at as high a loanable rate as in our own market. While it is not generally believed that the distrust of our being able to remain on a gold basis has been a very important factor in our recent gold exports, yet some mention of it is necessary in enumerating the causes of this movement.

We have thus seen that a combination of conditions has brought about this notable event in finance which we have been considering, and we might indulge a thought of pride that our great country has stood the strain so easily, were it not that we have to remember that the larger part of our remaining circulating medium is of less intrinsic value than the part we have sent away.

G. G. WILLIAMS.

WRITERS IN THE AUGUST FORUM.

DR. FRIEDRICH HEINRICH GEFFCKEN (born in Hamburg, 1830) is professor emeritus of international law in the University of Strasburg and an Imperial Privy Councillor. He is the author, among other books, of "State and Church;" "Socialism;" and "The Papacy."

MR. ISAAC A. HOURWITCH (born of Jewish parents in Russia in 1860) was a political exile in Siberia in 1881-85. In 1887 he was admitted to the bar, and in 1890 he escaped arrest by coming to the United States. He is the author of several sociological monographs.

BARON DE HIRSCH, the Hebrew philanthropist, has given large sums for the relief of his co-religionists in Russia, including $2,400,000, known as the American Baron de Hirsch fund, for the benefit of Russian Hebrew immigrants to this country.

GEN. FRANCIS A. WALKER (born in Boston, 1840) was superintendent of the census in 1870 and 1880. In 1881 he became president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

SEÑOR RICARDO L. TRUMBULL was born of American parents, in Talcahuano, Chili, in 1860. He was graduated at Yale in 1881. In 1888 he was chosen to the Chilian Congress as a Radical, and he is now a confidential agent of the congressional government.

GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY (born in Beverly, Mass., 1855) was graduated at Harvard in 1877. He is by occupation a writer on literary subjects, and a constant writer for critical journals. For the next year he will be professor of English at Columbia College.

MR. SIMON STERNE (born in Philadelphia, 1839) is a lawyer in New York City. He has long been active in railway matters, and is the author of a number of books on public questions.

GEN. LIONEL ALLEN SHELDON (born in Otsego Co., N. Y., 1829) served in Congress in 1869-75. He was governor of New Mexico in 1881-85, and recently has engaged in fruit-culture in California.

MR. EDWARD P. CLARK (born in Huntington, Mass., 1847) is a member of the editorial staff of the New York Evening Post. He was graduated at Yale in 1870 and has since been engaged in journalism.

DR. FRIDTJOF NANSEN was the first Arctic explorer to cross Greenland, performing the journey on foot. He is a Norwegian.

GEN. ADOLPHUS WASHINGTON GREELY (born in Newburyport, Mass., 1844) entered the army in 1861, was in command of the well-known Greely Arctic expedition in 1881, and in 1887 became chief of the signal-service corps. He is the author of "Three Years of Arctic Service."

MR. G. G. WILLIAMS is the president of the Chemical National Bank of New York City.