sea was perfectly clear of ice, while at other | Mr. Baske, in 1775, reasoning from the times it set in with a rapidity which almost journals and narratives of whale-ship comprecluded escape. manders and Russian accounts, comes to Now, if it were all ice beyond Spitzbergen the very same conclusion as the writer, that to the north, how could fields of ice be de- there cannot be an ice-bound sea to the tached and driven southwardly with such north-east of Spitzbergen, inasmuch as navirapidity? Pennant, in his "Arctic Zoöl- gators often meet with a great north-east ogy" (L.LXXXIV), mentions that it is well swell near the Seven Islands, which proves known that, while the coasts of Siberia are that in that direction the sea must be free of often rendered inaccessible to ships by the ice for a considerable distance. His idea is polar ice, driven upon them by a northern that the ice in the European Arctic Ocean tempest, a strong southern wind will so en- comes originally from the Tartarian rivers tirely force it off again as to make the shores and shallow gulfs. His conclusion is that, of the frozen ocean as clear as the equatorial generally, all ships which reached 82° north seas. Do not these facts present the clearest met with little or no obstruction from ice. proof that the polar sea cannot be entirely To these facts we may add the deductions ice-bound, for, if it were even comparatively of the noted English experimental philososo, how could the ice be driven to and fro pher, astronomer, and mechanician, Dr. Robwith such rapidity as to cover the whole ert Hooke, who delivered a course of lecvisible expanse with impenetrable fields and tures at London, about the middle of the bergs to-day, and afford hundreds of square eighteenth century, in which he demonmiles of unimpeded navigation on the mor- strated (examine in Posthumous Works, p. row? Is it not the height of folly to imag- 357), from facts and analogy, that there must ine that such could be the case, and is it not be an open sea at the North Pole. just as reasonable to declare the ocean impassable because one or two expeditions have been driven back to port by a storm, as to believe in the stereotyped error that the polar sea is unnavigable on account of ice, because one or two attempts to explore it to the north of Spitzbergen, met, in certain latitudes, with an accidental, impenetrable barrier of ice?

We have seen that Barentz, while frozen in upon the coast of Nova Zembla, heard the outside ice which beset him broken up with a most horrible noise by an impetuous sea from the north, which confirms the invariable tradition of the Samoyedes, Tartars, and Russians who inhabit the shores of Western Siberia, beyond the straits of Weighgatt (vulgarly Waygatt) or Nassau (Dutch), Karsky (Russian), between Vaigalch and Nova Zembla-that the sea is open to the north of the latter island throughout the year. Some of the Russians who first wintered upon Maloy Brun, or Berum, an island east of the Spitzbergen group, as well as upon that group itself, still further confirm the statements of Barentz (the great Dutch "Ice Pilot of the Sixteenth Century "), by affirming that the northern seas are still navigable till the middle of December.

Wrangel, the Russian arctic explorer, is still more conclusive in his attestation; viz., that from whatever point of the northern and north-eastern coasts of Siberia his departure was taken, after a journey over the ice, of more or less continuance, his sledges were arrested by open water, and he "beheld the wide, immeasurable ocean spread before our gaze, a fearful and magnificent, but to us a melancholy, spectacle!"

With all this information before us, have we still a right to doubt the relations of what is said to have occurred a thousand years ago?

In the time of King Alfred, A.D. 871, as related in Orosius, Ochter, sailing to the north-east from the North Cape in search of walrus ivory, navigated the Arctic Ocean east of Spitzbergen, and brought back authentic accounts of his discoveries in those seas. At this time the ocean, styled, in error, the Frozen Ocean, was often resorted to by adventurous fishermen, the truths of whose narratives have been confirmed by recent navigators, who recognize in the very course followed from seven to ten centuries ago, the track which brought them nearest to the pole.

Nicholas of Lynn, a Carmelite friar of great learning, and an able astronomer, made five voyages to the polar regions in the middle of the fourteenth century. In one of these he is said to have reached the most distant islands of the north. He dedicated an account of his discoveries from 54° north to the pole (is it not more likely that he intended to say Polar Sea ?), entitled "Inventio Fortunata," to Edward III. of England.

And now to resume proofs of more modern date.

About 1745, Captain Guy, in the ship London, sailed to 81 1-2° north and found the sea open.

Captain James Wilson, in 1754, after sailing through floating ice from 74° to 81° north, emerged into an open sca, and fished for whales in 82° 15', by observation.

In the same year and month Captain Guy reached 83°, and from the masthead saw a

Seven years previous, 1700, Jan Clas Castricum, a Dutchman, in company with Captain Witge Jelles, of Hamburg, fished with success and met but little ice, in 81° 40'. About 1760, a Dutch captain, Hans Der-Two other English ships, likewise in comrick, in company with five other ships, was at 86° north, and saw only some small pieces of floating ice.

In 1665 the states-general of Holland had ships' logs laid before them which corroborated the above; likewise the Journal des One hundred years ago it was a common Scavans for October, 1774. The latter re-thing for the whale fishermen to pursue their marks that the Dutch could add many other adventurous calling several degrees to the instances of their countrymen's having north of Spitzbergen. 800 to 80 1-2° was reached such high northern latitudes. called the "fishing latitude." Captain Fisher M. de Buffon states in his "Natural His-testified that there was no reason to suppose tory" that he was told by persons of credit, there was any permanent ice to the north or among them Dr. Nathan Hickman, F.R.S., that they supposed that Captain Munson's journal, showing that he reached 88° north, might still have been procured in England in 1730. A Dutchman present confirmed the account to M. de Buffon.

Dale, often at 81° north, concur in this opinion.

In 1776, Captain Marshall wrote to Hon. Daines Barrington that he had been informed that the Dutch had sailed as far as 83° 30′ that is, half a degree further than Parry attained over the ice, with all the assistance which the British government could afford him-and Stephens wrote to Dr. Maskelyne, astronomer royal, that in 1774, in the month of May, in company with a Dutch ship, he was driven north by a south south-east wind, to 84 1-2°; that there the cold was not excessive; that his crew wore ordinary clothing; that he met with little ice, less the further they went to the northward; that a north wind brought clear, and that a south wind

damp, cold, and thick, weather. The Dutchman lost his ship by running against a large detached piece of ice, while Stephens returned in safety.

Many other examples might be cited, but they would occupy too much space. Sufficient instances have been noted to satisfy even the sceptical.

In 1746, 1751-2, 1754, 1756, 1759, 1763, 1765-6, 1769, 1771, and 1773 the sea north of Spitzbergen was open so as to afford opportunities of reaching the pole, which proves, what has been asserted in these papers, that such chances do often occur, and that to reach the pole all that is requisite is to be up north at the nick of time, so as to be able to take advantage of them. ANCHOR.

MR. DAVID WYRICK, of this city, who has | If so, what has become of the lost race?-Newrecently been pushing his investigations respect-ark (0.) North American, July 5.

ing our ancient works with more thoroughness

than heretofore, and has made new surveys, A NEW EMIGRATION.-We find in Le Nord traced new lines and made many new discoveries an account of a most remarkable migration now found on Friday last, in one of the little circles or sink holes connected with the larger works, a very curious and interesting relic. Mr. Squier, in his antiquities of New York, says that these sink holes, which are uniformly connected with our ancient works, usually contain human bones; and Mr. Wyrick went out on the Cherry Valley plateau in order to learn, by a careful examination, whether the same thing was true of these sink holes in Ohio. He found no bones, but he was satisfied that the excavation was filled by it, and he found beside a beautiful granite ball, highly polished and of a reddish color, and also a very curious tapering stone five or six inches long, the four sides nearly alike, and on each, in neat Hebrew characters, brief inscriptions, which seem to be characteristic of the old Hebrews, and give new vitality to the old theory that these works are in some way connected with the lost tribes. The inscriptions have been examined carefully by our best Hebrew scholars, and

material other than that which was taken from

translated as follows:

Bdr Ieue-The Word of the Lord. Kdsh Kdshim-The Holy of Holies. Thurth leue-The Law of the Lord. Mlk Artz-The King of the Earth. Our readers will remember that some weeks ago we described a stone whistle taken from a large burial mound. The stone here referred to seems to be of the same general character. It is neatly polished, and the Hebrew characters are very distinctly engraved, neat and orderly. It is a treasure of no ordinary interest, and may possibly unravel the mystery which has so long hung over these interesting remains. Can it be possible that these works are of Hebrew origin?

going on from the Russian to the Turkish possessions. It shows that the nomadic instincts of the old Scythian race are not yet lost. The whole Tartar population of the Crimea, men, women, and children, three hundred thousand Strong, are leaving that fertile peninsula for the rigors and hardships of a life in Asia Minor. The Russian government offers no opposition. Its experience in the Crimean war was sufficient to show that the Tartars never would make good Russian subjects, and in times of danger would always be a cause of weakness rather than of strength. Whole villages rallied to the enemy, serving as entertainers, spies, guides, and at Eupatoria as light troops. These little treasons were pardoned by the treaty of Paris, but the fact was not forgotten by the Russian or by the Tartar. A project was started to remove them to a central portion of the empire, but Alexander has too strong a sense of justice to exile a whole race to what to them would prove a sort of Siberia or Botany Bay, The war, however, roused the national spirit of the Tartars, and the hope which was raised by it of reunion to a race kindred to them in blood, language, and religion, they have at length determined to realize at any cost. The example of the Tcherkesses raised by Turkish emissaries, decided them to in the Caucasus, and the artificial excitement make a general movement this spring, and they have put no seed in the ground. The Russian government consoles itself with the idea that the will attract German emigrants, who are far more extraordinary fertility of the soil of the Crimea valuable to the state, and under whose industry the peninsula may regain its fame of the granary

of the East.-Tribune.

CLAREMONT, AND THE PRINCESS CHAR- basked in the sunshine of court patronage.