The accounts of the Arctic Expedition are most favourable. 'The
weather, it appears, is determined not to disgrace itself in all parts of the world at once. In Europe and Asia it has been most unreasonable, and if swearing be a crime, has added heavily to the -criminality of the world ; but up there, behind the wind, where there is no one to swear at it, and bears and seals get their great- coats for nothing, and the whales' mackintoshes protect them even -against the rain of 1875, the weather has been quite benign. Captain Nares writes on July 27, that the season was most favour- able, and he expected to be within Smith's Sound in two days. Captain Markham, of the Alert,' even thinks, as he says in a letter to Rear-Admiral G. H. Richards (July 24), that they may be able to steam straight up to the North Pole this year. On July 26,- having passed Cape York, he expects soon to reach Littleton Island, and says not a epeck of ice can be seen to the northward, and _the temperature pf the water is high. Here the veil drops, but rev know front Captain Young, of the Pandora,' who brought these letters, that these favourable conditions continued through- out August.
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