from one dollar up may be sent to Professor
Angelo Heilprin, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.

AN EXPEDITION TO THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE.

BY W. H. GILDER. Author of "Schwatka's Search," "Ice Pack and Tundra,"
etc.

On the Fourth of July, 1879, after a long and tedious journey over
territory never before crossed by man, I stood with Lieutenant
Schwatka on Cape Felix, the most northern point of King William's
Land.

Looking in the direction of the Isthmus of Boothia, not more than
twenty miles to the eastward, across the frozen surface of McClintock
Channel, we could see the snow-covered hills of Cape Adelaide, radiant
with all the tints of the rainbow, in the light of the midnight sun.
It was there that, nearly half a century before, Sir James Ross had
located the North Magnetic Pole. The place is invested with deep
interest to all explorers, but, with us, the pleasure was mitigated by
the knowledge that we were entirely devoid of instruments with which
to improve the opportunity of either verifying the work already done
or continuing it upon the same line of research.

Ever since that time I have been strongly imbued with the desire to
return to that field of labor with a party of observers properly
equipped to make an exhaustive search through that storehouse of
hidden knowledge.

About three years ago I brought the subject uppermost in my mind to
the attention of Professor T. C. Mendenhall, Superintendent of the
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, in Washington, and to that of
his assistant, Professor Charles A. Schott, in charge of the computing
division of that bureau. From the first both of these gentlemen have
been strong advocates of such an expedition.

[Illustration: COLONEL W. H. GILDER.]

"The importance of a redetermination of the geographical position of
the North Magnetic Pole," said Professor Mendenhall, in a letter to
the Secretary of the Treasury written at that time, "has long been
recognized by all interested in the theory of the earth's magnetism
or its application. The point as determined by Ross in the early part
of this century was not located with that degree of accuracy which
modern science demands and permits, and, besides, it is altogether
likely that its position is not a fixed one. Our knowledge of the
secular variation of the magnetic needle would be greatly increased
by better information concerning this Magnetic Pole, and, in my
judgmen