START well on your trip to Europe. Select carefully the steamer that is to bear you across the water. Let not your whole outing be spoiled by an uncomfortable voyage. Don't forget that the time spent on the ocean may be the most enjoyable or the most unpleasant of the whole trip, according to the vessel you take. Sail under the colors of a line that has established a reputation for courteous officers and servants, and you will be certain to have a pleasant voyage, for few things conduce to the comfort and enjoyment of a traveler more than the knowledge that those in whose care he is temporarily committed are gentlemen. Such a reputation has been well earned by the Anchor Line. Everyone who has sailed on the vessels of this famous line has a word of praise for the treatment received while aboard. Mrs. Frank Leslie, whose large experience in ocean traveling fits her to speak authoritatively, says she has never met with more courteous and gentlemanly officers and servants than those found on the Anchor Line steamers.

The Anchor Line operates a fleet of forty magnificent vessels between New York and Liverpool, Bristol, Glasgow, the Mediterranean ports and India; from Glasgow to New York, to Bombay, to Calcutta, to the Mediterranean ports; from India to the Mediterranean ports, to London, to Liverpool and to New York. The value of these steamers exceeds $15,000,000.

The latest addition to the Anchor Line fleet is the City of Rome, running regularly between New York and Glasgow. It is a handsome steamship of 8,415 tons register. As regards speed, com

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fort, safety and general equipment, it has no superior among the "ocean greyhounds." A writer on one of the leading Western daily papers says he has crossed on the Cunard, French and Inman Lines, but that he was never on a boat that pleased him better than the City of Rome.

Passengers on the Anchor Line steamships are furnished with a liberal table, including all the delicacies of the season. The dining saloon, music hall, ladies' boudoir, library and gentlemen's smoking room are all located on the main and spar decks, near the centre of the ship, and by means of electric bells are in communication with the steward's department. All are fitted up in the most elegant and luxurious style, and with every regard to the comfort and convenience of passengers. The staterooms also are located on the main and spar decks. They are large, well lighted, perfectly ventilated and elegantly furnished. Each steamer carries a duly qualified surgeon and experienced stewardesses, and is provided with a piano, organ and select library, including the latest guidebooks of European travel.

When one thinks of the many advantages offered by the Anchor Line-the moderate rates, the comfortable vessels, the splendid accommodations, the excellent table, the courteous treatment, and the hundred and one other advantages which lack of space prevents mentioning here-one does not need to hesitate as to the line he will take in crossing the ocean.

Sailing dates, descriptive circulars and passenger and freight rates may be obtained at Henderson Brothers', Bowling Green, New York city.

GEOGRAPHICAL NEWS.

BY GEORGE C. HURLBUT, SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.

ATTENTION is more and more drawn to exploration and adventure in the frozen zones. Some speculations with regard to Nansen have been published in a letter from Captain Wiggins at Yeniseisk, ou the Yenisei River, dated December 7th, 1893. Captain Wiggins found the ice very close inshore to the northward of Dickson Harbor, near the mouth of the Yenisei, last summer; and he is inclined to think that Nansen may have been obliged to go further to the northward: in which case there can be no further report of him until he returns by way of the pole, or retreats through the Novaya Zemlya seas, the Kara Sea, or the coast of Siberia. The probabilities are that the Fram succeeded in passing Cape Chelyuskin (Severo Vostochnoi) in 103° 43 E. Long., and that nothing will be heard of her for some years. Dr. John Murray, of the Challenger expedition, expresses himself on the subject in these words: Nansen may be five or many more years in passing across the Arctic basin; he may fail a'together; but I shall be disappointed if he be not heard of to the north of Spitzbergen during the summer after next." Mr. F. G. Jackson, who set out last year to explore

the Yanmal, or Samoied Peninsula, could not get beyond Waigats Island, the Samoieds refusing to help him across the strait. These people are, he declares, the filthiest he ever met, and other travelers say much the same thing. During the winter in Waigats he tested his outfit for Arctic travel and acquired experience. The most useful articles were a sack of Scotch oatmeal and a spirit lamp. Since his return to England Mr. Jackson has perfected his plans for a journey to Franz-Josef Land, and as far as possible toward the pole. He will go by ship to the southern end of Franz-Josef Land, and thence to the north

in a sledge drawn by dogs or by Russian ponies; and he thinks the land continues as far as the pole. He will build a house in which to pass next winter, and make his stand in the spring, establishing food depots every thirty or forty miles of the way, so that he will find supplies on his return. The whole cost of this expedition will be borne by Mr. Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, of Elmwood St. Peter's, Kent. During the summer of 1893 the Danish officers Lieutenant Garde and Ensign Moltke made a journey of exploration nearly across the inland ice of Greenland. The start was made at Sermitsialik Fiord, on the west coast, at about 61° N. Lat. The route traveled. was to the northeast, then to the northwest, then north, then west, aud lastly in a line almost directly south to the starting point; the whole considerably to the south of Nansen's route in the crossing from the east to the west coast, at Godthaab. The highest point on the inland ice was 7,150 feet, the dividing ridge which approaches the west coast in Southern Greenland, while Peary found it nearer the east coast in North Greenland. The ice cap in Southern Greenland is completely smooth and unbroken by mountains, or nunataks, as the Eskimo call them. The journey was made at the time of the summer solstice and Lieutenant Garde noticed the enormous loss of the snow by evaporation. When the tent was pitched in the morning the snow floor was soon trampled hard and packed so that it was considerably below the level of the outer snow. At midnight, when the tent was struck for the march, the snow within the tent was always a good deal higher than the level of that exposed to the sun. Mr. Robert Stein's project for the exploration of Ellesmere Land, as

the beginning of a systematic reconnoissance of the Arctic regions, meets with the approval of all who know the conditions of Arctic travel and discovery. The interest in the ma'ter grows, and Mr. Stein is urging forward his preparations with all energy; but the details are many, and the progress toward the starting point seems to be slow. Nevertheless, there is reason to believe that all the difficulties in the way will be overcome by the early summer. A project first announced at the end of February has been elaborated and put into execution, so far as the start is concerned. Mr. Walter Wellman, a Washington journalist, together with Professor Owen B. French, astronomical observer, Dr. T. B. Mohun, physician, and Charles G. Dodge, astronomer, left New York in the Britannic in the middle of March for what Mr. Wellman calls a dash at the North Pole. The object is to find out the truth “about these polar regions." Mr. Wellman's plan is to go from Hull to Aalesund, in Norway, there to be joined by four professors from Christiania and a dozen young men of leisure. The party will leave Aalesund April 24th, and arrive at Tromsöe May 1st. Headquarters will be established at the northwest corner of Spitzbergen. From this point it is proposed to travel to the southern edge of the ice pack, and there to disembark with fourteen men, three boats, five sledges and sixty dogs. The party will push ing back to headquarters and seven continuing to the forward for twenty-five days and then separate-seven gonorth for twenty-five days more. Mr. Wellman expects to return to America by the 1st of October. It is to be hoped he may. It appears that Ekroll's expedition, which was to have left Spitzbergen in the month of June, 1893, has come to naught.

der consideration.

THE Antarctic has not been forgotten. Dr. Cook is still engaged in organizing his expedition, with good prospect of making a start at the time proposed, so as to take advantage of the summer in the Southern Hemisphere. The English expedition, advocated by Dr. Murray, is still unIt has excited great interest in Australia, as was to be expected; and a project, agreeing in the main with Dr. Murray's, has been sketched by Dr. Neumayer in Cermany. He proposes that the Germans send a party to Kerguelen Island or Macdonald Island to establish a depot, and that the staff of observers be landed on Kemp or on Enderby Island. He would send two vessels of 450 tons, each manned by fifty men, including five officers aud six scientists. He thinks that observations in the Antarctic are indispensable for the solution of several problems in terrestrial physics.

MR. WILLIAM ASTOR CHANLER'S expedition to the region of Mount Kenia, the great mountain on the equator in British East Africa, well equipped as it was, met with bad fortune almost from the start, and has failed. It left Lamu, September 18th, 1892, with 185 men and a strong caravan of camels, donkeys and cattle. Lieutenant von Höhnel, of the Austrian Navy, who had traveled in East Africa with Count Teleki, accompanied Mr. Chanler. The party had gone but a little distance when the beasts began to die, and before long the caravan came to a halt. Efforts to procure animals were partially successful, and the march was continued to the Djambeni Plateau, 7,000 feet high; but the Embe tribe would furnish no cattle. Thus the party struggled on, baffled on every hand, and unable to follow any settled plan. Lieutenant von Höhnel was severely hurt by a rhinoceros and had to be carried to Mombasa, and many of the men deserted. Mr. Chanler, at the last reports, was trying to make his way to the coast.