t, it would be the duty of the Government to offer all possible
encouragement to any suitably organized exploring expedition which
might undertake to seek for this information."

Acting upon a further recommendation in this letter, the Secretary of
the Treasury requested the President of the National Academy of
Sciences to appoint a committee of its members, or others familiar
with the difficult problems involved, "to formulate a plan or scheme
for carrying out a systematic search for the North Magnetic Pole, and
kindred work," and such a committee was subsequently appointed, with
Professor S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, as
chairman.

[Illustration: GENERAL A. W. GREELY.]

The work proposed by this expedition has attracted the attention and
held the interest of scientists everywhere, and material aid from
several scientific bodies has already been pledged toward the securing
of the necessary funds for transporting the party to the field of its
labors, and its maintenance while at work there.

The observers will be selected from among the officers of the United
States Navy attached to the Coast Survey, who have had special
training in magnetic field work. That bureau will also provide the
necessary instruments, but, in the absence of any appropriation that
could be applied to the transportation and maintenance of the party in
the field, the funds for that purpose have to be obtained by the
voluntary contribution of those with means and inclination to aid so
important an enterprise.

Said the late Professor Trowbridge of Columbia College, in a lecture
upon the data to be obtained by this expedition for subsequent expert
discussion, "We are living in an epoch in the world's history when man
is struggling for a higher and more perfect life, not only against the
degrading tendencies of his inherited nature, but to make the forces
of nature subservient to his advancement and well being. Among these
forces there are none which seem to affect or control the conditions
of animal life on the earth more than heat, light, electricity, and
magnetism, all, perhaps, the manifestations of one cosmical agent. As
the variations of the magnetic force appear to follow lesser and
greater cycles, it is not impossible that nearly all terrestrial
phenomena, which depend on causes allied to magnetism, follow similar
cycles. We can now predict the course of storms; may we not hope to
determine their origin and pre