lifax.

* * * * *

The Cubans are keeping up an astonishingly vigorous campaign. The
hardest fighting of late has taken place in the eastern part of the
island.

A severe battle was fought on February 18th and 19th, at Puerto
Principe, in which the insurgents were worsted by Gen. Jiminez
Castellanos, losing in all one hundred and eighty-one men, and being
obliged to abandon more than eighty men who lay dead on the field. It is
reported that included among those killed were Colonel Rodriguez,
Commandant Angel Rocio, and other officers.

The losses of the Spanish were much smaller, but it is said that
Lieutenant Porajo was killed. The Spaniards captured a number of horses
and considerable ammunition.

In the province of Santiago de Cuba, General Pardo has been fighting
with the insurgent forces under General Garcia and General Rabi. The
engagements lasted through six days, resulting, it is said, in the loss
of eighty men on the Spanish side. In this province the Cubans have
succeeded in fortifying themselves very strongly.

A cablegram from Madrid has stated that of late there has been a great
increase in the number of Spanish troops mentioned in the official news
as having been killed in Cuba.

ARCTIC EXPLORATION.

Arctic exploration may be said to have begun in the sixteenth century,
and since that time daring sailors of all nations have gone into the icy
regions, many of them never to return.

At that time the search for "The Indies" was so diligently pushed that
mariners tried every way of getting to the West. Failing to find any
short route to the South, their attention was turned to the idea of
passing around north of the new continent which we now call America, and
this desired route was spoken of as the Northwest Passage. Expeditions
have passed westward a long way in open water north of the continent,
and, coming through to the Pacific, have reached the far East, but there
still remains a largely unexplored and almost impassable icy barrier.

As an instance of the aim of the early expeditions, the following
quotation from the old records may be interesting. It describes the
object of an expedition which left England in 1553 as being "For the
search and discovery of the Northern parts of the world, to open a way
and passage to our men for travel to new and unknown kingdoms."

All the nations that had shipping interests were active in this search,
the English esp