The command, it is reported, will be given to Commander Markham, now serving on board H.M.S. Sultan, The arrangements are being made thus early in order that the officers may at once apply themselves to the further acquire ment of the special scientific knowledge re quired. For years we have yielded our post of honor in this field of daring enterprise to America, Germany, and even inland Austria, and the resumption of our old place in the van of Arctic discovery is hailed with satis faction throughout the country. So popular is the movement in the navy that the Ad mirals Superintendent at the different ports are already overwhelmed with applications from volunteers—both officers and men. The cost of the expedition is estimated at £30,000 a year. Lady Franklin has taken the oppor tunity to announce that her reward of £2OOO for the recovery of the official records of Sir John Franklin’s expedition still holds good. Interesting news has been received from Colonel Gordon, who is exploring the Upper Nile. On the sth September he was at Gon dokoro, fully confident of being able to launch the steamer, sent outfrom England in sections, on the famous Albert Nyanza, before the end of September. News has also arrived from Mr H. M. Stanley, who is now in East Africa continuing, under the auspicies of the New York Herald and the London Daily Telegraph , Livingstone’s work. His letter, a long and interesting one, appeared in the above journals on the morning of the 24tb, simultaneously in London and New York, a sign of the times, over which the Daily Telegraphne.tma.Wy, and perhaps pardonably, has its little gush. Mr Stanley’s expedition is equipped and maintained by these two journals, and a little flourish of trumpets over their own spirited conduct is excusable. So far Mr Stanley’s labors have been con fined to ascertaining the navigability of the Rufiji river, an important gateway to East- Central Africa and the main passage of the slave traffic in those, parts. For a steam launch of light draught the river is practi cable for a distance of 240 miles inland, and of the prospect of trade in the surrounding region, rich in copal diggings and ivory, Mr Stanley draws a glowing picture. Copal is a substance largely used for making carriage varnish, and the supply in. these districts is described as inexhaustible. 