i 70 Chapter V. 



north arain. East of us were many islands or 



*-) J 



points with solid ice between them, and we followed 

 the edge of the ice. All the morning- we went north 

 along the land against a strong current. There seemed 



fj <j fj 



to be no end to this land. Its discrepancy with every 

 known map grew more and more remarkable, and I was 

 in no slight dilemma. We had for long been far to 

 the north of the most northern island indicated by 

 Nordenskiold.* My diary this day tells of great uncer- 

 taint} r . " This land (or these islands, or whatever it is) 

 goes confoundedly far north. If it is a group of islands 

 they are tolerably large ones. It has often the appearance 

 of connected land, with fjords and points ; but the weather 

 is too thick for us to get a proper view. . . Can this that 

 we are now coasting along be the Taimur Island of the 

 Russian maps (or more precisely, Lapteffs map), and is 

 it separated from the mainland by the broad strait 

 indicated by him, w r hilst Nordenskiold's Taimur Island 

 is what Lapteff has mapped as a projecting tongue of 

 land ? This supposition would explain everything, and 

 our observations would also fit in with it. Is it possible 

 that Nordenskiold found this strait, and took it for Taimur 

 Strait, whilst in reality it was a new one ; and that he 



' r It is true that in his account of the voyage he expressly states that 

 the continued very thick fog " prevented us from doing more than 

 mapping out most vaguely the islands among and past which the l^'gii 

 sought her way.'' 



