FfiB. 28, 1859.] ADDITIONAL NOTICES. 147 



interest of your Society in some considerations to which due weight appears 

 not to have been given in the published report of Dr. Rink's remarks, and of 

 the discussion to which they led. 



The reader of Dr. Kane's narrative cannot fail to have perceived that he 

 parefully guards against the supposition that he claims more for his materials 

 than they deserved at the hands of geographers, and his map is expressly 

 stated to be the result of a mean between Morton's solar observations and his 

 dead reckoning. At the same time each kind of evidence is separately given, 

 so as to enable every one to draw his own conclusions. The reasons which 

 led Dr. Kane to adopt the. method of mean position I do not propose here to 

 discuss ; but it appears to- me obvious that if we reject them, and also the 

 reckoning of Morton, there is nothing left upon which Dr. Rink can have any 

 exception to the latitude assigned, unless he objects to the meridional obser- 

 vations as inaccurately made or reported. I happen to know that before 

 Morton set out he was placed under the instruction of Mr. Sonntag, the 

 astronomer to the expedition, who carefully trained him in the use of the 

 sextant, and who afterwards expressed satisfaction with the skill attained by 

 his pupil. I. never heard the astronomer express the least doubt of the 

 observations made by Morton on this special duty, nor were they ever ques- 

 tioned on ship-board to my knowledge. On the contrary, I have good reason 

 to believe that Mr. Sonntag attributed entirely to the scrupulousness of Dr; 

 Kane's caution in so important an affair, that the possibility of error in the 

 use of the instrument was assumed by the latter gentleman in preparing his 

 report for the press. Entertaining these views, I have thought proper, with 

 the aid of Professor A. D. Bache and his assistant Mr. Schott, to consider 

 what will be the effect upon the chart if we confine ourselves to the solar 

 observations alone. At page 388 of vol. ii. of Dr. Kane's work, in Appendix 

 vi., it will be seen that there are three important capes astronomically deter- 

 mined, viz. Gapes Jackson, Madison, and Jefferson. At page 384, lat. 80° is 

 given for Cape Madison, but as the same latitude is given for several other 

 capes which, are certainly not in the same parallel, it is obvious that a typo- 

 graphical error has^eseaped notice. At page 388, Gape Jackson is placed at 

 80° 1' 5" (astronomically), Gap& Madison at 80° 20' 2", and Gai^e . Jefferson 

 at 80° 41' 2". Beyond the last-mentioned Gape, Morton reports that he 

 travelled northward according to his dead reckoning about 20 miles, which, 

 as appears by the chart, Dr. Kane values as 12 minutes of northing ; making 

 for Gape Independence a latitude of 80° 53' and for Gape Gonstitutitm about 

 80° 56'. 



Dr. Rink assigns to Gape Independence the latitude 80° 41', the same as 

 given to Gape Jefferson by the unmixed solar observations of Morton. Now, 

 it will occur to you that, before Dr. Rink's position can be maintained, Mor- 

 ton's observations must be discredited, which they have not yet been, nor can 

 they properly be before fresh ones shall have been made at the same pwnts. 

 His commander was always reluctant to assume the responsibility of final 

 announcements to the scientific world unless the data had been collected 

 within reach of his own use of the ordinary means of correction of error ; and 

 it was therefore natural for him to-endeavour to make all of Morton's estimates 

 of position concur as far as practicable to the determination of the truth. I 

 ought to add, that several persons familiar with the making and calculating 

 of solar observations have expressed the opinion that, if any inference can be 

 drawn from the face of Morton's report, it will be that his results are in 

 defect and not in excess of latitude. This may have been one of the many 

 considerations which induced Dr. Kane to use all the material for a mean. 

 It may prove that in this way a very slight additional northing has been 

 made ; but this cannot be now assumed' to be as great as it would appear by 



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