2 NATURAL SCIENCE. January. 



He saw to the west two capes forming the south-eastern and ap- 

 parently the south-western extremities of the island called Alexandra 

 Land : the former he named Cape Ludlow, the latter, Cape Lofley. 

 Cape Lofley, though seen only in the distance, stood up distinctly as 

 a bold rocky headland, and was marked on Leigh Smith's chart as 

 far on one side of Cape Ludlow as Cape Crowther is on the other, a 

 position exactly agreeing with that assigned in this new map to Cape 

 Mary Harmsworth. Not that the name Cape Lofley has disappeared: 

 Jackson has removed it to an insignificant point between Leigh 

 Smith's Cape Lofley and Cape Ludlow, a point which Leigh Smith, 

 considering the distance which the " Eira " was from it, could not 

 have distinguished from the land behind it. 



Mr. Jackson's detailed map of the southern coast of Alexandra 

 Land will doubtless be of great value when this part of the world is 

 divided into building lots ; but the claim that his exploration has 

 advanced Franz Josef Land " a considerable distance to the westward 

 of the previously known limits " is not supported by his map. The 

 identification of Alexandra Land with Gilies Land is probably correct, 

 but is by no means a new idea. Markham's " Threshold of the 

 Unknown Regions" includes Gilies Land as part of Franz Josef 

 Land. Reference to Sir Clement Markham's admirable work reminds 

 us of another instance of the Jackson-Harmsworthian method of 

 treating the names of their predecessors. Payer named the great 

 sound which extends along the south-eastern shore of Zichy Land, and 

 thence to Cape Fiume, " Markham Sound." Leigh Smith accepted 

 the name and mapped the south-western end of the sound. Now on 

 the present map this great sound is re-christened the "British 

 Channel," while " Markham Sound " is restricted to an unimportant 

 passage between the island on which stand Payer's Capes Fiume 

 and Triest, and the three opposite islands. We regret a proposal to 

 remove the name " Markham " from the channel that is likely to be 

 the main route followed in future exploration of the area north of 

 Franz Josef Land. 



Perhaps the most valuable item of information given by Mr. 

 Jackson's map is the position of Nansen's winter quarters ; for it 

 enables us to understand that explorer's criticism of Payer's map. 

 According to one of Jackson's letters ." Payer's map being so utterly 

 wrong, had completely fogged Nansen ; and at his winter hut, he 

 believed himself near Cape Lofley, and that the land to the westward, 

 which we had discovered (!) was Spitzbergen." Nansen, therefore, 

 according to Mr. Jackson was very considerably fogged, for he was 

 about 13° out in longitude and three-quarters of a degree in latitude. 

 No wonder then that he could not reconcile his observations with 

 Payer's map, and the fact that he did not see Petermann Land where 

 he expected it, is no proof of its non-existence. 



Nansen, however, may pluck up heart of grace. His journey 

 will yet live in history, thanks to the magnanimity of his rescuers. 



