April, 1897. CORRESPONDENCE. 287 



Sound, you declare that " this is the exact position usurped by Jackson's British 

 Channel." 



My postscript, pointing out that Mr. Jackson was only responsible for names in 

 heavy type in the recently published map {Geographical Journal, Dec, 1896), should 

 have saved you from repeating your error. 



For Mr. Jackson is not responsible for the position of Zichy Land as there indi- 

 cated in light type. He places Zichy Land to the east of the British Channel, but to 

 the west of Markham Sound. (See Geographical Journal, Dec, 1895, P- 5^7) — "The 

 coast of Zichy Land becomes a group of narrow islands, lying roughly north and 

 south between Mr. Jackson's route and Austria Sound." (Also G.J., Dec, 1896, p. 

 552). And Markham Sound in Payer's map was an arm of Austria Sound. 



It is obvious that you have not mastered the elementary fact that the coast of 

 Zichy Land abutting on Markham Sound has become by actual traversing — not by 

 looking at it from a distance of at least 40 miles (see Payer's map and track " New 

 Lands within the Arctic Circle " Vol. IL)— a chain of islands to the east of the British 

 Channel and between it and Markham Sound. The supposed S.W. prolongation of 

 Markham Sound (see Payer's and Smith's maps) is arrested and occupied by newly 

 discovered islands. Hence the sudden termination of Markham Sound in a S.W. 

 direction. Nansen's and Jackson's maps exhibit this clearly. 



[We certainly have not mastered this : for any amount of traversing to transfer 

 a body of land from the west to the east side of a body of water is a geographical 

 feat quite beyond us It also transcended the powers of the mysterious person 

 responsible for Mr. Brice's previous map; whoever he was we congratulate him on 

 his having placed Zichy Land west of the Elmwood meridian, instead of east of it 

 as Brice, Jackson, and Nansen now do. — Ed. Nat. Sci.] 



(4.) As to the land marked 21, and the islands marked 10 and 11, you declare 

 that " these small patches are not quite the same as ' the land to the westward ' of 

 Nansen's winter hut, for this obviously included Zichy Land." 



I reply that they are the same, and that the land to the westward could not 

 include Zichy Land. 



How absurd your statement is may be gathered from Nansen's own map 

 (" Farthest North," Vol. II.) and from his book, with which you havs evidently not 

 made yourself acquainted. In his map these lands lie to the west and south-west, 

 while Zichy Land includes the island on which he wintered. And this is what he says on 

 p. 398, (Vol. II.). 



" At two points on the horizon about W.S.W., I fancied that I could see land 

 looming in the air. The appearance recurred again and again, and at last I was 

 quite certain that it really was land ; but it must be very far away ; at least 69 miles, I 

 thought." And he adds in a note : " It proved afterwards that the distance was about 

 56 miles." Now you have only to measure this course and distance on the map, 

 and you have the identical lands to which I referred and no other. They are " quite 

 the same," and Zichy Land could not be " obviously included" in this land to the 

 westward, for the very obvious reason that Nansen was, at the time, actually upon 

 one of the islands which both he and Jackson unite in recognising as Zichy Land ! 



[Had Mr. B'ice written " the small islands to the westward " instead of " the 

 land to the westward " we should, as explained in our last number, have accepted 

 his statement. — Ed. Nat. Sci.] 



(5.) But, with even more amazing assurance than this, you reiterate that 

 " Nansen wintered on Payer's Karl Alexander Land." I can only reply that Nansen 

 says that he did not ; that he definitely maps Karl Alexander Land as another island 

 totheN.E.; and that consequently you have no justification for your uncalled-for 

 and offensive remark that Jackson's "gracious permission to rename an already 

 named island has conferred immortality upon the little trip of the Fram." 



(6.) As to the rhetoric you expend on the innocent statement that Nansen 

 thought, in his winter quarters, that he was on the west coast of Franz Josef Land — 

 a statement you rashly describe as " incompletely proved " — I merely refer you to 

 the following pages of "Farthest North" : Vol. ii., pp. 307, 312, 334, 396, 397, 398, 

 427, 428, 459 — on all of which you will find explicit proof that Nansen believed him- 

 self to be somewhere on the west coast of Franz Josef Land. Thus, your challenge 



