214 



CORRESPONDENCE, 



Mr. Jackson's Map of Franz Josef Land. 



A FRIEND has just drawn my attention to an article which appeared in the 

 January issue of Natural Science, and as this article forms an attack — an anony- 

 mous attack— on Mr. Jackson's work in Franz Josef Land, and criticises my report 

 of that work in the Geographical Journal of December last, I must ask you to give my 

 reply the same publicity you afforded the series of inaccurate statements which I 

 shall now proceed to refute. I need scarcely add that I shall not comment on the 

 animus or the singular taste of this anonymous attack on a man who is still at work 

 in the Arctic Regions, and unable to reply for himself. 



(i.) But it may clear the ground, in the first place, if I deal with the way in 

 which you have sought to insinuate that I was belittling the magnificent work of 

 Dr. Nansen. Nothing was or could be farther from my intention, and the following 

 extracts from my paper will clearly show this. 



Writing of Nansen's safe return on the " Windward," I said : — " The delight 

 and the wonder of it were not confined to what we call ' geographical circles,' but 

 commanded the attention of that world which honours the courage and applauds the 

 prowess of the polar explorer — a world which is as wide as our globe, and only 

 limited by the distribution of the human race." 



Anxious also to show how my absent friend appreciated the great explorer's 

 work, I quoted from a private letter of Mr. Jackson's as follows : — " I told him 

 [Nansen] how intensely pleased I was to be the first person to congratulate him on 

 his magnificent success." 



And again : — " I have done my utmost to make him comfortable, and to give 

 him a good time after his rough experiences. He has made a most extraordinary 

 journey, which, for daring, is, in my opinion, absolutely unequalled in the annals of 

 discovery, either in the Arctic or other Regions." 



Further, you begin your article with " Well ! we have made a mistake. . . . We 

 thought he (Nansen) had achieved a magnificent success. But a paper by Mr. A. M. 

 Brice in the December number of the Geographical Society's /o;(;via/ shows up our 

 error." You then quote a portion of a passage which I will, with your permission, 

 quote more fully. I was pointing out how much more has to be done in the North 

 Polar regions, and my words were these : — 



" The journey of Nansen — ^memorable as it must remain — still leaves immense 

 areas absolutely unknown. The drift of the Fram — full of marvel though it be — 

 has only extended our knowledge a few degrees in one direction. [Her marvellous 

 drift was roughly on a W.N.W. course from the New Siberian Islands to the longi- 

 tude of Spitzbergen.] But there are more degrees and many directions. The 

 unknown geography of the North Polar world still invites attack, and still holds out 

 the promise of a crowning reward." 



To put it in a single sentence, I may say that as long as the larger half of the 

 North Polar basin is still undiscovered, the scientific geographer cannot and will not 

 be satisfied. And to show that I was not alone of this opinion, I will quote one 

 remark made on that occasion by the President of the Royal Geographical Society : — 

 " As Mr. Montefiore Brice has said, there is much more to be done." 



(2.) In the light of my quotations in the paper from Mr. Jackson's letters, your 

 statement — " We turn eagerly to see what were the achievements wrought in Franz 

 Josef Land beside which those of Nansen pale " — is a gross inversion of the plain 

 words Jackson wrote on Nansen's work : — " absolutely unequalled in the annals of 

 discovery." 



(3.) Referring to the discovery of Cape Mary Harmsworth and my (not Jackson's) 

 identification of this with Gilies Land, you write: — "Interested in this great 



