January ii, 1912] 



NATURE 



6^ 



sentations or the networks of compass lines which 

 make the originals often both indistinct and confus- 

 ing. Thus Dr. Nansen does not invite criticism of his 

 interpretation of documents except from the very tew 

 w ho have made a special study of one or other of the 

 many lines of literary or cartographic investigation 

 with which he deals. Our knowledge of Dr. Nansen 's 

 character and of the fact that he went into the 

 enormous labour of this work without prejudice or 

 prepossession gives us confidence in the soundness of 

 his conclusions. 



The early history of the north, apart from vague 

 poetical allusions, rests upon only a few definite 

 authorities. The first is Pytheas, the Phocean colonist 

 in Massalia, who first ventured northwards in the 

 Atlantic, about 330 B.C., circumnavigated the British 

 Isles, and reached Thule ; he was also the first navi- 

 gator to fix positions by astronomical determinations 

 of latitude by means of a gnomon or by ascertaining 

 the length of the longest day. Dr. Nansen goes fully 

 into the question of the position of Thule, and satisfies 

 himself that it was not Shetland or Faroe or Iceland 

 but Norway. The next definite information was the 

 description given to King Alfred about 890 a.d. (by 

 the Norwegian walrus-hunter Ottar) of the rounding 

 of the North Cape, the entry into the White Sea, and 

 the phenomenon of the midnight sun. This was 

 obviously a truthful narrative of personal experience. 

 Then came Adam of Bremen about 1070, who col- 

 lected a great deal of authentic information regarding 

 Scandinavia, and mentions Iceland, Greenland, and 

 Wineland, the two last-named for the first time in 

 literature ; but there is also much of the fabulous in 

 his writings derived from classical legends. Con- 

 temporaneously with the chroniclers, and in the 

 centuries between them, there were two vague cur- 

 rents of northern exploration regarding which such 

 knowledge as has emerged is of the mistiest. Thev 

 were those of the Irish monks, who founded a chain 

 of settlements from the Hebrides to Iceland and 

 carried with them legends of Hy Breasail — the Isle of 

 the Blessed or the Fortunate Isles of the Greeks— of 

 which many adventurous souls went in search ; the 

 finding of which was often rumoured but never con- 

 firmed. The second current was that of the Norse- 

 men, who sailed westward to Iceland, where they 

 found Irish monks residing, and whence, pushing 

 westward still, they reached and colonised southern 

 Greenland. 



The old Icelandic sagas speak, as is well known, 

 of a voyage of Leif Ericsson, when he missed Green- 

 land and sailed westward until he met a coast, parts 

 of which were named Hellul.nid, Markland. and \"\'iiii'- 

 land the Good, where self-sown wlnat ;ind wild vims 

 were found, and various remarkable encdiinlcrN took 

 place. Hitherto the sagas have been acce])ii i| ,1^ faith- 

 ful tradition enshrining farts of ohsorvalion, hut tlir 

 oulconii- ol a prolonged fxaiuin.alioii ot all pos^ihlc 

 data is To com-iiici- Dr. Nansen that tln' wheat, llie 

 vines, .and n:an\ other features wei'e mere [)i'o<lucis (if 

 expectation on the part of the s;ii4;i-t<'llers. M,. allows 

 that Norsemen did reai h \\v American eoasi (thoni^l; 

 we must sa\ llial his iconoclastic loi^ic, it carried 

 fnrllui, secnix Id n- capahle of throwinL; doulil on thi' 

 aul hiMiticil \ ol ilii-. pari of the n.arrati\e tod), hul he 

 believes (hat t)ie\ thoiii;ht thev h.ul ri-ached the |''or- 

 tunate Isles spolcen of h\- the Irisji moid<s ,anil the 

 Roman legends, and so atlrihuted all thai the Ion - 

 tunatf Isles were supposed to he to the lands of ihcir 

 disrover\'. 



Th'' idea thai Wineland, tlioliL^li reached fivmi 

 d'eenland, I,i\ ~o far alotiL; ihe lim of the world-disc 

 that it W.I. cln-. (o Africa hrinij^ it in line witii tin; 

 Mediterranean lee(>nd, and presenled no diftirultv to 



xo. 2202, VOL. 88] 



the mediEeval geographers before the revival of the 

 spherical form of the earth and the invention of port- 

 able instruments for the astronomical determination of 

 latitude. The growth of knowledge of cosmography 

 and of precision in cartography is traced down to the 

 time of the Cabots and the' Corte-Reals, and the 

 period of commercial whaling on the small scale which 

 led the northern seafarers to the edge of the arctic ice 

 is touched upon ; and then, when the globe had been 

 swept clear of myth and the Fortunate Isles had gone 

 to Davy Jones with the Sunken Land of Busse, Dr. 

 Nansen leaves us with the stage free for modern 

 exploration. What he said of the explorers of that 

 sixteenth-century stage we jnay say of those of our 

 twentieth-century stage, when the passages have been 

 found and the pole itself reached — 



"To riches men have seldom attained, to the For- 

 tunate Isles never; but through all we have won 

 knowledge." H. R. M, 



MICROSCOPE STANDS.' 

 II. 



The Changes now going on. 

 T N discussing the relative merits of Continental 

 ■*• versus English pattern microscopes, the ground is 

 at once cleared if we discard the labels Continental 

 and English, and seek a more accurate definition for 

 each type than merely the place of origin. 



As a matter of fact, the old labels will soon cease 

 to have any real meaning, for the Continental makers 

 are adding to their patterns new instruments, rivalling 

 in complexity of adjustments the so-called English 

 type, and English makers are in many instances pro- 

 ducing almost exact replicas of the Continental type. 

 That the foot still remains of a more or less horse- 

 shoe form, with inclination axis below the stage, in 

 the one, and is generally of the tripod form with in- 

 clination axis above the stage in the other, is a 

 detail which does not affect the real difference between 

 the two types, viz. relative complexity, although it 

 renders the former more suitable for use in the ver- 

 tical, and the latter more comfortable for use in an 

 inclined position. 



The English type of microscope, owing to the foster- 

 ing care of a small body of dilettanti, came into general 

 notice, when the need of a microscope was felt by the 

 professions, already a complex instrument ; from this 

 simpler t\-pes have been slowly evolved, too slowly 

 unfortunately for the demand, which has in conse- 

 quence swung over to the Continental type, which, 

 having no past to speak of, was able to adapt itself 

 the more readily to the wants of those who did not 

 care so much how they saw, so long as they could 

 see. 



The two types, starting from opposite poles, have 

 lately reached common L;rouiul as regards the 

 niajt)rity of the in«trumenis |)idduced, and there is 

 little to choose between tin in for mere demonstration 

 of known structure; hut lo e,.| iju' linesi results nut 

 of .iii\ optical system central ion aloni; iIk- .axis, and in 

 till' case of a microscopical s\slem inhi-chani^cihilitv 

 of p.Mis not onh' alwue hut helow the siai^c is rssrn- 

 lial, and few Continental micaoscopes pdsscss the 

 means df doine this, while <'veiy i-]nL;hsh siand of the 

 liisi clas-, is sd pro\ided. 



Theii-loi-e the coiHdusion of ,in\- unliias-,rd observer 

 must hi- that the F.nLjIish t\|)(^ is the heitcr in the hands 

 of the ex|)ert, who wishes not meiejv to demonstrate 

 the know II, I)ut to reach out mn\l>e into the unknown; 

 hill wh.il is hesi |(i|- the mastei- of his instrument and 

 siilij.i I is iidt always i^dod fdf the avei.ie,. man, and 



' I'i'O Inst artii Ic appcarccl in Na TrKK of Decrml'cr 21, igti. 



