7 o6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



research. It is interesting to note, from the observations on temperature, 

 that the lowest record was only 46 F., the extreme rigor, consequently, 

 being only that of Dakota or Manitoba, and marking nearly fifty degrees 

 above what has been observed a thousand miles farther to the south at 

 Verkhoyansk, in Siberia. Nothing approaching the extreme cold ( 72) 

 noted by Kane and by the Nares British Expedition of 1875-'76 has thus 

 been recorded by Nansen, Peary, or Jackson. 



Mr. Jackson's claims to discovery lie mainly in the field of geography; 

 for, while the observations on zoology, botany, and geology are by no means 

 meager or lacking in originality, the results obtained have been largely 

 anticipated by other investigators notably Payer, Leigh Smith, and Nan- 

 sen. In the domain of geography, however, there is a distinct contribu- 

 tion, and the author has missed no opportunity to add to the catalogue of 

 geographical names by "rounding up," as it were, the numerous points 

 which appeared new to him or were thought worthy of designation. This 

 diligence in applying names, at times to points or places which are wholly 

 insignificant and which could be followed with equal advantage or disad- 

 vantage on most of the known coast lines of either Europe or North Amer- 

 ica, can hardly be said to detract from the value of the discoveries actually 

 made, although their publication, from advance letters received by Mr. 

 Harmsworth's representative in London, has caused hostile comment and 

 bitter controversy, even on the part of British geographers and scientists. 

 Much of Mr. Jackson's work, it was contended, was directed to demolish- 

 ing the work of Lieutenant Payer in the same region, and toward substi- 

 tuting names for those given, whether with a correct placing or not, by 

 the Austrian commander in itself a legitimate undertaking, but heralded 

 out, it was claimed, to mask Mr. Jackson's own failure to accomplish the 

 real task of his expedition the finding of the north pole. Mr. Jackson 

 has certainly very largely remodeled Payer's map of the archipelago, but 

 the new map in no way discredits the attainments of his predecessor, even 

 though showing up many and even glaring inaccuracies in the cartograph- 

 ical details published by him, for allowance must be made for the limita- 

 tions under which the Austrian commander made his work. The vital 

 points which have to be eliminated from the geography of Payer are : That 

 Eranz-Josef Land is a congeries of no very large islands, without con- 

 tinental extent northward, and that much that has been represented to be 

 land is, in fact, water or ice, the appearance of land in the frozen North 

 being frequently suggested by the vast gray and ill-defined ice masses which 

 loom up in fog and mist, both as flat sheets and mountain buttresses. 



It was the failure to find a northward continental extension to Franz- 

 Josef Land, such as had been thought to possibly exist by Payer, which led 

 Jackson to abandon all effort to advance upon the pole a condition which 

 appears, at this time, the more surprising seeing that two expeditions, 

 those of Walter Wellmann and the Duke of Abruzzi, with all of Mr. Jack- 

 son's facts before them, have elected this same route as the one most cal- 

 culated to bring about a successful issue, and certainly much can be said 

 in favor of it. While the Franz-Josef Land route may not commend 

 itself as the one best to be followed and surely the open highway which 

 from time to time appears north of Spitzbergen offers marked advantages 

 for one without a land following it still has its advantages in the point 

 of high northern departure, and arctic authorities will fail to be impressed 

 by the negative conditions which were obtained from it by the Harms- 

 'worth Expedition. Manifestly, Mr. Jackson had prepared himself for one 



