55^ FARTHEST NORTH 



and Northeast Land, we may plausibly assume that these 

 two groups of islands originally belonged to the same mass 

 of land. It would therefore be interestinq- to investio-ate 

 the as yet unknown region which separates them, the 

 resfion which we should have had to traverse had we not 

 fallen in with Jackson and his expedition. There is doubt- 

 less much that is new, and especially many new islands, 

 to be found in this strait — possibly a continuous series 

 of islands, so that there may be some difficulty in de- 

 termining where the one archipelago ends and the other 

 begins. The investigation of this region is a problem 

 of no small scientific importance, which we may hope 

 that the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition will succeed in 

 solving. 



How far the Franz Josef Land archipelago stretches 

 towards the north cannot as yet be determined with 

 certainty. According to our experience, indeed, it 

 would seem improbable that there is land of any great 

 extent in that direction. It is true that Payer, when he 

 was upon Crown Prince Rudolf's Land, saw Petermann's 

 Land and Oscars Land, the first to the north and the 

 second to the west; but that Petermann's Land, at any 

 rate, cannot be of any size seems to be proved by our 

 observations, since we saw no land at all as we came 

 southward a orood wav east of it, and the ice seemed 

 to drift to the westward practically unimpeded when 

 we were in its latitude. That King Oscar's Land also 

 cannot be of any great extent seems to me evident 



