WELLMAN POLAR EXPEDITION 373 



If, then, the Santa Cruz map from Cabo de las Arenas north- 

 ward represents New England, where shall we look for the Gulf 

 of New York ? Ayllon is not supposed to have explored north 

 of the latitudes of Virginia. If Gomez explored the Gulf the 

 map constructed from his data should show it, but from Cabo 

 de St Juhan, Ayllon's northernmost discovery, the coast extends 

 north-north-east 30 leagues to Cabo de las Arenas without a hint 

 of the peculiar coast features so carefully noticed north of Arenas. 

 The inference seems unavoidable that Gomez merely rounded 

 Nantucket and then turned homeward ; otherwise he would 

 hardly have failed to note some of the peculiar features of the 

 coast west of Nantucket. 



While the New York gulf thus seems unknown to the Spanish 



cartographers who depended on Gomez' data, the Spanish maps, 



nevertheless, confess no gap. whatever in Spanish knowledge of 



the coast. It is a curious and perhaps unique feature in early 



cartography that seems to find its best explanation in Spanish 



desire to leave no flaw in a claim of possession of the entire coast 



by right of discovery. Certainly Gomez would hardly have erred 



so much in the taking of latitudes, nor does there seem reason 



for deception on his part of the home government. The curious 



point is the conscientious way in which the introduction of false 



coast-line was avoided by the falsification of latitudes. 



L. D. Scisco. 

 University of Michigan.- 



WELLMAN POLAR EXPEDITION 



Owing doubtless, in large measure, to the ambition of Arctic 

 explorers to traverse the unknown regions about the North Pole 

 before the close of the present century, there is an activity in 

 polar exploration that is altogether unprecedented. With one 

 of the expeditions from the United States — that in charge of Mr 

 Walter Wellman — the National Geographic Society was recently 

 asked to cooperate (1) by a formal approval of the aims and 

 purposes of the expedition, (2) by the appointment of a com- 

 mittee to advise with the leader as to the scientific work to be 

 undertaken, and (3) by the contribution of a sum of money in 

 aid of the expedition, with the condition that, in the event of the 

 expedition being successful, the amount so contributed should 

 be refunded. After full consideration the Board of Managers 



