266 



The National Geographic Magazine 



the voyage will include ports of the 

 Newfoundland, Labrador, Greenland, 

 Ellesrnere Land, and the Baffin's Bay 

 coast. The unique feature of this pre- 

 liminary trip will be the fact that Com- 

 mander Peary has made arrangements 

 to comfortably accommodate a number 

 of passengers. The opportunity to bag 

 walrus and polar bears will doubtless 

 attract many sportsmen, while scientific 

 men will be interested in this unusual 

 opportunity to study ethnology and geol- 

 ogy of the great white North. Com- 

 mander Peary has entrusted the details 

 of making up the party to the Committee 

 on Applications, at 3 West Twenty-ninth 

 street, New York city. 



SOME RECENT ENGLISH STATEMENTS 

 ABOUT THE ANTARCTIC 



IN an article about the English Ant- 

 arctic Expedition in the Scottish 

 Geographical Magazine for May, 1904, 

 at page 265, it is stated that " the Dis- 

 covery succeeded in proving the non- 

 existence of Wilkes Land." In an 

 article by Sir Clements R. Markham, 

 President of the Royal Geographic So- 

 ciety, " The Antarctic Expedition," in 

 The Geographical Journal 'for May, 1904, 

 at page 551, he states: "On March 2 

 the Discovery passed through the Bal- 

 leny group. Continuing westward to 

 the 156th meridian, near Adelie Land, 

 it was found that the coast line shown 

 on the chart east of that land is a mis- 

 take. No such land exists." 



If Captain Scott, after passing through 

 the Balleny Islands, only sailed as far 

 west as the 156th meridian, he could at 

 the most have disproved the existence 

 of the extremest western points which 

 Wilkes thought he sighted, namely, 

 Ringgold Knoll and Eld Peak ; but as 

 nothing appears to be said so far of the 

 latitude in which the Discovery sailed 

 west, even this must remain an open 

 question until further information ; and 

 the statement that ' ' the Discovery sue-, 

 ceeded in proving the non-existence of 



Wilkes Land," which extends for some 

 fifty-five degrees of longitude west of 

 156 east longitude, is simply prepos- 

 terous. 



If Captain Scott did not sail west of 

 1 5 6° east lo7igitude, he did not get 

 within some sixteen degrees of longi- 

 tude, over three hundred miles, of Adelie 

 Land, and he did not approach Cape 

 Hudson, Point Emmons, Point Case, 

 Point Alden, Peacock Bay, and Disap- 

 pointment Bay, and therefore Sir Clem- 

 ents R. Markham's statement "that 

 the coast line shown on the chart east 

 of that [Adelie] land is a mistake ; no 

 such land exists," is entirely unwar- 

 ranted. 



It seems well to call the attention of 

 Americans to this matter, so that they 

 may take cognizance of the fact that 

 some British geographers, led by Sir 

 Clements R. Markham, will perhaps 

 make renewed efforts to smother and 

 obliterate all remembrance of American 

 discoveries in the Antarctic. 



Edwin Swift Balch. 



Philadelphia, May 21, 1904. 



SEARCH FOR BARON TOLL 



THE Imperial Academy of Sciences 

 at St Petersburg has offered a 

 reward for finding Baron Toll's expedi- 

 tion or any traces of it. 



Baron Edward Toll, chief of the Polar 

 expedition sent out by the Academy of 

 Sciences, left the Bennett Island, lying 

 north of New Siberia, on November 8, 

 1902, taking a southern direction. He 

 was accompanied by the astronomer 

 Seeberg and two Jakoots, Vassily Goro- 

 khov, with the surname Chichak, and 

 Nicolas Protodiakonow, with the sur- 

 name Omook. The party seem to have 

 been carried away by the ice, as the 

 searches heretofore have been in vain. 

 A reward of 5,000 roubles is offered by 

 the Academy of Sciences for finding the 

 whole party or any part of it, and a re- 

 ward of 2,500 roubles for giving the first 

 exact indications of tracing the party. 



