596 The National Geographic Magazine 



REMARKABLE PHOTOGRAPH OF LILI- 

 ENTAL'S GLIDING MACHINE 



THE enclosed photograph of Lilien- 

 thal's double-decked machine was 

 among the last ever taken of him, I think, 

 for I secured it only two or three days 

 before he was killed in the same machine, 

 at the same place — Neustadt an der 

 Dosse. 



I knew Lilienthal quite well, and made 

 one or two short glides with this same 

 machine, the last time we went out to- 

 gether. It struck me as being very un- 

 stable (in my hands), though Lilienthal 

 managed it with great skill, rushing 

 along at race-horse speed, 60 or 70 feet 

 in the air, the wind playing extraordinary 

 seolian harp music on the steel piano 

 wires with which the framework was 

 trussed. What impressed me most was 

 the tremendous amount of athletic work 

 necessary to balance the machine. He 

 was never still a moment, swinging his 

 legs from side to side, and on landing 

 was always quite out of breath, though I 

 doubt if he was in the air over thirty sec- 

 onds. It seemed to require as much ex- 

 ertion as a hundred-yard dash. 



R. W. Wood. 



Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. 



LOCATION OF THE SIR JOHN FRANK- 

 LIN MONUMENT 



Editor National Geographic Magazine, 



Hubbard Memorial Hall, Washington, D. C. 



Dear Sir : I note in the January number of 

 the Magazine, page 67, picture of the Sir John 

 Franklin monument, which is stated to have 

 been "erected on King Williams Island, where 

 the relics of his party were found." 



This monument was erected, not on King 

 Williams Island, as stated, but on Beechey 

 Island, where the ill-fated expedition wintered 

 in 1845-1846. The picture shows a marble slab 

 lying on the nagged base. This is the marble 

 tablet which was sent out by Lady Franklin in 

 the United States expedition of 1855, under 

 Captain Hartstein, for the purpose of being 

 erected at Beechey Island. Circumstances pre- 

 vented the Americans executing this kindly 

 service, and it was the lot of Captain McClin- 

 tock to convey it from Godhaven, Greenland, to 

 the site originally intended. The tablet was 

 constructed in New York, under the direction 

 of Mr Grinnell, at the request of Lady Frank- 

 lin, in order that the only opportunity which 

 then offered of sending it to the Arctic regions 

 might not be lost. In 1906 Captain Bernier, 

 commanding the Canadian government steam- 

 ship Arctic (formerly the Gauss), built up the 

 concrete base and embedded this tablet therein. 



The small marble tablet on the face of the 

 monument was erected to the memory of the 

 gallant Lieutenant Bellot (McClintock's "Fate 

 of Sir John Franklin," page 173). 

 Yours truly, 



James White, 



Geographer. 



