206 
GRINNELL LAND; OR, 
ralty of September, 1851. But this was eight months 
after it had been seen by us and received its American 
designation. 
The Arrowsmith map of October 21, or rather, as 
we have seen, of November, 1851 — it is immaterial 
which is regarded as the true date — was completed 
after the discovery of Grrinnell Land by the Americans 
had been made known in England. Our squadron 
arrived at New York on the 30th of September, 1851, 
and the intelligence crossed the Atlantic by the next 
steamer. It was in the maps published immediately 
after this that it was first made known to the world 
that the English discovery was older by nine months 
than had been supposed before ; and that the very 
name of Albert Land, which this region had received 
either from Penny or the hydrographer, after Penny's 
return in September, 1851, had, by a coincidence as 
striking as it was happy, been conferred upon it on 
the 26th of August, 1850, by another ofiicer, in honor 
of the day on which he had himself seen it ; a day 
doubly fortunate as the natal day of the prince con- 
sort and of Captain Ommanney's discovery. 
Yet another notice, in the recent work of Dr. Suth- 
erland, defines the authorship of this discovery still 
more precisely. Passing by the American claim with- 
out remarking even that it ever was asserted, this writ- 
er allots the honor alternatively to Captain Penny's 
party in May, 1851, or to Captain Ommanney, of the 
Assistance, and Mr. Manson, mate of the Sophia, on 
the 26th of August, 1850. 
It was for me a matter of curious inq^uiry, upon what 
evidence this newest claim of discovery might rest. 
I have examined with all care Captain Ommanney's 
report to Commodore Austin of the 10th of Septem- 
