Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/70

64, although he holds the record on the American side of the Polar area, on the other side he has been surpassed by Captain Cagni by over two degrees—about 150 miles.

With regard to Captain Sverdrup, who left Godhavn, in Greenland, on August 8 and has just arrived in Norway, it is evident that he has been quite unable to carry out his somewhat ambitious program, which, besides getting as far north as possible, included a survey of the northeast coast of Greenland. When last seen, in 1899, the Fram was making for Jones Sound (misprinted Soner Sound in the telegram) and to that region he seems to have devoted his attention during the past three years. On the north of Jones Sound lies Ellesmere Land, about which we know but little. Captain Sverdrup has apparently surveyed the south and west coasts of that region, and if he has carried his explorations far enough north and west to connect with the results of previous expeditions he will have accomplished a fair amount of good work. But unless he has done much more it can hardly be said that he has fulfilled the expectations of his many admirers and friends. But before expressing any opinion on the results of the expedition, we must await further information. In Jones Sound he certainly selected a region of which our knowledge is slight and defective. In a memorandum on the subject, by Sir Clements Markham, president of the Royal Geographical Society, some interesting information is given as to the progress of our knowledge in this particular region. Jones Sound was discovered by Baffin in 1616, but no other expedition approached it until that under the command of Sir John Ross in 1818. In 1848 a Scotch whaler sailed up the Sound for a hunderdhundred [sic] miles, until stopped by ice. In 1851 it was explored by Admiral Sir Horatio Austin who was stopped by ice about 60 miles from the entrance. In 1852 he was followed by Captain Inglefield, and from their explorations it became clear that Jones Sound was a channel leading to the Polar Sea, and not a mere bay or inlet. Possibly that is the reason which induced Captain Sverdrup to make his way into it with the Fram; but, as the Polar ice comes crowding down from the north among the numerous islands which seem to stud the sea to the west of Ellesmere Land, it is doubtful if a route in this direction is practicable.

Now that Peary and Sverdrup and Baldwin have all three returned from their abortive attempts to reach the Pole, the only expedition left in the Arctic region is that under Baron Toll, the well-known Russian explorer, who is at work in the direction of the New Siberian Islands, in search of what is known as Sannikoff Land, which is supposed to exist still further to the north. Of Captain Bernier's proposed North Polar expedition nothing has recently been heard.

In conclusion, Commander Peary's work in the interior of Greenland before his last great expedition ought not to be forgotten. His