Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/421

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

WASHINGTON LAND. British flag upon the sea nearer to the North Pole than any flag had been carried hitherto, I have planted the American flag further north upon the land then any flag has been planted before. The Bay between Capes Frederick VII. and Eugénie I name in honor of the distinguished geographer, Dr. Augustus Peterman; and two large bays lower down the coast I call, respectively, after Carl Ritter and William Scorsby.

In plotting my survey I have been a little puzzled with the Washington Land of Dr. Kane's map, and I am much tempted to switch it off twenty miles to the eastward; for it is not possible that Kennedy Channel can be less than fifty miles wide; and, since I believe that Smith Sound expands into the Polar Basin, I must look upon Washington Land merely as an island in its centre,—Kennedy Channel lying between it and Grinnell Land on the west, and Humboldt Glacier filling up what was once a channel on the right.