It was the failure to find a northward continental extension to Franz-Josef Land, such as had been thought to possibly exist by Payer, which led Jackson to abandon all effort to advance upon the pole--a condition which appears, at this time, the more surprising seeing that two expeditions, those of Walter Wellmann and the Duke of Abruzzi, with all of Mr. Jackson's facts before them, have elected this same route as the one most calculated to bring about a successful issue, and certainly much can be said in favor of it. While the Franz-Josef Land route may not commend itself as the one best to be followed--and surely the open highway which from time to time appears north of Spitzbergen offers marked advantages for one without a land following--it still has its advantages in the point of high northern departure, and arctic authorities will fail to be impressed by the negative conditions which were obtained from it by the Harmsworth Expedition. Manifestly, Mr. Jackson had prepared himself for one form of journey only--that of following the land, a singularly blind limitation, considered in the light of the little that was positively known of such land extension as the expedition had counted upon, and one that is disagreeably emphasized by the lavish expenditure of money that had been put to the expedition, and the personal confidence that had in some quarters been expressed in its success. Without wishing in any way to disparage or minimize the importance of Mr. Jackson's work, or to underestimate the hardships of any form of arctic exploration, one can not but feel surprised and in a measure disappointed that an expedition designed primarily for an advance upon the pole, which passed the better part of three years beyond the eightieth parallel of latitude, and whose members during this time did not know a single day of sickness--an almost unprecedented performance in arctic methods--should have found itself in a condition unable even to make an effort upon the "open." The recollection of Parry's performance in the frozen sea north of Spitzbergen in 1827, of Markham's advance in 1876, and of Peary's "treck" across the north of Greenland in 1892, emphasizes only more deeply this feeling of disappointment.