The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume XII, No. 2 [‎287v] (77/154)

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PROPOSAL FOR AN EXPEDITION TO SANNIKOFF LAND.
the following inscription : “ We now held (in lat. 77° 44' N.) north-west along the
edge of the ice. It seemed to me as if there might be land at no great distance ;
we saw a remarkable number of birds of various kinds. A flock of snipes or
wading birds met us, followed us for a time, and then took their way south. They
were probably on their passage from some land to the north of us. We could see
nothing, as the fog lay persistently over the ice. Again, later, we saw flocks of
small snipe, indicating the possible proximity of land. Next day the weather was
clearer, but still there was no land in sight. We were now a good way north of
the spot where Baron von Toll has mapped the south coast of Sannikoff Land, but
in about the same longitude. So it is probably only a small island, and in any case
cannot extend far north ” (‘ Farthest North,’ I. p. 203).
It appears to me, from Nansen’s words, that in his opinion the Fram was on
that day on the north of Sannikoff Land, and that- the birds which he saw were
returning from some other unknown land. I believe, however, that the flocks
of snipes must have been flying from Sannikoff Land, and that the Fravi,
probably was at that moment south of that land. I myself am, to some extent,,
the cause of that mistake—if mistake there is—because Nansen based himself
on my preliminary sketch-map, upon which I had roughly traced the southern
extremity of Sannikoff Land in the year 1887. I think, however, for reasons
which will be better understood from the following, that in reality Sannikoff
Land is situated further north than where I had traced it on the said sketch-
map. If it be so, the considerations which made Nansen conclude that that land is-
but a small island are removed.
The mountains of Sannikoff Land, which I saw through the telescope, very
much reminded me by their shapes of the basalt cones of the Svyatoi Nos, as they
appear to the eye from the southern shore of the great Liakhov island. The-
forms of the mountains of the Sannikoff Land thus authorize us to believe that
these mountains consist of basalts, like the mountains of Bennet island, the
southern point of which (Gape Emma) is said to consist of the same rock, according
to the diary of De Long. As to the distance between Sannikoff Land and the
Kotelnyi island, we may estimate it as follows :•—
When we take into account that the height of the trap, or basalt mountains,
in Arctic Siberia altogether is subject to but small oscillations, and, at any rate,,
seldom exceeds 1200 feet, and that the mountains of the Svyatoi Nos, looked at
from the south coast of the Liakhov island, at a distance of about 45 miles,
appear to be twice or thrice as high as the mountains of Sannikoff Land, we may
conclude that the distance between Kotelnyi and Sannikoff Laud is twice or
thrice as great as the above—that is, from 100 to 125 miles, or from 1| to
2 degrees. I conclude, accordingly, that the south coast of Sannikoff Land must
be located under about the 78th degree of northern latitude.
As to the probable extension of Sannikoff Land, and the question whether
there are to be expected other islands besides those which have been discovered
by He Long,—the Bennet, Henrietta, and Jeannette islands—we have, in my
opinion, some established points, which permit us to express, with due caution,
the following suppositions —
1. It must be remembered that the trapsj which have a wide extension in-
Siberia, always appear in massives not far apart from each other. Their distribution
answers to certain tectonic lines, along which they pierce the sedimentary rocks,
whether the latter, being horizontal, build up plateaus, or whether they take the
shape of folded series of parallel ridges. The trap mountains are volcanic mantles
which spread over the sedimentary deposits; occasionally they have maintained
the forms of volcanoes with well-determined craters-. Bennet island, seems also-