Zeno, "we discovered some islands subject to Frislanda, and, passing certain shoals, came to Ledovo, where we stayed seven days to refresh ourselves, and to furnish the fleet with necessaries. Departing hence, we arrived on the 1st of July at the island of Ilofe." The reader will recollect the mention of these islands in the Gulf of Sudero in Nicolò Zeno's expedition. In the modern map of the Faroe Islands will be seen in Sudero Gulf the islands of Lille Dimon, Store Dimon, and Skuoe. It is not difficult to understand how Zeno, hearing Lille Dimon uttered by a northerner, should give to the sound that he heard the form of Ledovo, and it has been suggested by Bredsdorff, in his article on the Zeno voyages in Grönland's Historiske Mindesmærker," that the "I" in Ilofe has been mistakenly written by Nicolò Zeno, jun., for an "S," and thus we may see that Skuoe easily becomes, when written down by the southerner, Slofe. We will now see what Admiral Irminger says with respect to Lille Dimon, apropos of the above quotation from Antonio Zeno-"Let us examine," he says, "that island 'Little Dimon,' of which I subjoin a sketch. Little Dimon rises steep out of the almost constant heavy seas of the North Atlantic, is 1299 feet high, its greatest diameter at the level of the sea about half a mile. No port, no anchorage, no leeside; almost always breakers more or less against that almost perpendicular rocky coast; very often, through the strong tide, races whirling round the island, increasing in violence. The island is abordable only at one single point, and this only in calm weather; it is, besides, so steep-to that one ought to be accustomed to climb almost perpendicular rocks to get ashore, and no fresh water is to be found. Certainly the fleet stayed not here at this uninhabitable spot for refreshment and necessaries, where nothing is found but rock and a little grass." I sincerely sympathise with Admiral Irminger in his view of the inhospitable nature of this well-proportioned and elevated rock. Small prospect there of a comfortable turn-in over night, and a dressing-gown and slippers and hot water in the morning, and yet I think Antonio Zeno was quite right after all. He says nothing about going on the rock, but as the fleet were bound for a far distant land in the west, it was absolutely necessary to take in ample provision of fish, and off that island they may well have spent seven days in catching or procuring the needful supplies. But to sum up-whatever may be Admiral Irminger's opinions respecting the adaptability of the Zeno narrative of events to the Faroe Islands, the inexorable, unavoidable fact will still remain, that the names of Monaco, Sudero Golfo, Streme (evidently Stromoe), and Andeford (evidently Andafer), are given on the Frislanda of the Zeno map, and that they, and all the

names relating to Frislanda, mentioned in the text, correspond in position with the geography of the Faroe Islands of to-day. So that it would be perverseness to deny the identity of the

two.

And now let us see what is the result of leaving that which is real, to indulge in that which is fanciful. Admiral Irminger has of his own arbitrary choice elected to adopt Iceland as the representative of the Frislanda of the Zeni. În order to carry out his plan, he has been compelled to seek out spots in that island upon which he can foist the names applied by the Zeni to localities in the Faroe Islands. He finds no Monaco or Monk. He invents one. He finds no Gulf of Sudero. He invents one. He finds no Sanestol. He invents three queried ones, the two widest apart being some 50 miles distant from each other. It is true he finds a beautiful phonetic representative of Bondendon in "Budardalr"; but unfortunately not one of all these fits in with the requirements of the text. For example, he selects two gulfs on the west coast of Iceland, named respectively Brede Bugt and Faxe Bugt, and as the latter lies south of the former, he arbitrarily gives it the name of Sudero Golfo, and what is the consequence? The description of Nicolò Zeno's expedition, which tallied exactly with the modern map of the Faroe Islands, here breaks down altogether. Admiral Irminger's Sudero Golfo merely means Southern Gulf as distinguished from its northern neighbour; but the Gulf of Sudero of the text means the Gulf of the Southern Island, taking its name from the actual island of Suderoe in the Faroe Isles, the Gulf or Fiord of Suderoe lying between it and Sandoe, Zeno's Sanestol. The text says that "Zichmni's fleet sailed to the westwards, and with little trouble gained possession of Ledovo and other small islands in the Gulf of Sudero." Now I respectfully challenge Admiral Irminger to say whether he by a westward course could sail into his Sudero Golfo on the west coast of Iceland; and I would ask, where are the islands of Ledovo and Ilofe in said. gulf? Simply nowhere. But, to be brief, we will suppose Zeno to have finally reached Admiral Irminger's Bondendon. We find that its position by no means tallies with that of the Bondendon in the Zeno map, whereas that of Norderdahl on the island of Stromoe exactly does, and then what follows? After the meeting of Zichmni and Nicolò Zeno, the former, with his followers, "departing thence went in triumphant manner towards Frislanda, the chief city of that island, on the south-east of it." Frislanda, i.e. the capital of the whole country, i.e. Thorshavn, does lie on the south-east of the island of Stromoe; but I would respectfully ask Admiral Irminger whether the chief city of Iceland lies on the south-east of that island? I had always

thought it lay on the south-west. I could comment on Porlanda, which, on page 5 of the Zeno text, is shown to lie near to Scotland, and without doubt represents the Orkneys, while Admiral Irminger transports them to 200 miles' distance, but I think I have already said enough on this subject.

Admiral Irminger has reasoned entirely from the data of to-day. His honest northern nature and his native common sense would revolt from the application to such small islands as those which compose the Færoe group, of such expressions as that "after Zichmni had put to flight the army of the enemy, ambassadors were sent from all parts of the island to yield the country up into his hands, taking down their ensigns in every town and village." And yet this apparent exaggeration may be more apparent than real. It must be remembered that this was 500 years ago. A so-called army then might be but a mere handful of men. "Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis." Moreover, it was no unimportant event which was taking place. Henry Sinclair, Earl of the Orkneys and Caithness, was taking personal possession of the Faroe Islands as an addition to his lordships, and when we read of his coming by land with his army, conquering all the country as he went, it is obvious that the chieftain's progress by land is there indicated as distinct from the taking possession of the coasts and islands, which was committed to the charge of Nicolò Zeno. It cannot be supposed that all this was done without a certain amount of formal ceremony, warranting in a considerable degree the apparently inflated language above quoted.

But Admiral Irminger has not confined himself to the endeavour to identify the Frislanda of the Zeni with Iceland. He denies that Zeno was ever in Greenland or the Engroneland of the text, which country he also endeavours to identify with his favourite northern island of Iceland. This is not the place to enter again upon the whole story. Suffice it that, as in the case of Frislanda, both the text and map distinctly bear their testimony to his visit having been made to Engroneland, or Greenland, while it is needless to say that Iceland, in both one and the other, has its own individual and separate existence, so that Admiral Irminger again places himself in opposition to the very authors of the narrative and of the map. By them it is plainly shown that they distinctly recognise the existence of two substantive realities, one Engroneland or Greenland, the other Iceland; and that, in their opinion, Engroneland is not Iceland; nor Iceland, Engroneland. Admiral Irminger is of a different opinion. Again I beg leave to side with the old voyagers.

VIII.-Approximate Determination of Positions in SouthWestern China. By G. COLBORNE Baber.

[Communicated by the Foreign Office.]

WITH the exception of the points established by Captain Blakiston and Lieutenant Garnier, our knowledge of the geographical position of places in Western China rests entirely upon the authority of the Jesuit surveyors, whose results, laid down partly from observation with inefficient instruments, and partly from the collation of native information, are necessarily erroneous in many details, and are never exact. Their observations for latitude often deviate from the truth by so much as 6 or 7 miles, and their longitudes, even as re-arranged by modern geographers, are probably vitiated by a still greater error. Nevertheless their map is for general purposes a most admirable work, and since it was never designed to serve as a route-map for tourists, or a chart for river-pilots, it would be ungracious to find fault with its deficiencies; especially when it is remembered that all existing maps of Eastern Asia are more or less modified reproductions of their survey.

Modern explorers are, however, fair game, and it is at once the duty and the delight of a traveller to search out the defects of his predecessors. But, with the best will in the world, I cannot establish any charge against Captain Blakiston. A severe test of his work is to observe the latitude of places the position of which he had obtained by dead reckoning only, and over a long distance; tried in this way he is always practically exact. But I have applied the still more searching criterium of longitude by chronometer. His lunar observations, as adopted by Mr. Arrowsmith, give 1° 55′ (one degree fifty-five minutes) for the difference of longitude between Sü chow and Chung ching. Selecting a season when a quick run could be made, I carried a chronometer down from Sü chow, and obtained a difference of 1° 59' (one degree fifty-nine minutes); a most satisfactory agreement. Captain Blakiston's lunar observations seemed to have gained in trustworthiness as he travelled farther west, and at Sü chow his results east and west of the moon are very close together. There seems every reason for assuming that his absolute longitude of Sü chow is as near the truth as lunar series will admit of.

But then comes Lieutenant Garnier and shocks the complacent feeling of finality by removing the position twenty-six minutes westwards. The discrepancy is, after all, not very serious, as sextant observations go; but still it is disagreeable, and I have devoted a good deal of time and labour to its

examination. The first place in which, after much wandering and waiting, I at last found an almost unexceptionable opportunity for obtaining lunar series, was Tzu-ta-ti, the head-quarters of a Sifan chief, in lat. 29° 16′ 45′′, and a few days later another good opportunity occurred at the village of Na-erh-pa, 8 miles to the eastward. The two results, as may be seen by the record of observations hereto appended, agree exceedingly well, and place the mouth of the Lao-wa torrent, which lies half-way between the stations, in long. 102° 41'. Extending this result by careful dead reckoning to Chia-ting-fu, and thence by chronometer to Sü chow, I came almost exactly upon the point laid down by Captain Blakiston: the four walls of the city would have nearly included both determinations. It seems, therefore, safe to prefer Captain Blakiston's position to that adopted by Lieutenant Garnier, and to suppose that it is very slightly in error.

The position of the more southern portions of my chart, as regards longitude, rests upon the accuracy of dead reckoning corrected by frequent observations for latitude and variation of compass. In this way, on reducing the route-chart which I kept when travelling with Mr. Grosvenor, Yünnan Fu falls upon 102° 41′ (oddly enough the longitude of the Lao-wa river mouth determined as above), differing by four or five minutes only from Lieutenant Garnier's result. Again, if my chart of the mission-route from Yünnan Fu to T'êng-yüeh (Momein) be examined, it will be seen that the difference of longitude between those points, according to the dead reckoning, is 4° 17′ (four degrees seventeen minutes), which, if the position of T'êng-yüeh according to the Sladen mission, viz. 98° 26', be accepted, would place Yünnan Fu in 102° 43′, practically the situation in which I found it.

I put Tali Fu, by the same process, in long. 100° 3', some twenty-five minutes west of Lieutenant Garnier's acceptation. But his position also depends upon dead reckoning alone; and since my account of the distance between Yünnan Fu and T'êng-yüeh, taking Tali Fu en route, seems correct enough, I submit that probabilities are strongly in my favour.

Accepting Blakiston's determination for Sü chow Fu, Garnier's for Yünnan Fu, and the received position of T'êng-yüeh, all my route-work falls comfortably into place without straining or distortion.

I may add that I obtained a lunar series of poor value at Ch'iao-chia Ting (B.), but I prefer to depend upon dead reckoning for the position. The record marked (D.) is the history of a failure, and I only append it for the sake of fairAs far as the observation is concerned, it was the best

ness.