Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1901-01-24
HoN0RING A GE0GRAPHER.
Lieut.. Payers BAD Luck in Naming
Geographical Objects After
DIR. Petermann.

Lieut.. julius Payer, of the Austro-
Hungarian army, who, with Lieut..
Carl Weyprecht, of that country's
navy, made Franz-Josef Land known
to the world, was great admirer OF
the famous German geographer, Dr..
A. Petermann. Petermann was an en-
thusiastic supporter of arctic explora-
ton, and it was through reading his
writings on this subject that Payer
first became interested in polar re-
searches and determined to engage in
the work that MADE his name we'll
known. 1t was therefore natural that
Payer should attach the name OF the
German geographer to two of the dis
coveries he reported, which were re-
garded as among the most important
features of his work, says the New
York Sun.
When Payer went to the coast OF
East Greenland in 1870 with Kolde-
way on the steamer Germania, the
most important discovery they made
was Franz-Josef Fiord and the noun
tain that stands near it's head. Payer
described the magnificence of the
ford which he said was a combina-
ticn of "huge walls, deep erosion fis-
sures, wild peaks, mighty crevassed
glaciers, raging torrents and water
falls" It happened to be the warm
est of arctic summer weather, and
Payer related that the sailors, over
come by the heat, fell into lethargic
sleep. from which It was difficult to
arouse them. Payer named the pyra-
midal mountain rising near its west
ern end Mount Petermann, and it has
long been supposed to be the highest
mountain in Greenland. His first de-
termination of its heights was $4,000
feet, but his later survey gave 1906
feet. AS it rises from sea level its
whole height comes into view, and
it is, of course, a very impressive OBJ
iect from the water.
But Payer made a fatal blunder in
his calculations. AS he stood on Payer
point, far to the east, he took the
angle to the top of the mountain and
estimated the distance to the noun
tain top. This estimate was very er-
roneous, and the result was that his
determination of the height was
greatly exaggerated. These facts
were discovered by DR.. Nathorst last
year; and, according to this high au-
thority the height of the summit is
between 5000 and 5000 feet above
the sea level. Thus the mountain can
no longer be called the highest noun
tain in Greenland, though its height
is not yet exactly determined; and
this natural monument to the great
explorer is not quite so conspicuous
as it was thought to be.
But the other case is worse yet, for
the supposed bit of earth that was
also named by Payer after the geog-
rapher cannot be found, and, In fact,
does not exist. The official report of
the duke of Abruzzi, on his explora-
tions of Franz-Josef Land, confirms
the fact, hitherto suspected, that
King Oscar Land and Petermann Land
do not exist. In the spring of 1874
Payer stood on Cape Fligely, which
long remained the highest land ever
attained in the old world. To the
far west and north he saw what
he thought were blue mountain
ranges, indicating masses of land. He
named those to the west King Oscar
Land and those to the north Peter
mann Land. There is nothing to do
now but to expunge them from the
maps. Similar blunders have more
than once been made in polar lands.
Probably the deceptive appearances
that Payer saw were nothing more
than lines of icebergs.