AMONG THE SAMOYEDS.
[To THZ EDITOR 07 TEl "Sracrwroa.") SIR,—In your interesting notice, in the Spectator of August 17th, of Mr. Jackson's "Great Frozen Land," your reviewer takes exception to certain distances as laid down by Mr. Jackson, and, in the absence of my friend in the Polar Regions and as editor of his journals, I trust that you will permit me to settle the point thus raised. Your reviewer quotes Mr. Jackson's statement that the Samoyed verst (or " rein- deer " verst, as the Samoyeds call it), is equal to four Russian versts, and assumes that the distances which Mr. Jackson him- self covered are expressed in Samoyed versts. I may states however, that Mr. Jackson uses throughout his book the Russian verst, which is, of course, about two-thirds of an English statute mile. Thus the "twenty-seven miles an hour" which your reviewer calculates as the rate at which Mr. Jackson travelled for twelve consecutive hours becomes rather less than seven miles an hour,—a very different affair. And the Zirian's rate, also dwelt upon as bordering on the impossible, would be similarly reduced. As your reviewer seems to think that the Zirian's route from Ishma on the Pechora to Obdorsk on the Obi a formidable journey, I may perhaps mention that this route has been much used by Russians for centuries, and readers of Hakluyt and Purchas will remember how often it was taken by travellers as being the easiest way thence into Asia,—far easier, I may add, than crossing that "Great Tundra" between the Pechora and Kara Rivers, which Mr. Jackson was the first Englishman to traverse. Thanking you for your favourable notice of Mr. Jackson's book and in anticipation of your courtesy in inserting this letter, I am, Sir, &c., 7 Pall Mall, S.W., August 20th. ARTHUR AIONTEFIORE.
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