APPENDIX VII 



STATEMENTS CONCERNING THE POSSIBLE EXISTENCE OF LAND 



IN THE POLAR SEA 



Captain Richardson, in his work. The Polar Regions, 

 says : 



The Eskimos of Point Barrow have a tradition, reported by Mr. 

 Simpson, surgeon of the Plover (in 1832), of some of their tribe having 

 been carried to the north on ice broken up in a southerly gale, and 

 arriving, after many nights, at a hilly country inhabited by people 

 like themselves, speaking the Eskimo language, and by whom they 

 were well received. After a long stay, one spring in which the ice 

 remained without movement they returned without mishap to their 

 town country and reported their adventures. An obscure indication 

 of land to the north was actually perceived from the masthead of 

 the Plover when off Point Barrow. 



In 1850, Captain McClure, when oflf the northern coast 

 of Alaska, wrote in his journal that, judging from the char- 

 acter of the ice and a "light shady tint" in the sky, there 

 must be land to the north of him. 



Marcus Taker, writing in the National Geographic Maga- 

 zine, 1894-, under the title of ** An Undiscovered Island off the 

 Northern Coast of Alaska," says: 



It is often told that natives wintering between Harrison and 

 Camden Bays have seen land to the north in the bright, clear days 

 of spring. In the winter of 1886-87 Uxharen, an enterprising Eski- 

 mo of Ootkearie, was very anxious for me to get some captain to 

 take him the following summer, with his family, canoe, and outfit. 



