356 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 192 8 



The Beaufort Sea to the north of Alaska and to the west of the 

 Canadian Arctic Archipelago, across which Amundsen, Ellsworth, 

 and Nobile made their daring flight in 1926, has never been pene- 

 trated. Its exploration is required in the interests of Arctic oceanog- 

 raphy, and the mystery of Peary's Crocker Land should be finally 

 solved. Tidal observations of the Maud expedition off the Siberian 

 coast have been shown by H. U. Sverdrup to negative the probability 

 of extensive land to the north of Bering Strait and Alaska. Yet the 

 five hours' retardation of the tidal wave in reaching Point Barrow, 

 Alaska, from the north, compared with its time of arrival at the 

 De Long Islands, northeast of the New Siberian Islands, indicates 

 the possibility of small islands in the Beaufort Sea or, more probably, 

 merely the existence of shallow water." 



In addition to Crocker Land, several elusive lands have been re- 

 ported in the Arctic Ocean, and from time to time have found their 

 way on to maps, in most cases only to disappear when confirmation 

 of their existence was not forthcoming. Experience has shown that 

 visibility plays strange tricks on the observer in polar regions. A 

 snow-covered land may merge completely in the background of sea 

 ice and gray sky or an unsuspected local fog bank may blot it out at a 

 few miles distance. No polar land can be said to be disproved until 

 its site has actually been sailed over. And even then one may ask. 

 Was the reputed site a true one ? Its position may have been guessed 

 from a single long-distance sight, and guessed perhaps on a basis of 

 faulty observations. The drift of the Frani and the voyages of the 

 Taimir^ Vaigach^ and Maud may be held to have disposed of Sanni- 

 kov's Land to the north of the New Siberian Islands. Keenan Land 

 to the north of Alaska has also gone. There is little probability of 

 Andrejev's Land being a reality, but no ship has yet penetrated the 

 area of sea where it was reported to lie (1763) to the west of Wran- 

 gel Island, in about the meridian of 170° AV., between latitude 72° 

 and 73° N. There between the tracks, on the south of the Taimir and 

 the Vaigach and on the north of the Jeannette and the Maud^ occurs 

 a region of heavy impenetrable pack. Kellett's Plover Land, a degree 

 or two north of Herald Island, north-northwest of Bering Strait, 

 was removed from the map as a result of several later voyages of 

 vessels that sailed over its reputed site and saw no land. But a 

 shadow of doubt has fallen on these corrections since in 1914, from 

 the high eastern end of Wrangel Island, the appearance of land was 

 noted on several days away in the east-northeast beyond Herald Island 

 in an area of the sea where the water on the continental shelf is 

 known to be very shallow. This appearance was given the name of 



^The Tides on the North Siberian Shelf. H. U. Sverdrup, Journ. Wash. Acad. Sci., 16, 

 pp. 529-540, 1926. The flight of G. H. Wilkins in 1928 practically disproved Crocker 

 Land. 



