68 CKUTSE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 



Tlie belief that Wrangel Land is an island and that other islands exist to the north, has since 

 been confirmed by the remarkable drift of the Jeannette, and the more recent work of the Corwin 

 and Rodgers on Wrangel Land gives ns a comparatively definite idea of its extent, although from 

 the official report of Lieutenant Berry we learn that the Rodgers did not sail around that island, 

 and that the boats sent out for the purpose of circumnavigating it did not succeed. Still, they went 

 far enough to enable them to form a definite idea of its size and the general trend of its coast line, 

 topography, &c. Although the discovery of three new islands by the Jeannette does not in any 

 manner prove the existence of others extending entirely through the polar regions, the natural 

 inference is that others are there. In fact it would appear almost miraculous that a vessel drifting 

 helplessly in the polar regions for twenty months should be carried in sight of the only three islands 

 which exist there. It would also be remarkable, to say the least, if, after the islands had been seen 

 throughout the polar regions, at the highest degree of latitude attained by man, they should sud- 

 denly come to an end, and the thousands of miles of unexplored space be entirely free from them. 

 While they are perhaps uot sufficiently near to each other to be designated as a continuous chain 

 of islands, they may, taken in consideration with other facts, be regarded as reasonable proof of 



WKANGEL ISLAND, FROM THE TOP OF HERALD ISLAND, DISTANCE 40 MILES. 



the existence of islands throughout the polar regions at no great distance from each other. I quote 

 the following from my private journal, written July 30, just after landing on Herald Island : 



While working in through the ice toward Herald Island, we saw Wrangel Land, and from the tops of the island 

 a very good view was had of it, the extremes bearing southwest and west by south (magnetic). It consisted of 

 rounded hills of medium height and presented abrupt terminations at each of the above bearings, although it was 

 thought by some that low land could be seen extending farther to the north, but owing to the hazy condition of the 

 atmosphere we could not make out positively, and probably it was a mistake. 



Having thus shown that the theory advanced by me that Wrangel Land is an island has been 

 proven, and that in regard to other islands existing throughout the polar region has received 

 strong confirmation, I will ;io\v briefly state the consideration which induced me to suggest the 

 change of name. In order to do this a short review of its history is necessary. 



The first account of the existence of land north of the continent of Asia was received through 

 a Cossack trader named Staduchin, in the year 1644. By the natives, also Russian traders, who 

 had preceded him, Staduchin was informed that in the Polar Sea off the mouth of the Jana and 

 Indegirka there were large islands which in clear weather could be seen from land, and which the 

 Tchuktchis reached in winter in reindeer sledges in one day from Cheekotska, a river emptying 

 into the Polar Sea east of the Kolyma. An examination of the chart shows that the land referred 

 to off the Jana and Indegirka can be no other than the Siberian Islands, and that to which the 

 natives ate said to drive with reindeer in one day from the mouth of the Cheekotska is the Medvii 

 or Bear Islands; that they could have had no reference to Wrangel Island, which is over 300 

 nautical miles east of the Cheekotska, is evident. About the year 16GS Nikifar Malgin made a 

 trading voyage by sea from the mouth of the Lena to the Kolyma, and during the voyage dis- 

 covered an island far out at sea, west of the mouth of the Kolyma, and at Kolyma he met another 

 trader, who reported that in cruising along the same coast with nine vessels, or more properly 

 boats, three of them were driven ashore on this island. Traces of unknown animals were found, 

 but no inhabitants. The location of this island between the mouth of the Lena and Kolyma is 

 vague and indefinite, but with our present knowledge of that coast we may safely assume that the 

 island referred to was Blischni, the most southern of the New Siberian Islands, which is the only 

 island between the rivers named that could be seen while sailing along the coast. The first report 

 which definitely locates these islands is the account of a trip from the Lena to the Kolyma by 

 Jacob Permakov, a Cossack, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, who states that off the 

 Sratoinos he had seen an island (Blischni), and that likewise off the mouth of the Kolyma there was 

 an island that could be seen from laud (Bear Islands). Then, as now, reports of explorers required 

 confirmation before receiving full credence. 



