350 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1867. 



to endure the cold the better for it. Some 

 natives whom he met on this trip told him that 

 some white men had been with them for a long 

 time, and one of them died, and they buried him 

 with great care. Captain Hall determined to 

 visit the region from which these natives came, 

 and ascertain for himself whether this was Sir 

 John Franklin and his party, and he accordingly 

 offered among the whaling-fleet $500 in gold 

 per man for live men to accompany him in this 

 journey in the winter of 1867-'68. After some 

 trouble he succeeded in obtaining five good men, 

 and 'in August and September they were en- 

 gaged in hunting to procure a sufficient supply 

 of provisions, and would start when the sledg- 

 ing should be good. He was confident of ob- 

 taining some relics at least. "If I die," he 

 said to those who visited him at Repulse Bay 

 in August, " I shall die doing my duty." 



In connection with these proposed expedi- 

 tions to the region of the North Pole, the dis- 

 covery of a large body of land stretching tow- 

 ard the pole is of interest. It has been known 

 for some years that there were bodies of land, 

 which were supposed to be islands of no great 

 extent, and were so laid down on the English 

 charts, in the vicinity of the 71st parallel of 

 north latitude, and between the meridians of 

 176 40' and 178 15' west longitude from 

 Greenwich. One of them was called Plover 

 Island, and the other "Extensive land with 

 high peaks," on the English charts. In the 

 summer of 1867 tliese bodies of land were ex- 

 amined, though without landing, by three cap- 

 tains of whaling-vessels independently of each 

 other, and their testimony seems to prove that 

 these supposed islands were really capes of an 

 extensive continent lying wholly within the 

 Arctic Ocean. Captain Long, of the bark Nile, 

 ran along the coast within 15 to 18 miles, for 

 a distance of 3 21' of longitude, and found the 

 Southwest Cape, which he named Cape Hawaii, 

 in latitude 70 40', and the land, which was 

 mountainous, stretching far away to the north. 

 One mountain, apparently an extinct volcano, 

 he found, by approximate measurement, to be 

 2,480 feet high. 



Captain Bliven, of the bark Nautilus, ex- 

 plored the coast of this land as far north as 

 72, and found it extending north as far as 

 he could discern beyond that point. Captain 

 Raynor, of the ship Reindeer, had traced it 

 over more than five degrees of longitude, and 

 from several indications believed it to extend 

 at least eight degrees. This would give in that 

 latitude an extent from east to west of more 

 than 500 miles, and northward more than 120- 

 miles, and with a probability of much more 

 than this. The Southwest Cape, Captain Ray- 

 nor says, is about 25 miles from the Asiatic or 

 Siberian coast. 



Captain Lewis, of the Corinthian, has also 

 visited the shores of this land, and found indi- 

 cations of coal, and in August a great variety 

 of flowers in bloom, and birds resembling the 

 partridge, in great abundance. 



The purchase of Russian America, or Alia%ka, 

 by the United States, in 1867, was a measure 

 the policy of which it is not the province of this 

 article to discuss. We can only consider its 

 position and its geographical characteristics. 

 Our previously acquired territory has been con- 

 tinuous with, and only an extension of our 

 former limits, but this is separated from us 

 by British Columbia, covering a distance on the 

 coast of five degrees and forty minutes of lati- 

 tude, and itself stretches off to a magnificent 

 distance toward Northeast Asia. It contains a 

 land area of 588,600 square miles, and has a 

 population of about 5,000 or 6,000 Russians and 

 half-breeds, and about 50,000 of the native 

 tribes, who are in about equal numbers Esqui- 

 maux and Indians. The country is divided 

 physically into three sections : the narrow coast 

 line of the southern portion, extending from 

 50 40' north latitude, to a little above the 60th 

 parallel ; the middle section sloping toward the 

 North Pacific Ocean, and having its watershed 

 near the 65th parallel, while it sweeps west- 

 ward over twenty-five degrees of longitude ; and 

 the northern portion, draining into the Arctic 

 Ocean and the Behring Sea, and extending 

 at Point Barrow, its northernmost point, to 

 about the parallel of 71 30', with a breadth of 

 about 27 of longitude. . Three-fourths of this 

 northernmost section lie within the Arctic 

 circle, and the whole territory is in a latitude 

 which, on our eastern coasts, would be almost 

 uninhabitable, being- that of Labrador and 

 Southern Greenland. It is, however, a physical 

 law, without exception, that the west coasts of 

 all large continents in the northern hemisphere 

 are warmer in the same latitudes than the east- 

 ern. 



Mr. Lorin Blodget, an eminent American 

 meteorologist, has traced with great care the 

 isothermal lines of summer, winter, and annual 

 mean temperature of this territory, and has thus 

 given us the means of comparing it with that 

 of regions on the Atlantic coast of a different 

 latitude. By this we find the average winter 

 temperature of Sitka 33 P., a higher mean 

 than that of Philadelphia or Baltimore. Its 

 summer average is 54 1', which is about that 

 of Northern New York. The annual average 

 is 42 6', which is about that of Oswego. At 

 Oonamak, the island continuation of the Ali- 

 aska peninsula, the winter average is 32, that 

 of New York City, the summer average 55, 

 and the annual average 40, which' is that of 

 Toronto. At Behring's Straits the summer 

 average is 45, the winter 3 4', and the annual 

 average 19 9'. The loftiest mountain of North 

 America, Mount St. Elias, 14,970 feet, is on this 

 coast in latitude about 60 30'. Its largest 

 river is the Kwichpak or Yukon, which has a 

 course of nearly 1,000 miles. Other consider- 

 able rivers are the Konskevin, the Nashlagak, 

 the Steckine, the Turnagain, the Finlay, and 

 the Colville, most of them navigable for a 

 considerable distance. The interior has been 

 very slightly explored, but along the rivers there 



