242 POLAR PROBLEMS 



north of 80° and, generally speaking, east of Spitsbergen and north 

 of Novaya Zemlya. From their location they might be considered as 

 falling within the sphere of influence of Russia, for they are in about 

 the same latitudes as the Russian claims some 300 miles to the east. 

 It appears that, as a war measure, a Russian expedition in 1914 landed 

 on the archipelago and hoisted the Russian flag.^ 



Sovereignty over Unknown Lands 



We cannot say that the sovereignty of all the known lands in the 

 Arctic is definitely settled internationally. We can say, however, 

 that the sovereignty of substantially all of these territories is now 

 either definitely known or definitely claimed. The next few years 

 will bring some sort of occupation of most lands hitherto unvisited 

 except by occasional explorers. And the probability is that few of 

 the claims thus far made to lands hitherto discovered will be questioned. 



More doubtful, of course, is the status of the unknown. 



The United States has never officially made any claim to any 

 known Arctic lands outside of our well-recognized territory. The 

 sole declaration we have made regarding Arctic regions is the re- 

 nunciation of any possible rights based on discovery or otherwise in 

 Greenland. As to the unknown territories, there likewise is no official 

 statement; but there is significant action. 



The MacMillan expedition of 1925 must be regarded as in effect 

 an official expedition of our Government. True, it was largely financed 

 by the National Geographic Society; but it was mostly composed of 

 Navy personnel, it was supplied with Navy airplanes and with Navy 

 wireless, and it was as indubitably governed by instructions from the 

 Secretary of the Navy as it was formally bidden Godspeed by his repre- 

 sentative. Nothing was lacking to give the party official character, 

 national duties, and international rights. 



The announced purpose of the MacMillan expedition was to 

 explore the unknown area of the Arctic, the "white spot" on the 

 map; and there can be no doubt that behind all this preparation and 

 action will be found a national policy, to be announced publicly in 

 due course. This great unexplored region of the Arctic lies, generally 

 speaking, north, northwest, and northeast of Alaska. The area of this 

 "white spot" on the map, prior to its bisection by the Amundsen- 

 Ellsworth-Nobile transpolar flight of 1926, was something more 

 than 1,000,000 square miles — more than the area of Greenland. 



This is another way of saying that the Arctic Continent, long 

 believed in and long sought, does not exist. Even if all this unknown 



' Evidence of a sort that the present Russian Government lays no clEiim to this group is furnished 

 by two recent official maps (Map of Ways of Communication of U. S. S. R., i: 6,300,000, 1923; Map of 

 Economic Regions of U. S. S. R., i : 6,000,000, 1926) on which Franz Josef Land is not colored as Russian 

 territory. 



