~ 
IVORY ISLANDS IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. es 
sledged in dog-sledges over the ice of the Polar Sea from Nijnei 
Kolymsk, towards the north-east. He came to a large island 
of considerable extent, and saw other islands in the distance. 
Wrangell was very sceptical as to the truth of these discoveries, 
and in his fourth journey over the ice, made special inquiries of 
the Chukches as to whether any land existed in the Arctic 
Ocean north of the Chukehe peninsula. He was informed that 
ona clear day the mountains of a distant land in the Polar 
Sea might be discerned from Cape Jakan, but when Wrangell 
reached this headland he could see no land to the north, and 
did not believe that any large island existed in that direction. 
In 1849, however, Captain Kellett sailed into the Arctic Ocean 
to the north of Behring’s Straits in the Herald, and dis- 
eovered Herald Island, and to the westward of this island he 
saw an extensive country traversed by a long range of snowy 
mountains ;* to this new land the name of Wrangell Land was 
given. Dallman in 1867 conducted a trading expedition in the 
Arctic Ocean, and declared that he had landed on Wrangell 
Land, and that he found vegetation growing on it, and 
discovered there the tracks of reindeer and musk oxen. But 
all these doubts were set at rest, when the American steamer 
ftodgers, ander Captain Berry, reached Wrangell Land in 1881. 
The island which lies in Long. 180° E., was found to be quite 
barren, as only moss and lichens formed its vegetation. The 
shores were blocked by masses of floating ice, and the beach 
was covered with driftwood. The island was about 150 miles 
in circumference, and contained lofty mountains, one of which 
was 2,500 feet above the sea; but it was an utter desolation, 
and its plains and hill-sides were perfectly barren. The only 
animals found on it by the officers of the Lodges were bears, 
foxes and mice. Mammoths’ tusks, however, were discovered. 
Some of these lay on the beach, and had probably fallen from 
the icy clitts, or had been washed up by the waves. In the 
inland districts of the inland also, far from the shore, the 
explorers found many tusks of mammoths, one of which was 
of great size. It thus appears that Wrangell Land is full of 
elephants’ remains, for the visit of the Lodgers to the island 
was of very short duration. 
In 1900 Baron Toll started on a third expedition to the New 
Siberian Islands. He left Tromsoé in the Zarya on July 21st, 
* Voyage of the “ Herald,” vol. ii, pp. 114-116. 
+ For an account of the exploration of Wrangell Land see Gilder’s 
Ice Pack and Tundra, chaps. vi and vii. 
