E.— GEOGRAPHY. 81 



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 penetrated. Its 

 exploration is required in the interests of Arctic oceanography, and the 

 mystery of Peary's Crocker Land should be finally solved. Tidal observa- 

 tions 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, north-east of the New Siberian 

 Islands, indicates the possibility of small islands in the Beaufort Sea or 

 more probably merely the existence of shallow water. 6 



In addition to Crocker Land, several elusive lands have been reported 

 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 grey sky or an un- 

 suspected 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 Fram 

 and the voyages of Taimir, Vaigach and Maud may be held to have dis- 

 posed of Sannikov'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 Wrangel Island, in about the meridian of 170° W., between lat. 72° and 

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

 and on the north of Jeannette and Maud, occurs a region of heavy impene- 

 trable pack. Kellett's Plover Land, a degree or two north of Herald 

 Island, north-north-west 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-north-east 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 Borden Land and may, if it really exists, be the long-lost Plover Land. 

 Inaccuracies in latitude and longitude are easily made in hasty observations 

 in high latitudes. 7 



An even more alluring mystery can be solved only by the exploration 

 of that part of the Arctic Ocean between Spitsbergen and Franz Josef 

 Land from lat. 80° to 84° N. There is no record of a ship traversing it, and 



6 ' The Tides on the North Siberian Shelf.' H. U. Sverdrup, Journal Wash. Acad. 

 Sciences, 16, pp. 529-540, 1926. 



7 ' Plover Land and Borden Land,' V. Stefansson, Geog. Review (New York), 

 April 1921. It may be noted that Keenan Land is the only one of these doubtful 

 lands that Stieler retains in his most recent Nordpolar map. 



1927 G 



