AN UNDISCOVERED ISLAND OFF THE NORTHERN 

 COAST OF ALASKA 



(Presented before the Society April 2S, 1893) 



I— BY MAECUS BAKER 



On a map of the polar regions published in Gotha eleven 

 years ago, land is indicated as existing aljout 150 miles north- 

 northeastward from point Barrow, the northernmost point of 

 Alaska. The position of this land is latitude 732° N. and longi- 

 tude 1532° W. of Greenwich. I have not succeeded in finding 

 this land indicated on any other map, neither have I found any 

 published statement respecting it. 



In the summer of 1849, Kellett and Moore, in the Arctic search 

 vessels Herald and Plover, cruised in the Arctic ocean, between 

 point Barrow and Herald island, searching for Sir John Frank- 

 lin. It was during this cruise that Herald island was discovered 

 and landed upon, and the high peaks of what we now know to 

 be Wrangell island were seen to the westward. In the map ac- 

 companying their report ^'^ an '' appearance of land " is shown in 

 latitude 72^° N., longitude 161a-° W. of Greenwich, being about 

 130 miles northwest of point BarroAV. On a small map ac- 

 companying Osborn's " Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal," 

 land is indicated in the same locality, as also on an undated 

 map published by Longman in London in 1850 or 1851. 



Russian hydrographic chart number 1495, published in 1854, 

 also shows land here, with the note " Indications of land accord- 

 ing to report of the English sloop Plover in 1849." 



These four maps are the only ones, out of a considerable num- 

 ber examined b}^ me, which show this appearance of land, and 

 they are all obviously derived from the same authority, viz, 

 Kellett and Moore. 



In Kellett 's narrative the only reference to this a])pearance of 

 land is the following statement at p. 14 : 



* Additional papers relative 'to the Arctic expedition, etc, presented 

 to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. Folio. 

 London, 1852. PI. 15, ad Jin. 



(76j 



