80 A. W. Greek/ — An Undiscovered Island. 



sure no one acquainted would have passed a village without 

 stopping. It was near night, yet these men in evident alarm 

 turned off shore into the ice pack and were never seen again. 



I made arrangements to go out in the morning and trace these 

 men and solve the mystery ; but the morning dawned with a 

 fierce blizzard, causing the abandonment of the search, and left 

 us wondering whence they came and whither they went. 



The only report of land having been seen by civilized man 

 in this vicinity was made by Captain John Keenan, of Troy, New 

 York, in the seventies. He was at that time in command of the 

 whaling bark Staviboul^ of New Bedford. Captain Keenan said 

 that after taking several whales the weather became thick, and 

 he stood to the north under easy sail, and was busily engaged 

 in trying out and stowing down the oil taken. When the fog 

 cleared off', land was distinctly seen to the north by him and all 

 the men of his crew ; but, as he was not on a voyage of discovery 

 and there were no whales in sight, he was obliged to give the 

 order to keep away to the south in search of them. The success 

 of his voyage depended on keeping among whales. 



This fact was often discussed among the whalemen on the re- 

 turn of the fleet to San Francisco in the fall. The position of 

 Captain Keenan's ship at the time land was seen has passed from 

 my mind, except that it was between Harrison and Camden bays. 



A letter addressed to Captain Keenan by the writer in Febru- 

 ary, asking for more definite information as to date and position 

 of his ship and other points of interest, failed to reach him and 

 was returned. 



Ill— BY GENERAL A. W. GREELY 



Mr Baker's notes on "An undiscovered island off" the northern 

 coast of Alaska " are extremely interesting. I am, however, 

 unable to agree with Mr Baker in the belief that land exists in 

 the polar sea between point Barrow and Melville island. 



On m}^ attention being called to the paper and German map 

 of 1882, I did not at first recall that I had before seen charts 

 marked with the signs of land referred to. On later considera- 

 tion I remembered maps containing this knowledge, and have 

 since examined all maps of arctic America from 1844 to 1858 in 

 my private collection and one or two others accessible elsewhere. 



It is interesting to note to what extent these signs of land 

 were credited by map-makers of that period. For many years 



