82 A. W. Greely — An Undiscovered Island. 



" It was a fine, clear night. * *r * A_t midnight the latitude was 

 obtained by the inferior passage of the sun, 72° 10^ 30^^ IS!. * * * (29 

 July, 1849.) * ''^ * Our soundings had gradually increased to thirty- 

 five fathoms of soft blue mud. * * * This position was our most 

 northern one. latitude 72° 51^ N., longitude 163° W. * * * Commander 

 Moore (of the Plover) and the ice-master reporting a water sky to the 

 north of the pack, and a strong ice-blink to the southwest." 



The evident incorrectness of the land charted is shown, by the 

 experience of Colhnson in 1850, when the general line of the 

 heavy 23ack-ice Avas somewhat farther northward, extending 

 from" southeast to northwest from 73° N. in 160° W. to 72° 40' 

 'N. in 165° W. Colhnson, on August 26, 1850, was in 73° 23' N., 

 164° W., and on August 28 was in 72° 35' N., 161° W., thus hav- 

 ing passed directly over the position of the land charted as above. 

 On the 17th he was in 72° 45' N., 159° W. ; August 22 in 72° 25' 

 N., 158° W. ; August 21 in 72° 10' N., 153° W. Collinson says : 



"August 17 (1850). * * * The fog cleared away at 1 p. m., and we 

 found ourselves in a lane of clear water ten miles wide, with a clear sea 

 to the N. E. * * * Our observations placed us 100 miles N. W. by N. 

 from point Barrow, and we found 45 ttithoms of water, muddy bottom." 



" 21.— Had traced pack from 72° 45^ N. in 159° W. for 275 miles to S. E., 

 to 71° 42^ N., 154° 30^ W." 



"Aug. 28. — Here we reached our farthest point north in 73° 23^ N. and 

 longitude 164° W. In the afternoon, the pack edge trending more to the 

 southward, we got much encumbered by endeavoring to get through it 

 to the eashvard, straining our eyes in that direction in the hope of seeing 

 either land or water." 



On August 18, 1850, McClure was in 70° 48' N., 138° W., with 

 no sign of land. 



The weight of opinion in the following few years was decidedly 

 agaiiist there being such land, as shown by its omission from 

 the charts of arctic America in the following-named works : 



Scoresby's Search for Franklin, London, 1851. 



Hooper's The Tents of the Tuski, London, 1852. 



Mangle's Arctic Searching Expedition, 2d edition, London, 1852, where 

 Peterman's Search Map is reproduced (there being no map of the first 

 edition, London, 1851). 



Sutherland's Voyage to Baffin's Bay and Barrow Strait (Peterman's 

 map), London, 1852. 



Further Correspondence and Proceedings Connected with the Arctic 

 Expedition, presented to Parliament, London, 1852 (Peterman's map). 



Lieutenant S. Gurney Cresswell's map, dated May 15, 1854. 



Brande's Sir John Franklin, map by Langes, Berlin, 1854. 



Armstrong's Northwest Passage, London, 1857. 



