560 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE, 
the land to be about twenty-five miles away. The highest hills which seemed 
to be more distant, were covered with snow; others were partly covered, and still 
lower ones were almost entirely bare. The sight of this land repaid us to a cer- 
tain extent for our disappointment in not finding Herald Island clear of ice, as 
we had hoped to do, in order that we might run lines of sounding and make a 
plan of the island. 
That part of Wrangel Land which we saw, covered an arc of the horizon of 
about fifty degrees from N. W. 4% N., to W. ¥ S., (true,) and was distant from 
twenty-five miles, on the former bearing, to thirty-five or forty miles on the latter. 
On the south were three mountains, probably 3,000 feet high, entirely covered 
with snow, the central one presenting a conical appearance, and the others show- 
ing rounded tops. To the northward of these mountains was a chain of rounded 
hiils, those near the sea being lower and nearly free from snow, while the back 
hills, which probably reach an elevation of 2,000 feet, were quite white. To the 
north of the northern bearing given, the land ends entirely or becomes very low. 
The atmosphere was very clear, and we could easily have seen any land above the 
horizon within a distance of sixty or seventy miles, but none could be seen from 
the masthead. 
There is a report that Sergeant Andrejew, a Cossack, reached this land in 
1762 by crossing over from the main land on the ice with dog teams, and that he 
found it to be inhabited by a race of nomads called Krahayo. ‘This report, how- 
ever, is probably without foundation. Admiral Wrangel, who was the first to 
report the existence of this land, says: ‘‘ They (the inhabitants of Nishne-Kol- 
ymsk,) knew a great deal about the three officers who were here in 1767, but could 
tell us very little about Sergeant Andrejew, who was here only five years before. 
They had learned generally that he had been to the Indigirka and afterward to the 
Bear islands, but were ignorant of his supposed discoveries, which were included 
in our most recent charts, and when we spoke of a land north of the Bear islands 
and traces of a nomad race in that direction, they treated it as a fable.’ I mention 
this, not to prove that Wrangel Land is not inhabited, but to show, that if the Arc- 
tic exploring steamer Jeannette has been fortunate enough to reach that country, as 
we have reason to suppose and to hope, she is the first to do so, and her brave 
officers and crew should have the credit of it. Admiral Wrangel himself did not 
even see this land. He made his report of its existence from information obtain- 
ed from the natives at Cape Joctan, that on very clear days the tops of high 
mountains could be seen to the northward. Capt. Kellett, Royal Navy, while 
cruising in the Arctic Ocean in 184s, claims to have seen Wrangel Land on 
August 16th. From his own statement, however, it appears that he merely caught 
an occasional glimpse of it through the clouds, which covered it in immense 
masses. Under such circumstances, as he himself admits, a mistake could easily 
be made. He describes the land seen by him, as being from twenty-five to sixty 
miles distant, and speaks of seeing distinctly the columns and pillars which char- 
acterize the higher headlands in the Arctic Ocean. If what he saw, was really 
