THE CORWIN’S CRUISE IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 561 
land, the impossibility of distinguishing more than its general outline at such a 
distance must be apparent. 
‘¢T am of the opinion that Wrangel Land is a large island, possibly one of 
the chain that passes entirely through the polar regions to Greenland. That there 
is other land to the northward there can be no doubt. Capt. Keenan, then com- 
manding the bark James Allen, reports having seen land to the northward of 
Harrison’s Bay, a few degrees east of Point Barrow. Large numbers of geese 
and other aquatic birds pass Point Barrow, going north in the spring and return 
in August and September with their young. As it is well known that these birds 
breed only on land, this fact alone must be regarded as proof positive of the exist- 
ence of land in the north. Another reason for supposing that there is either a 
continent or a chain of islands passing through the polar regions is the fact, that 
notwithstanding the vast amount of heat diffused by the warm current passing 
through Behrings Straits, the icy barrier is from six and a half to eight degrees 
further south on this side than on the Greenland side of the Arctic Ocean, where the 
temperature is much lower. As already stated, the nearest point of this land was fully 
twenty-five miles within the ice pack, and as the new ice had already begun to 
form, there appeared no possibility of reaching it. Even to remain in sight of it 
was to expose the vessel to great danger of becoming embayed in the ice, as the 
large quantity of drift ice which lay outside of us was likely to close in at any 
time, and remain in the pack all winter. We therefore worked out into clear 
water and headed to the eastward. 
‘¢ Having visited every part of the Arctic that it was possible for a vessel to 
reach, penetrating the icy regions in all directions fifty to one hundred miles fur- 
ther than any vessel succeeded in doing last year, without being able to find the 
slightest trace or gain the least tidings of the missing whalers, we were forced to 
the conclusion that they had been crushed and carried north in the pack, and 
that their crews had perished. Had any of them survived the winter, it seems 
almost certain that they would have been found, either by the Corwin or by some 
of the whalers, all of whom were on the outlook for them during the summer. It 
was thought probable that the crew might have escaped over the ice and reached 
Herald Island, but a sight of the perpendicular sides of that most inhospitable- 
looking place soon banished even this small hope. As already stated, Herald 
Island is inaccessible to all but the birds of the air, and even were it possible for 
men poorly provided for such work as they were to reach the island, and to find 
shelter on it, starvation would be sure to follow. 
Capt. Hooper reports that he learned nothing as to the whereabouts of the 
exploring steamer Jeannette. The report that she had been seen by the whalers 
entering a ‘‘ pocket ” in the northern pack to the northeast of Herald Island, which 
soon afterward closed and shut her in, was calculated to give the impression that 
she too had gone north in the pack. Capt. Hooper investigated this report and, 
it proved to be without foundation. Capt. Barnes of the whaling bark Sea Breeze 
reports having seen the Jeannette on Sept. 2, eighty miles south of Herald Is- 
