stefansson-wrangel-09-01-001-002

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The captain and crew of the Rodgers, although they were several days on the
island, do not appear to have published any narrative. At least that is the
statement made in the preface to the "Cruise of the Corwin."

The next visitors to Wrangel Island were the officers, scientific
staff and crew of the C.G.S. "Karluk" after she was broken in the ice in
January, 1914. They remained on the island for several months (February to
September). When their narratives are published, which will be within the
next year or two in the report of the expedition, we shall have for the first
time a real, although still inadequate, description of the island.

It has been assumed and it is frequently stated that there is a
treaty between the United States and Russia by which the United States re-
linquishes all claims it may have to Wrangel Island in favor of Russia.
Professor William Frederick Badé has gone into all the documents in the case
and has published the statement that there is no such provision in any treaty
between the United States and Russia, nor any provision from which an abandon-
ment of claims to Wrangel Island can be logically deduced.

The case, then, stands as follows:

No country has recently made any formal claim to Wrangel Island.
The right of discovery is with Great Britain, dating from 1849-1850. Eighteen
years later a party of Americans landed on the island and made a rough map.
I think they may have raised a flag and taken possession, although of this
I am not sure. The only people who have lived on the island and can give us
a coherent account of it are the members of the Canadian Arctic Expedition,
who spent six months there in 1914.

I should suppose then that if we have the wisdom to realize the
value of Wrangel Island a little earlier than other countries, and if we
follow up our original discovery by exploration and preferably commercial
development, such as the placing of a Hudson's Bay Company's post, for
instance, or other trading enterprise, we would be conceded to have the best
claim to the island.

Wrangel Island is very valuable for at least two purposes that
we already know. It is an excellent location for trapping furs, and it is
an excellent base for walrus hunting. At present walrus are utilised only
for ivory, hides, and to a lesser extent for oil. Later their flesh is cer-
tain to become a commercial meat, for even should we not care to adopt it
in our food we can sell it to other nations who like it. With the world
gradually approaching a meat shortage, as every food authority concedes,
islands that form a good base for cultivating the resources of the sea will
get an increasing value.

It is to be remembered, too, that with the development of air
navigation and other improved transport, the inaccessibility of every part
of the earth is being rapidly lessened. Those countries will have in the
next century invaluable resources who know enough now to take possession of
them while they are still undervalued.

A further consideration is that there may very well be other
undiscovered lands north of Wrangel Island. We are the country most logic-