stefansson-wrangel-09-26-001-019

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by us to discover a northern land; which, though not seen by us, may possibly exist."

The statement just quoted is found on page 380 of the first English
edition (published 1840) and unaltered on page 384 of the second edition (pub-
lished 1844) of Wrangell's own “Narrative of an Expedition to the Polar Sea in
the Years 1820, 1821, 1822, and 1823." This is a translation from an earlier
German edition which in turn was based on Wrangell’s own Russian narrative written
in 1825. Since the Soviet Government almost a century later quoted Wrangell in
an entirely different sense, it is well to insist here that the above quotation
is the more significant because it was not published by the author until fifteen
years after the expedition was over, thus giving him ample opportunity to correct his manuscript
if there had been any correction to make.

The discovery of what we now call Wrangell Island was in a sense an
accident. Sir John Franklin had been lost in the Arctic for several years and
more than a dozen expeditions were sent out in the great "Franklin Search" which
resulted in the discovery of so many new arctic lands. On one of these expeditions
Captain Henry Kellett, found himself in command of the H. M. S. Herald to the north
of Bering Straits the summer of 1849. He sighted a small island which eventually
was named after his ship, the Herald. A landing was made on August 6th and
possession taken in the name of Queen Victoria. From the top of Herald Island
and also from the ship, there were visible to the west and north what Kellett took to be several small
islands with an extensive land beyond. The most easterly island was named by
him Plover Island. The larger land was afterwards placed on the Admiralty Charts
as "Kellett's Land" or "Mountains seen by Herald." The theoretical continent
still obsessed the minds of geographers, and Kellett's Land was considered to be
not only the corner of the "Great Continent" but also the inhabited land about
which the natives had told the Russians and the one for which Wrangell had searched
in vain.

In 1855 Commander John Rodgers of the U.S.S. Vincennes, landed
on Herald Island but failed to sight Kellett's Land, doubtless because of the
fogs so common in that region.

14

by us to discover a northern land; which, though not seen by us, may possibly exist."

The statement just quoted is found on page 380 of the first English
edition (published 1840) and unaltered on page 384 of the second edition (pub-
lished 1844) of Wrangell's own “Narrative of an Expedition to the Polar Sea in
the Years 1820, 1821, 1822, and 1823." This is a translation from an earlier
German edition which in turn was based on Wrangell’s own Russian narrative written
in 1825. Since the Soviet Government almost a century later quoted Wrangell in
an entirely different sense, it is well to insist here that the above quotation
is the more significant because it was not published by the author until fifteen
years after the expedition was over, thus giving him ample opportunity to correct his manuscript
if there had been any correction to make.

The discovery of what we now call Wrangell Island was in a sense an
accident. Sir John Franklin had been lost in the Arctic for several years and
more than a dozen expeditions were sent out in the great "Franklin Search" which
resulted in the discovery of so many new arctic lands. On one of these expeditions
Captain Henry Kellett, found himself in command of the H. M. S. Herald to the north
of Bering Straits the summer of 1849. He sighted a small island which eventually
was named after his ship, the Herald. A landing was made on August 6th and
possession taken in the name of Queen Victoria. From the top of Herald Island
and also from the ship, there were visible to the west and north what Kellett took to be several small
islands with an extensive land beyond. The most easterly island was named by
him Plover Island. The larger land was afterwards placed on the Admiralty Charts
as "Kellett's Land" or "Mountains seen by Herald." The theoretical continent
still obsessed the minds of geographers, and Kellett's Land was considered to be
not only the corner of the "Great Continent" but also the inhabited land about
which the natives had told the Russians and the one for which Wrangell had searched
in vain.

In 1855 Commander John Rodgers of the U.S.S. Vincennes, landed
on Herald Island but failed to sight Kellett's Land, doubtless because of the
fogs so common in that region.