stefansson-wrangel-09-31-026v

18 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

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 (published 1844) of
Wrangel'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 Wrangel's own Russian narrative
written in 1825. Since the Soviet Government almost
a century later quoted Wrangel 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 he wrote it, and seventeen years after the expedition was
over. thus giving him ample opportunity That, surely, gave him ample time to correct That surely, was ample time for him to correct his
manuscript if there had been any correction to make.

The discovery of what we now call Wrangel 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 Kel-
lett, in command of the H. M. S. Herald, found himself
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 “Moun-