stefansson-wrangel-09-32-103r

PLOVER LAND 405

“Last Voyage of the Karluk” it was illuminating in many ways to hear
Captain Hadley’s account.

But what interested me most keenly was his statement that while on
Wrangel Island, again and again, on clear days, he had seen land with
mountain tops far to the northeast. . .

I plied Hadley with questions: There could be no possibility that it was
cloud banks he saw or mirage? How could it be when it lay always in
the same place and bore always the same shape? Could he make any
estimate of the distance? It was very far off, perhaps an hundred miles,
perhaps more; it was impossible to say, but it had bold rugged mountain
peaks covered with snow in places and in places bare. I reminded him
of the Jeannette drift, of the Vincennes voyage, of Berry in the Rodgers.
Yes, he knew of the two former though he seemed to think there was
some doubt about the last, but it did not matter how many said there was
no land there, he had seen it again and again, and had no more doubt about
it than about the island we were on now. How many times altogether
could he say that he had distinctly seen it? Well, he had made no count;
every thoroughly clear day; and he said that though clear days were rare,
when they were clear they were wonderfully clear. Had he seen the land
twenty times? Yes, fully twenty and probably more.

So there it stands: Rodgers did not see Wrangel Land for fog, though
but a few miles off his course; there may have been other land he did not
see; the Jeannette drifted steadily northwest away from Herald Island
and in this land is reported northeast. And Hadley’s testimony agrees
remarkably with Kellett’s description.

The Testimony of McKinlay

William Laird McKinlay is a Scotchman, a graduate of Glasgow
University where he specialized in mathematics and physics. On
our expedition he was in charge of the investigations in terrestrial
magnetism. Apart from his lack of Arctic experience he was by
training about as well equipped as anyone could be to report on the
phenomena here in question.

Before deciding to publish Hadley’s account I wanted McKin-
lay’s story. I quote his letter verbatim, so far as it related to
Borden Land. The sketch map is exactly as he drew it.

With reference to what Mr. Hadley may have told you regarding appear-
ance of land, I do not suppose that I can add much, but I can certainly
confirm that evidence. The appearance of land was seen only on days
when conditions were fine and clear. It bore roughly east to east-northeast
from our position in the small bay at Waring Point in which our camp
was situated, its northern end being in line with the southern end of
Herald Island, and it was visible to the south for a distance roughly
four times the length of Herald Island, as the latter presented itself to
us in our position at that time. I have not sufficient experience of the
effects of mirage in polar regions to be able to say whether such appear-
ances may have been due to such a cause; but probably the fact-—and
this was to me the one really noteworthy fact—that, making allowance
for the slight variations in conditions of visibility on clear days, the outline
was on all occasions practically identical, rules the consideration of mirage
out of the question, and renders the actual existence of land more probable.

Beyond the outline it was hardly possible for us to note much detail,