stefansson-wrangel-09-32-104r

PLOVER LAND 407

Sunday, June 21

Hadley reports having seen our island again when he went out this
morning, but indistinctly.

Weather—wind east, light to moderate breeze. Cloud, Ci._{2 3} fog,
not dense, from 3 till 7 p. m.

Friday, June 26

Our island was again clearly visible, with what appeared to be
a gap cutting it in two. The constancy of outline almost convinces
us that it is actually land, but it is hard to believe that the Karluk
drifted through that region without it being sighted.

Weather—wind light and variable. Clear all day; Ci.Cu.₂ in eve-
ning.

(Fog and conditions of bad visibility intervened until July 3.)

Friday, July 3

Our island has been remarkably clear today; unchanged outline.
Made a rough sketch of this outline.

Weather—wind at first SE light, but later variable. Clear in
forenoon; completely overcast later.

From that date until the King and Wing arrived, on September 7,
conditions were uniformly bad, indeed, only four days appear in the total
of 65 which could be described as clear—August 1 to 4—and probably the
fact that we were constantly on the ice or in its neighborhood in search
of game accounts for no mention of our seeing a recurrence of the appear-
ances noted above. In that period of 65 days 22 were foggy or misty,
rain fell on 8, and snow on 12; while 17, on which none of these phe-
nomena was noted, were “completely overcast.”

From a study of the track of the Karluk’s drift you will see that
from the first week in December the ship was never very far north of the
line in which the supposed land appeared to be; and no point on that
line is any farther south of the ship’s track after December 13 than
where land was sighted on December 29, bearing S by W (Herald Island).
Moreover from December 14 to December 29 every day with two excep-
tions was clear either all day or part of the day; but I have no
knowledge of any appearance of land having been noted by any member
of the ship’s company during that period. This fact, together with the
knowledge that the charts show that region to be more or less sounded,
made me very much inclined to doubt the probability of the existence
of land in that direction; but so far as the testimony of our vision
can go, I can assure you that I can strongly corroborate Mr. Hadley’s
statements that we did see appearances of land. Indeed, it was, as I
have already remarked, the noteworthy fact that the outline was on
every occasion practically the same that most impressed me and finally
led me to make the rough sketch I enclose.

The following notes on McKinlay’s account are pertinent:

1. He refers to the southern end of Herald Island as being north-
east from Waring Point, while by the American and British charts
it is east or but a few degrees north of east. It is more likely
that the charts are wrong either as to the position of Herald Island
or as to that of Waring Point than that McKinlay erred so much
in giving the direction of the one from the other.