stefansson-wrangel-09-32-104v

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408 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

2. That there should be a gap seen in the land on one occasion
does not affect the evidence as to the presence of land. I have
frequently seen such gaps in lands well known to exist—the cause
being either a mirage or a fog bank lying on the land. It is for
this reason that some large bays laid down on polar charts are
found to exist only on the charts—a gap appearance caused by fog
or mirage has been taken for a bay.

3. The hardest blow against Plover Land is struck by McKin-
lay’s statement that from December 14 to December 29 every day
with two exceptions was clear and that no land was seen, so far as
he knows. According to the chart, the Karluk should during this
time have been in a northerly direction from Plover Land, and it
is well known to all Arctic travelers that conditions for seeing land
to the south can never be more favorable than exactly at this time
of year when any land, no matter how snow-covered, would be
seen as a clear silhouette against the southern dawn.

But this statement is offset by the one by Hadley that the Eskimo
Kurraluk did see the land to the south during the period in question.
Hadley believed it might have been seen by the Eskimo even
though it had escaped his own notice. And, because of his ex-
perience and habits of close observation, Hadley was certainly
more likely to notice it than anyone else, with the possible exception
of the Eskimo.

Thus the facts try continually to counterbalance each other,
alternately introducing doubt into our certainties and canceling
our doubts. It seems reasonable, however, that if the Borden Land
of Hadley and McKinlay and the Plover Land of Kellett are
existent they are one and the same. But if the various accounts
are to be reconciled, it will be necessary to shift the charted posi-
tions of either Point Waring or Herald Island, or both. That
may not prove so difficult as it seems, for the observations of
our expedition have already shifted the positions of several such
well-known landmarks as Cape Parry and Cape Bathurst as much
as twenty miles. In the far north faith in the sextant and chro-
nometer occasionally moves mountains from one part of the map
to another.

End of Article

This, then, is the evidence Crawford, Galle, Knight and Maurer
frequently discussed with me before they left the United States.

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