The First Landing on Wrangel Island | Page 3

and west-by-south
respectively. In shape, Herald island is something like a boot with a
depression at the instep, and at the westernmost extremity, near which
it may be climbed with considerable ease, are found a number of jagged
peaks and splintered pinnacles of granite, some of which resemble the
giant remains of ancient sculpture, all the worse for exposure to the
weather. On a promontory 1,400 feet high at the northeast point of the
island I placed in a cairn a bottle containing written information of our
landing and a copy of the New York Herald of April 23.[1]
Beyond the extraordinary bird life, no signs of life appeared, except a
small fox, and a Polar bear. The latter put in an appearance just after we
had returned on board at three o'clock in the morning, and the

circumstances attending his slaughter, which were about as enlivening
as shooting a sheep, put an end to this episode of our mission.
After great difficulty in getting out of the ice we ran all day on Sunday,
July 31, along the edge of the pack with Wrangel Island in sight, but
were unable to find a favorable lead that would take us nearer the land
than twelve or fifteen miles. The principal events that go to make up
the record of our cruise for the next ten days were the finding of a
ship's lower yard; the fabulous numbers of eider ducks seen off the
Siberian coast, and the usual encounters with fogs, bears, and ice.
On the morning of August 11, we were so near the unexplored land that
we were most sanguine about getting ashore, although it seemed as if a
journey would have first to be made over the ice. In the afternoon the
chances were so good that I volunteered to go ashore on the ice on the
morning of the 12th in company with Lieutenant Reynolds, Engineer
Owen, and two men. Preparations were made accordingly; the skin boat,
rations, etc., being got ready, and we spent a restless night in
anticipating the events of the coming day. We were called at five
o'clock on the morning of the 12th, and while eating a hurried breakfast
the ship steamed inshore. We were fully prepared for the undertaking;
but finding the leads in the ice more favorable than on the preceding
evening, the little steamer jammed and crashed along in a labyrinthine
course not without great difficulty, for at times she was completely
beset by great masses of ice, which she steamed against at full speed
for several minutes before they showed sign of giving way, and it
seemed that all endeavors to get out of the pack would be futile.
Happily, all these difficulties yielded, and a clear way being seen to a
water hole just off the mouth of a river, we anchored in ten fathoms
near some grounded floebergs, about a quarter of a mile off shore. A
boat was then got away, and on the calm bright morning of August 12,
1881, the first landing on Wrangel Island was accomplished!
On the beach, composed of black slaty shingle, we found the skeleton
of a whale from which the baleen was absent; also a quantity of
driftwood, some of it twelve inches in diameter; a wooden wedge; a
barrel-stave; a piece of a boat's spar and a fragment of a biscuit-box.

The river, which we named Clark river, was about one hundred yards
wide, two fathoms deep near the mouth, and rapid. From the top of a
neighboring cliff, four hundred feet high, it could be seen trending back
into the mountains some thirty or thirty-five miles. The mountains,
devoid of snow, were seen under favorable circumstances through a rift
in the clouds, and appeared brown and naked, with smooth rounded
tops. During a tramp of some miles over a muddy way, composed of
argillaceous clay and black pebbles, I observed fragments of quartz and
granite. Several specimens containing iron pyrites were also found. The
cliffs in the vicinity of our landing are composed of slate, and the land
over which I travelled seemed almost as barren as a macadamized road;
but on searching closely several species of hyperborean plants were
found, such as saxifrages, anemones, grasses, lichens and mushrooms.
The mosses and lichens were but feebly developed, and the
phanerogamous plants were in the same state of severe repression. The
following plants were collected; and I am indebted to Professor John
Muir for their names:
Saxifraga flegellaris, Willd. stellaris, L. var. cornosa, Poir. sileneflora,
Sternb. hieracifolia, Waldst. & Kit. rivularis, L. var. hyperborea, Hook.
bronchialis, L. serpyllifolia, Pursh. Anemone parviflora, Michx.
Papaver nudicaule, L. Draba alpina, L. Cochleria officinalis, L.
Artemisia borealis, Willd. Nardosmia frigida, Hook. Saussurea
monticola, Richards. Senecio frigidus, Less. Potentilla nivea, L. frigida,
Vill.