attempts were made by the _Corwin_
to reach Herald island, and that Wrangel island was approached to within
about twenty miles. This "problematical northern land," the existence of
which the Russian Admiral Wrangel reported from accounts of Siberian
natives, and which he tried unsuccessfully to find; a land that Captain
Kellett, of Her Britannic Majesty's ship _Herald_, in 1849, thought he
saw, but which, under more favorable circumstances of weather and
position, was not seen by the United States ship _Vincennes_; a land, in
fact, that from the foregoing statements and from the imperfect accounts
of whalemen we had begun to regard as a myth, was actually seen; and I
shall never forget the tinge of regret I felt when the necessity of the
position obliged the withdrawal of the ship and I took a last lingering
look at the ice-bound and unexplored coast, fully realizing at the time
the joyous satisfaction that must animate the discoverer and explorer of
an unknown land.

However, better luck was in store; for Captain Kellett's discovery was
afterwards completed by the _Corwin_. I now purpose to narrate a few
circumstances attending this first landing on Wrangel island, which may
be best told by further reference to Herald island. Captain Kellett, the
only person known to have landed at the latter place previously to this
account, reports that the extent he had to walk over was not more than
thirty feet, from which space he scrambled up a short distance; that
with the time he could spare and his materials "the island was
perfectly inaccessible." He expresses great disappointment, as from its
summit much could have been seen, and all doubts set aside regarding the
land he supposed he saw to westward. An extract from one of Captain De
Long's letters, making known his intention to retreat upon the Siberian
settlements in the event of disaster to the _Jeannette_, says, in
reference to a ship's being sent to obtain intelligence of him: "If the
ship comes up merely for tidings of us let her look for them on the east
side of Kellett land and on Herald island." Being in a measure guided by
this information, the _Corwin_ made the forementioned places objective
points in the search. It was not, however, till after the coal bunkers
were replenished with bituminous coal from a seam in the cliff above
Cape Lisburne, that an effort was made to reach the island. During the
run westward--a distance of 245 miles--the fine weather enabled us