Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-09-09
THE LAND OF DESOLATRON.
A Sailors Account of n Bleak Spot i'm
the Arctic isegiOn.

From the San Francisco Chronicle.
There are in all probability not more than
about twenty white people living who have ever
set foot on Wrangel Land or Plover island. two
names by which the maps of the day distin-
guiSh an incOmpletly traced shore line in the
Arctic ocean from the black dot further to the
south named Herald island The Youngest
person who ever roamed over the insular waste
is unquestiOnably Frank Smith, of the American
ship Alfred ID. Snow, now lying at Vallejo
street wharf. Young Smith was one of the
crew Of the steam whaler Belvidere on her last
years whaling cruise in the Arctic. under COM
mand of Capt. l.. C. owens. who has penetrated
the frozen regions of the north for successive
seasons for over quarter of century The
Belvdere had spoken the revenue cutter
Thomas FL. Corwin, in August. 1881, in the
Arctic, and learned of Capt. HOopers purpose
to take possession of Wrangel Land. which,
until the boating party of Lieut.. REYNOLDS. of
the Corwin. had always been supposed to be a
vast continent, he being recorded as the first
to land there. One week after the Corwin had
left the Belvidere made for the southeast end of
the island. Two boats were sent out from the
Beyidere, and she cruised about for two DAYS.
Smith was one of the party, and his impress
sions as narrated to a reporter were as follows:
LAS soon as we got ashore we saw the signal
planted by Lieut.. Reynolds, a small American
ensign fastened to slender piece of lriftwood.
driven into the soil, such as it is The island
rises abruptly from the ocean, though not pre-
clpitOusly. There is no beach to speak Of the
land having an average elevation of ten feet
above the surface of the water It is sur
rounded by deep water, and from soundings
that our party made we found an average
depth of ten to twelve fathOms at distance Of
ten feet from the shore"
''What is the nature Of the soil?" asked the
reporter.
There is no earth to speak off, replied the
youthful Mariner laughingly 1.-THE soil ia
nf hot H.
large black pebbles of sandy nature Be-
tween these grew a green and thin three
biaded grass resembling very much the wood
tick grass of the eastern states''
hat was the size Of the island?"
II should judge it had circumference IF
ABOUT $50 miles. The island is q fat table
land AS you go toward the center YOU come
across numerous ponds and marshes of brack
ism water me only vegetation you see there
is q small pinkish, odorless flower with Iour
petals and the familiar rock moss The soil is
what you might cali peat. It is not musbv
but elastic, reminding you when you walk on II
OF the give In cork. Everything is black.
just as II it had been smeared with coal.tar'
You find piles of drift-wood everywhere"
washed up by the waves?'
"Ihey would have been," was the renlv
but the fact is that the island during some
seasons Is entirely submerged under the ice. It
island is entirely lost to sight, and that is nm
douDtediy the reason why Capt. De Long, of the
Jeannette, did not, as he was instructed tn do
leave any account of himself There ia no AMI.
NAL life on the island. was told that there
were squirrels, but what would they find to
feed on? did not see anything Ducks and
birds make O resting place on the island. and in
open seasons the Mesnker natives come from
the American shore to fish and hunt walrns
These are the natives from which the relics Of
the lost whalers Vigilant and Mount Wollaston
were obtained. Desolate and uninviting as the
island Is. 1t was sort of twO-days' picnic for
Us; and our pat9 was glad to get an opportu-
nifty to stretch our legs little. The Belvidere
was the last to see the crew of the Arctic relief
ship Rodgers on the 28th Of last October. the
crew being then at st. Lawrence bay building
their winter quarters."