New-York tribune., 1913-10-13
NEW ARCTIC DISCOVERY
GREATEST Of CENTURY,
National GeOgrapherS Declare
1t Will Be Last Great Land
Find in Far North.
GREELY DOUBTS LOCATION
Says DR.. Nansen, Who Drifted
Near to the Newly Found
Continent in 1894,
Saw No Land.

Washington. Oct. 12-Members OF the
day that the reported Russian discovery
Of a continent 800 miles north OF Asia. II
true would be the last great discovery of
land. They pronounced 1t the most i'm
portant discovery within the Arctic circle
in the last century.
The report coming from St Michaels
Alaska. that Commander Wilktzky. Of
the Russian government steamers Taimyr
and Waygatch. had arrived there and an
nounced the discovery of a body OF land
as large as Greenland. extending beyond
latitude 81 north and longitude l02 east,
came as a distinct surprise to the men,
bers OF the society.
1t was known that the Russian govern
ment for years had pursued a survey in
the Siberian ocean. but no word had
reached them OF regular exploring eX-
pedition into tine frozen north. The ex-
panse north of Canada, Alaska and ST.
IBERIA has long been regarded as an invit-
ing field for investigation. however. and
the Canadian government sent Vilhjalmar
Stefansson into the area last summer on
a three-year expedition.
Major General A. w. Greely Arctic ex-
plorer and scientist. thinks some error
must have been made in describing the
location of the newly found continent
though he was not inclined TO doubt that
an important discovery had been made.
The general said to-day that on Decem-
Der is. 1891. the Fran, in which DIR. Nan
in
latitude $50. longitude l04 just little
north OF where the southern extremity OF
the land reported discovered is said TO be.
DR.. Nansen's party saw no land. and so
confident was ne that none existed I'm the
vicinity of his vessel that he has argued
since that the uneXplored portion of the
Arctic ocean is a deep basin.
General Greely suggested that it hardly
seemed possible that a continent OF the
size OF Greenland could exist between the
drift-path OF the Fran and Cape Chel-
yuskin. the northernmost point OF Asia.
That unexplored land about the size OF
Greenland does exist within the Arctic
circle north of Alaska and Eastern Asia.
as distinguished from Western Siberia,
where the Russians are said to have dis
covered land. has been the theory Of
scientists for years
DR.. Roland A. Harris, OF the coast and
geodetic survey. years ago put forth the
so-called Harris theory that large area
OF undiscovered land was within the
circle. His contention was based upon
tidal observation by Polar explorers, In
Guiding Rear Admiral Peary. who was
assigned by President Roosevelt to make
tidal observation on his last trip to the
Arctic regions for Or. Harris's benefit
Or. Harris observed that at Point
Barrow the flood stream OF the tide came
from the west and not from the north.
as the hypothesis OF an extended ana
deep Polar basin would indicate. The
tidal hours at Arctic points also led him
10 believe that a large body OF lana IN
terrupted part Of the now from the
north. Or. Harris is now In Bermuda on
a vacation.
General Greeiy arrived at the same
conclusion about land 10 the westward OF
Grinncu Land, but by a different method.
HIS opinion was based on the prevalence
I'm the Arctic Ocean OF large numbers OF
fat-topped icebergs, which had previously
been called by Admiral Sir George Mares.
royal navy. palcocrystic bergs. The hat-
topped bergs were found TO be OF enor-
nous size. some Of them ten miles long,
several miles wide and hundreds Of feet
high. General Greely considered the I'm
portant point about them to be that they
often showed parallel lines Of ice forma-
ton. the result Of compressed snowfalis
Of several years. Such structural feat
ures. he had learned. are not found on
bergs coming from known Arctic LANDS,
although common in the Antarctic re-
gions.
The general further reasoned that such
bergs could only be formed on level lana
OF considerable extent. and that as they
did not come from Spitzbergen. Green
land or Grinnell Land they must have
come from an unknown land He ex-
pressed this conclusion in published
article in 1856. and I'm a book written by
hin, I'm 1906 said that within the main
north Polar basin there is possibly an
extensive ice-covered land to the north
northwest OF Melville Island"