The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1913-10-14
FROZEN CONTINENT
REPORTED FOUND.
SCIENTISTS PUZZLED. VAST AREA
500 MILES NORTH OF ASIA, SAY
RUSSIAN EXPLORERS.

Washington, Oct L5,-Members OF
the National Geographic Society said
here today that the reported Russian
discovery of a continent 500 miles
north of Asia, if true, would be the
last great discovery of land. They
pronounced it the most important dis
covery within the Arctic Circle in the
last century.
The report from St Michaels, Alas
ka, that Commander Whisky, in com
mand of the Russian government
steamers Taimyr and Waygatch had
arrived there and announced the dis
covery 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 members
of the society. 1t was known that
the Russian government for years had
pursued survey in the Siberian
ocean, but no word had reached the
society of regular expeditions into
the frozen north The eXpanse north
of Canada, Alaska and Siberia has
long been regarded as an inviting
field for investigation, however, and
the Canadian government sent Will
jhalmar Stefanson into the area last
summer on a three-year expedition.
Deep Basin, Says Nansen.
Major General A. w. Greeley arctic
explorer and scientist, thinks, some
error must have been made in describ
ing the location of the newly found
continent, though he was not inclined
to doubt that a discovery had been
made. The general said today that
on Dec. IS, 1894, the Fran in which
Dr. Nansen drifted in the Arctic re-
gions, was in latitude $3.50, longi
tude 104, just little north of where
the southern extremity of the land
reported discovered is said to be. DR.,
-NdISc4 = party saw no IdIu, anu SO
was he that none existed
in the vicinity of his vessel that he
has argued since that the uneXplored |.
portion of the Arctic ocean is a deep
basin.
General Greeley suggested that it
hardly seemed possible that a cont,
nent of the size of Greenland could .
exist between the drift path of the
Fran and Cape Chelyuskin, the nor
.hernmost point of Asia.
DR.. Roland A. Harris of the coast
md geodetic survey years ago put
orth the so-called Harris theory that
| large area of undiscovered land was
ocated within the arctic circle. His
was based upon the tidal
observation by polar explorers. DR.
Harris observed that at Point Barrow
he food stream of the tide came
rom the west and not from the north,
IS the hypothesis of an extended and
eep polar basin would Indicate The
idal hours at Arctic points also led
i'm to believe that a large body of
and interrupted that part of the flow
rom the north. DR.. Harris is now in
on a vacation.
Giant Bergs as Witnesses.
General Greeley arrived at the same
onclusion about land to be westward
f Grinnell Land, but by a different
Method His opinion was based on
he prevalence in the Arctic ocean of
arge numbers of flat-topped icebergs,
f enormous size, some of them ten
niles long, several miles wide. and
undreds of feet high. General Gree
ey considered the important point
bout them to be that they often
howed parallel lines of ice formation,
he result of compressed snOwfalls of
everal years.
Such structural forms, Gen. Greeley
ad learned are not found on bergs
oming from known Arctic lands al.
lough common in the Antarctic re-
ions. The general further reasoned
nat such bergs could only be formed
n level land of considerable extent
nd that as they did not come from .
Greenland or Grinnel
and, they must have come from an y
nknown land.