The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-09-18
GeOgraphers Keenly Interested
i'm Stefansson's Report.
Vast Strip of Territory Beekons
Intrepid Explorer on.
NO MENTION OF ICE PERILS
Hardships Apparently on Those
of Short RatiOnS
Spoken Word Relieves Long
Period of Anxiety in q. s.

New York, Sept. dissatisfied by
Vilhjalmur Stefansson's announce
ment that he is alive and well on
Banks Land in the Arctic, explorers
and geographers drew attention today
to the new land he reports he has dis
covered in the far north.
In Stefansson's own report the new
ly discovered land is located near 78
degrees north latitude. III degrees
east longitude. He actually saw
about 100 miles of coast line running
in an earsterly direction and appar-
emily penetrated to a distance of
twenty miles inland, where from a
hilltop the explorer saw mountains at
a distance of fifty miles.
Cyrus G. Adams, president of the
Association of American Geographers,
declared in a statement today that
Stefansson's new land lies about 100
miles to the north of Prince Patrick
island, and that the most southerly
part of the land which the explorer
visited isconsiderably to the east of the
most eastward extension of Prince
Patrick island.
The lands nearest to it, Mr.. Adams
said, are the Polynia islands, little
group north of Prince Patrick island,
about fifty or eighty miles from the
new land. Mr.. Adams said the most
northern part of the new land as far as
Stefansson saw it appears to be far
Their north than any other land in the
great Perry archipelago to the north
of the American continent.
Mr.. Adams expressed the opinion that
the land discovered by Stefansson
rises from the continental shaft in
shallow waters that surround the
Perry archipelago and that the dis
covery shows that this part of the
Arctic ocean is comparatively shallow.
Hardships of Short Rations.
Nome, Alaska, Sept. 1S.-Vilhjal-
chief
government Arctic exploring and sur
veying expedition that left Victoria, B.
c., in June, 1913, and who set out
afoot, over the ice, with two COM
ern Alaska, in March, 1914, to seek
new land in uncharted seas, appar-
emily is unaware of the anxiety his
long silence aroused.
In the discovery of the new land re-
ported by him, the only hardships en-
dured were those of short rations.
Stefansson, in his dispatches to the
Canadian government, conveyed by
the power schooner Ruby from Her
schel island, omitS reference to ice
perils and gives space to the scientific
results achieved.
Stefansson is winrering at Banks
land, where he has a large power
schooner and small one. He plans
to explore his new territory during
the winter and next summer, pene-
trate further into the region of mys-
terry between Alaska and the North
pole, where no ship has ever gone.
The southern, or Anderson wing of
the expedition, is pursuing its scien-
tific work in the Mackenzie delta and
reports no mishap except the death
of Engineer Daniel Blue, of the power
boat Alaska.
This is the thirteenth death among
the members of the expedition. Eight
men persisted while trying to reach
Wrangell island and another acct
dentally shot and killed himself there.
Another in the Mackenzie country,
went insane while lost and committed
suicide by shooting.