The Nome nugget., 1926-07-24
MYSTERIES OF THE ARCTIC TO BE SOLVED
 BIG AIR EXHIBITIONS

BlG AlR t.AIEblIhDNS
 New York. LP,- Justification for the risk of life and expenditure o. money involved in three American Arctic expeditions this summer IS given today by Robert Andt,I -..n Pope. organizer of the All-American ! Alumni Arctic Expedition. His outfit will be eamlu tn,lt=e by Lieutenant Leigh Wade, Issist5t h4 Lieutenant II. Il Ogden. hetlt "f W hom are round the world .liers. | All three American eNp"di' '.ni. 1 will attempt to locate and claim for the United States ;, large body nf land believed to=lic north lof Alaska and Eastern Siber'a. ip" ken of by ihe explorers ;is "a new lpoiar ointment. \ bulletin ia'ted fast year by the National GeerlA- phic Society estimated that lis land comprisrs about l ,00n .000 4dua,it. miles.
 | Sufficient evidence is av3Htl5'r.' said AIr Pope. 'to justify T.. ;.!- most certain belief that snel G nd exists" He then proreeded I1 nn- fold ih" evidence.
 Natives of the n"rt hern .a,knn md siberian coasts have been con ,inrcd that land lay to tn" north ward ever since Arctic explorers first began to inquire rhe. bAs.. their belief chiefly upon th :erih rrlv tiirht of binds ill he sptile as soon as the ice sttrts f1 ep Hni which is just before nesting setse Il | some scientific seepiies iliiuk IL" birds fly clear across the Poe to ISpit2h"rGen and Franz Ios5.,i iand jbml the majority rhink the Noui.! night, al the beginning of tha nt'.t | ing season.
 F. w Nelson chief of inc n41rlu # Biological Survey of thh ;n'"d states Department "f Arrirultnrr has written Mr. Pope:
 "My information concerning the night of birds al Point Barrow. g:ined both durin" my residence in Alaska years aen and what has been learned since. all combine To tndi- cate the probability of unknown lands To tsr north "r northeast of hat point. Also my observations on Wrangell Island indicate th" pro liability of lands lying northerA from that island"
 | MT. Nelson recalled the evidence If Captain Hooker "f the Curwin iu l1SS1 who found innumerahlc fresh tracks of wild geese on Wran sell Island but mol sign of the reese themselves, indicating a lem porary stopping place for T great number of migra tory birds. MT Murdoek, the naturalist of lthe Ray Expedittnn. located near Point Barrow in the same year and the following two years, noted the flight northward of large necks MT Nelson stated.
 Donald Cadzow. of the Museum of the American Indian, also noted gcese and ducki hyins northward rom Alaska.
 MT. Pope cited still other natura lists and explorers.
 Captain Edward P. IIeredcen wntering between Harrison and Camden Bays. Alaska. claimed thai i'll the clear days of spring they often could discern land to the north ward, but this is thought to have been merely large island.
 Captain John lieenan, of Troy. N. Y. cruising the Beaufort Sea, north oi the Alaskan shore. in search of whales in the seventies. offered more substantial evidence. After taking several whales the weather become thick and he stood to the north. When the fog lifted land to the north was seen distinctly by him and all the members of his crew. hut as he was not on a voyage of discovery and no whales were in sight. he gave the order to keep away to the sutlthward, he said.
 Tn a later day. Peary on his un- successful attempt to reach the Pole in 1906 reported that he sighted land to the northwest of Grant Land. Observing from an elevation of about 2.0O0 feet, he could see land at great distance, which he named Crocker Land. Further north . between attitudes S5 1-2 and ST de- grees. almost at the Pole. he found