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THE EARLY HISTORY OF WRANGEL ISLAND 19

tains Capseen by Herald.” The theoretical continent still
obsessed the minds of geographers, and Kellett’s Land
was considered to be not only the corner of the “Great
Continent,” but also the inhabited land about which
the natives had told the Russians and the one for which
Wrangel had searched in vain.

In 1855 Commander John Rodgers of the U. S. S.
Vincennes, landed on Herald Island, but failed to sight
Kellett’s Land, doubtless because of the fogs so common
in that region.

In 1867 the United States had just purchased Alaska
from Russia. Through that transaction a former Russian
Governor of the territory had become well known in
the United States. He was the same Wrangel (now both
Baron and Admiral.) That year several American whalers
were cruising to the north of Bering Straits. One of
them, Captain Thomas Long, came in sight of an island
that was not down on the chart which he happened to
have with him. Thinking it a discovery, and being famil-
iar not only with Wrangel’s governorship of Alaska, but
also with his earlier career as an explorer, Captain Long
suggested to a newspaperman when he returned to the
Hawaiian Islands that the land (which he supposed him-
self to have discovered) should be named after Wrangel.
It was thus the present name came into popular use,
although it was not generally adopted by mapmakers
at that time.

During the season 1867 Kellett’s Land was visited by
several American whalers, including Captains Thomas
and Williams, who established the fact that “Plover
Island” was merely a headland on Kellett’s Land.
Thirteen years afterwards, a German, Captain Dallman,
of Hamburg, claimed to have anticipated Long’s visit