stefansson-wrangel-09-31-029r

THE EARLY HISTORY OP WRANGEL ISLAND 23

“The curiosly oblique reference to Wrangel Island seems designed
to imply previous acceptance of what, so far as we can discover,
had never before been claimed.

“The last stage in the history of the island is connected with the
Stefansson Arctic Expedition of 1913-18.” ^{2 4}

In 1912 I had just returned from a four-year arctic
expedition that had been successful enough so that I
found myself in a position to organize another. I formu-
lated ambitious plans which were laid before the Amer-
ican Museum of Natural History in New York and the
National Geographic Society in Washington. These
organizations, together with the Harvard Travellers’ Club
of Boston, gave me $50,000; and two wealthy men of
Philadelphia, largely through the advocacy of my friend,
Henry C. Bryant, president of the Philadelphia Geo-
graphical Society, were going to give me, one of them a
ship which I had already selected, and the other money
enough to take her through dry dock into a first-rate
condition. But I was Canadian by birth, and my two
previous expeditions had been supported by the Univer-
sity of Toronto and the Geological Survey of Canada.
I was anxious that my native country should again co-
operate, and laid my plans accordingly before Sir Robert
Borden, then Prime Minister of Canada. Sir Robert said
at once that Canada ought to take the whole expense and
responsibility of the expedition since our purpose was to
explore the Arctic Ocean, in which Canada had a logical
interest. Upon my suggestion he wrote letters to the

Wrangel and others situated near the Asiatic coast of the Empire, form an
extension toward the north of the continental shelf of Siberia.

The Imperial Government has not judged it necessary to add to the present
notification the islands Novaia Zemlia, Kolgouev, Waigatch and others of
smaller dimensions situated near the European coast of the Empire, it being
granted that their appurtenance to the territories of the Empire has been
universally recognized for centuries.

^{2 4}For full text, see Appendix VI, at back of this book.