Abstract
THE discovery of a new island in the arctic is now a rare event, but in the Geographical Review of January, Mr. V. Stefansson describes what is probably such an occurrence. In September 1931 a party of Eskimo, searching for whales north of Alaska, came to an island on which they went ashore in a position of approximately lat. 71 ° 20′N., long. 145 ° 30′ W. This is about 85 miles north of Flaxman Island and due east of Point Barrow. The island was reported to be about half a mile long and of the same width and to rise to an altitude of about fifty feet. There was some vegetation but no driftwood. Mr. Stefansson vouches for the reliability of the Eskimo Takpuk who led the party and whose name has been given to the island. Further, he discomts the suggestion that the island was merely earth on floating ice. That part of the Beaufort Sea has been little explored though the nearest soundings, some twenty-five miles to the west, show deep water. The question arises as to the possibility of Takpuk Island being Keenan Land, reported in the seventies of last century and placed in various longitudes in about lat. 73 ° N., but this seems more than doubtful. Photographs of Takpuk Island are reproduced with the article.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
A New Arctic Island. Nature 133, 170 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133170b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133170b0