The First Landing on Wrangel Island / With Some Remarks on the Northern Inhabitants

A surgeon aboard a U.S. revenue steamer recounts an Arctic voyage undertaken to seek missing whalers and investigate reports of remote northern islands. He describes long ocean passages, sudden storms, ice navigation, and optical phenomena of high latitudes, then a hazardous landing and the first successful ascent of a small, ice-bound island, with vivid details of cliffs, a moulin, vast bird colonies, and scant terrestrial life including fox and polar bear. The account records leaving a cairn with written notice and combines natural history, navigational detail, and observational remarks on the physical characteristics of local inhabitants.