THE TIMES DISPATCH — NOVEMBER 09, 1913
FOUND!—A STRANGE NEW ARCTIC CONTINENT ♢ Lieut. Petroff, of the Russian Govt. Exploring Ship, Sends a Letter from the Arctic Giving
Strange Tales of a New and Warm and Fertile
Land in the Dreary, Frozen North
COMMANDER WILKITZKY, of the Russian flagship Taimyr, who is now on his way back to civilization after an extended trip of exploration through the Arctic region, has just cabled the announcement that he has discovered a new continent in the frozen North. He took possession of the land in the name of the Czar and christened it “Nicholas II. Land.”
Further details of the discovery are awaited with keen interest, for the question of what, if any, land remained to be discovered in the Arctic regions has long been a subject of debate with explorers, map makers, meteorologists and other scientists.
Commander Wilkitzky’s cable dispatch gives only the bare fact of his important discovery, but interesting details concerning it are contained in a letter sent by one of his aides. Lieutenant V. Petroff, to a brother in America. This letter was entrusted by Lieutenant Petroff to a hunter bound back to Russia two months before the expedition reached a place where it was possible to send a cable dispatch. As the hunter chanced to travel back to civilization by a shorter route than the one the expedition took, he was able to post his letter so that it reached New York several days before the Commander’s cablegram.
