Bradley Land

Alleged location of Bradley Land sighted by Frederick Cook and Crocker Land sighted by Robert Peary.
Photo of Cook's 1909 expedition, with alleged Bradley Land in background

Bradley Land was the name Frederick Cook gave to a mass of land which he claimed to have seen between (84°20′N 102°0′W / 84.333°N 102.000°W / 84.333; -102.000) and (85°11′N 102°0′W / 85.183°N 102.000°W / 85.183; -102.000) during a 1909 expedition. He described it as two masses of land with a break, a strait, or an indentation between.[1] The land was named for John R. Bradley, who had sponsored Cook's expedition.

Cook published two photographs of the land and described it thus: "The lower coast resembled Heiberg Island, with mountains and high valleys. The upper coast I estimated as being about one thousand feet high, flat, and covered with a thin sheet ice."[2]

It is now known there is no land at that location and Cook's observations were based on either a misidentification of sea ice or an outright fabrication. Cook's Inuit companions reported that the photographs were actually taken near the coast of Axel Heiberg Island.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Balch, Edwin Swift (1913). The North Pole and Bradley Land. Philadelphia: Campion and Company. p. 54.
  2. ↑ Cook, Frederick A. (1911). My Attainment of the Pole: Being the Record of the Expedition that First Reached the Boreal Center, 1907–1909. New York: The Polar Publishing Co. p. 246.
  3. ↑ Bryce, Robert M. (2008). "Fredrick A. Cook: From Hero to Humbug". Retrieved 2009-02-23.
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