THE KE WHONKUS PEOPLE aka A Tale of the North Pole Country (1890) – The author John O. Greene was American, but the main character in this story is a Canadian named Sampson De Lilly. Sampson survives a shipwreck and is picked up by a steamship headed for the North Pole.
When the steamer hits too much ice and mist to proceed any further, De Lilly and other crew members continue heading north on dogsleds. Ultimately, they reach Ke Whonkus, a previously unknown island just south of the Pole, but possessed of a warm climate.
The island is inhabited by 4 and a half million people, all of them white and some of them survivors of the doomed expedition of John Franklin in the 1840s. Those survivors speak English and serve as translators for Sampson and his colleagues.
Most technology on Ke Whonkus is more advanced than in the rest of the world. The inhabitants have electric lighting through all the populated areas, plus electric cars and trains. Continue reading
Balladeer's Blog 