Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/342

326 POLAR REGIONS region to Hudson s Bay. The cold of the winter months inthis country is intense, the thermometer falling as low as _ 70 3 , so that the return journey was most remarkable, and reflects the highest credit on Lieutenant Schwatka and his companions. As regards the search little was left to be done after M Clintock, but some graves were found, as well as a medal belonging to Lieutenant Irving of H.M.S. "Terror," and some bones believed to be his, which were brought home and interred at Edinburgh. De Long. Mr Gordon Bennett, the proprietor of the New York Herald, having resolved to despatch an expedition of dis covery at his own expense by way of Behring Strait, the " Pandora " was purchased from Sir Allen Young, and re- christened the " Jeannette." Lieutenant De Long of the United States navy was appointed to command, and it was made a national undertaking by special Act of Con gress, the vessel being placed under martial law and officered from the navy. The " Jeannette " sailed from San Francisco on July 8, 1879, and was last seen steaming towards Wrangell Land on the 3d September. This land had been seen by Captain Kellett, in H.M.S. "Herald" on August 17, 1879, but no one had landed on it, and it was shown on the charts by a long dotted line. The "Jeannette" was provisioned for three years, but as no tidings had been received of her up to 1881, two steamers were sent up Behring Strait in search. One of these, the "Rodgers," under Lieutenant Berry, anchored in a good harbour on the south coast of Wrangell Land, in 70 57 N. on the 26th August 1881. The land was explored by the officers of the " Rodgers " and found to be an island about 70 miles long by 28, with a ridge of hills traversing it east and west, the 71st parallel running along its southern shore. Lieutenant Berry then proceeded to examine the ice to the northward, and attained a higher latitude by 21 miles than had ever been reached before on the Behring Strait meridian, namely 73 44 N. Sir R. Collinson, in 1850, had reached 73 23 N. No news was obtained of the "Jeannette," but soon afterwards melancholy tidings arrived from Siberia. After having been beset in heavy pack ice for twenty-two months, the "Jeannette" was crushed and sunk on the 12th June 1881, in 77 15 N". lat. and 155 E. long. The officers and men dragged their boats over the ice to an island which was named Bennett Island, where they landed on the 29th July. They reached one of the New Siberia Islands on the 10th September, and on the 12th they set out for the mouth of the Lena. But in the same evening the three boats were separated in a gale of wind. A boat s crew with Mi- Melville, the engineer, reached Irkutsk, and Mr Melville set out in search of Lieutenant De Long and his party, who had also landed. The other boat was lost. Eventually Melville discovered the dead bodies of De Long and two of his crew on March 23, 1883. They had perished from ex haustion and want of food. The "Rodgers" was burnt in its winter quarters, and one of the officers, Mr Gilder, made a hazardous journey homewards through north-east Siberia. Work of The Danes have been very active in prosecuting dis- Dane? in coveries and scientific investigations in Greenland, since the journey of Nordenskiold in 1870. Lieutenant Jensen made a gallant attempt to penetrate the inland ice in 1878, and Professor Steenstrup, with Lieutenant Hammer, closely investigated the formation of ice masses at Omenak and Jacobshavn. In 1883 an expedition under Lieu tenants Holm and Garde began to explore the east coast of Greenland, the discovery of the outline of which was completed in 1879. In the summer of that year Captain Mourier, of the Danish man of war " Ingulf, " sighted the coast from the 6th to the 10th of July, and was enabled to observe and delineate it from 68 10 N. to 65 55 N., being exactly the gap left between the discoveries of Scoresby in 1822 and those of Graah in 1829. Lieu tenant Hovgaard of the Danish navy, who accompanied Nordenskiold in his discovery of the north-east passage, planned an expedition to ascertain if land existed to the north of Cape Tchelyuskin. He fitted out a small steamer called the " Dymphna " and sailed from Copenhagen in July 1882, but was unfortunately beset and obliged to winter in the Kara Sea. In 1883 Baron Nordenskiold undertook another journey over the inland ice of Green land. Starting from Auleitsivikfjord on 4th July, his party penetrated 84 miles eastward, and to an altitude of 5000 feet. The Laplanders who were of the party were sent on snow-shoes 143 miles further, travelling over a desert of snow to a height of 7000 feet. Results in physical geography and biology were obtained which will render this unparalleled journey memorable. On September 18, 1875, Lieutenant Weyprecht, one of Wey- the discovers of Franz-Josef Land, read a thoughtful and precht carefully prepared paper before a large meeting of German * naturalists at Gratz on the scientific results to be obtained from polar research and the best means of securing them. He urged the importance of establishing a number of stations within or near the Arctic Circle, in order to record complete series of synchronous meteorological and magnetic observations. Lieutenant Weyprecht did not live to see his suggestions carried into execution, but they bore fruit in due time. The various nations of Europe were repre sented at an international polar conference at Hamburg in 1879, and at another at St Petersburg in 1882; and it was decided that each nation should establish one or more stations vhere synchronous observations should be taken from August 1882. This useful project w r as matured and executed. The stations were at the following localities round the Arctic Circle : Norwegians Bosekop, Alton Fjord, Norway, Swedes Ice Fjord, Spitzbergen, Dutch Dickson Harbour, mouth of Yenisei, Siberia P I Stigastyr Island, mouth of Lena, Siberia, lns ( Mailer Bay, Nova Zcinbln, . . i Point Barroic, North America, Amcncans ( Lady Franklin Bay, 81 44 N. English Great Slave Lake, Dominion of Canada, Germans Cumberland Bay, west side of Davis Strait, Danes Godthaab, Greenland, Austrians Jan Afayen, North Atlantic, 71 N., M. Aksel S. Stecn. MrKkholm. l)r Smaller. Lieut. Jiirger.s. Lieut. Andreief. Lieut. Ray, U.S.A. Lieut. Greely.U.S.A. Lieut. Dawson. Dr Giese. A. 1 aulsen. Lieut. Wohlgemuth. The whole scheme was successfully accomplished with the exception of the part assigned to the Dutch at Dickson Harbour. They started in the "Varna "but were beset in the Kara Sea and obliged to winter there. The "Varna" was lost, and the crew took refuge on board Lieutenant Hovgaard s vessel, which was also forced to winter in the pack during 1882-83. The American stations commenced work in 1882. Greely Lieutenant Greely s party consisted of two other lieu tenants, of twenty sergeants and privates of the United States army, and of Dr Pavy, an enthusiastic explorer who had been educated in France, and had passed the previous winter among the Eskimo of Greenland. On August 11, 1881, the steamer "Proteus" conveyed Lieutenant Greely and his party to Lady Franklin Bay during an exception ally favourable season ; a house w r as built at the " Dis covery s" winter-quarters, and they were left with two years provisions. The regular series of observations was at once commenced, and two winters were passed without accident. Travelling parties w r ere also sent out in the summer, dogs having been obtained at Disco. Lieutenant Lockwood made a journey along the north coast of Green land, and reached a small island in 83 24 N. and 44 5 W. Dr Pavy and another went a short distance beyond the winter-quarters of the "Alert," and a trip was made into the interior of Grinnell Land. But all this region had already been explored and exhaustively examined by

the English expedition in 1875-76. The real value of