BACK FROM THE ARCTIC

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 84, 2 January 1918, Page 5

BACK FROM THE ARCTIC

THE RETURN OF STEFANSSON SEARCHING FOR UNKNOWN LAND _ A cable message from Ott.;tvn published a few days ago stated that the Canadian Naval Department had learned of the safe arrival at Fort Yukon.- : in Alaska, of Captain Viljal--mur Stefansson. The return of this l explorer, . after an absence of ove< - four ye-ir's, closes tho record of a polar expedition that failed. Captain Stefausson sailed from the port of Victoria, British Columbia, on Juno 17, 1913, in the ship Karluk with a strong crow and a scientific staff of fifteen "ften. He had bjfen commissioned by 'the Canadian Government to push into the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, and discover whether or not there is land there. An area of over one million square miles of the North Polar regions north of Alaska is coloured white on tho map. Rear-Admira) Peary, after.his return from the NorKi Pole in 190!), said he believed there was a larg_o land mass beyond Alaska. But he did not provo this to Tie so, and the Canadian Government, which claims that the Dominion of Canada runs into the Arctic Circle, wished to know the truth.

The dangers that tho Karluk would have to face woro well understood. Tkero have been seasons when whalers could operate north of Alaska, but there was no record of any ship having proceeded more than two hundred miles from land. There are other seasons when the Beaufort Sea is thick with grinding floes. Captain Stefansson was given a stout ship, all the stores nnd equipment ho required, a free hand in the selection of his comrades, and n general instruction to do his utmost. It is interesting to know that he took wifch_ him two of the men who had been with Sir Ernest Shackleton in the Antarctic.four years earlier. They were Mr. James Murray, biologist, and Dr. Alistor Forbes Mackay,- surgeon. . . r

No Ordinary Expedition. "This, I venture to say, is no ordin- ' Dry expedition," wrote • Captain Stef-,l-nsson on the eve of his departure. "It goes into action in the Far North on the principlo upon which battles are fought in war, and if the lives at stake are fewer, the principles are not less worthy than those upon which wars are waged. The sensational aspect of the Canadian Arctic expedition is that if it should prove as successful as it conceivably may, then it will close for' ever the chapter of geographical discovery. For the place For which'wo are bound is the only spot on the whple earth where them can possibly ' be land of any considerable- extent whose existence hae hitherto been unknown to us.

"There is an unexplored area ;pf Close on a million square miles which is now,,represented by a white patch on the map. It may be our fortune to colour it. But even a more important aspect of the expedition, in my opinion, is its scientific work. It oar- , nes a inrger staff of scientific specialists than has ever accompanied a polar expedition, either north or south, and the investigations which they are amply qualified to make cover a greater variety of departments of human knowledge than has previously been included in the programme of a polar expedition. The time which we contemplate spending in these investigations is unusually long. If overything goes according to the schedule of work which I bavo drawn up for the occupation of our fifteen scientists, it will occupy three winters and four summers.

"There may-be. many better vessels nfloat than the old Karluk, but she has already withstood polar ice through many seasons, and she is as sound now, and perhaps oven better for the work that lies before us, as when she was 'launched. Her seasoned, oil-soaked timbers are well-fitted to withstand the stress of the ice into which we hope to get a month hence. In our equipment I tliinlc I may claim that We are as good as we possibly could be. Our sailing master is Captain Bartlett, whoso experience gained under Admiral Peary places him in the first rank among the ice navigators of the world. "It has to be remembered, however, that the Beaufort Sea to the north of Alaska, where we shall be if all goes well, in July, varies in ice conditions perhaps more from season to season than any other part of the North Polar Sea." .

The 111-fated Karluk. The Ivarluk was ill-fated. The ship pushed northward round the western end of Alaska, and in September was caught in the ice .of the Arctic Ocean. Sho appeared to be held fast and the explorers believed that they would have to wait until the following summer for release. But late in the month, while Stefansson himself and four members of the staff were on a short sledging journey a sudden gale broke up tho ice and the-Karluk disappeared. The leader of the expedition- was left' to make his way along the northern coast to the mouth of the Mackenzie' River, and after a remarkable journey he was able to roach that outpost of civilisation.

The Karluk drifted north for threo months and was then crushed in tho ice. .Her crew and staff escaped from tho shattered ship and camped on tho floes* They sent two advance parties with dogs and sledges to Wrangell Island, about 100 miles distant. Tho main party, under Captain Bartlett, followed a few days later, and reached •iWrangell Island safely with supplies after a rough journey. Captain Bartlett then struck across the ico with a dog team to Siberia, and followed the coast lino to Ennora Harbour, and then across, the Bering Sejj. to St. Michael. When she was crushed in the ice, tho Karluk had drifted between 400 and 600 miles from Point Barrow. Eight men were lost in the ice after the. destruction of the Karluk. Fair-skinned Esquimaux. But Stefanssou wrested succoss out of ill-fortune. One relief ship was lost. Another reached the northern coast of Canada, and tho explorer pushed north and found ne\V land north of Prince Patrick Land. His detailed report on that land has not yet reached the world, but' it is know -that ho made some remarkable discoveries. Ono of them was a tribe of fair-complexioned Esquimaux, possibly the descendants of Scandinavian voyagers. Stefansson , spent some time with these peoplo and found them extremely primitive and quite untouched by external influences, yet definitely belonging to a white race. They were polygamists and appeared to have little or no regard for human life. ' A, party of six, detached from the expedition, was reported in September 1916, to have reached Nome, in Alaska. They had mapped the Arctic coast line of Canada eastward from the Capo Parry Peninsula for a long distance, and had mndo geological as well as topographical surveys of a large area midway between Alaska and tho mouth of Hudson Bay, a process of correc.tion being applied to Franklin's charts. Largo copper-fields were discovered, and much ethnological and other scientific data collected. Captain StefansBon himself intonded to fipnnd 191 fi completing his examination of his now land, and bo was expected to return to civilisation early last year.