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VOLUME XVIL
® . . #
Saved Lives of Scientists
. °
in the Arctic
Thrilling Experiences of Museum
Agents in the Country Where
- Even the Polar Bears Have
Chills aid Where Letters Writ
ten in March Lie in the Mail
Bag Until July Before They Are
Started Toward Civilization.
#P%. N the authority of Dr. Ru
-4 B\ dolph N. Anderson, whose
SZTNE word is as good as a first
\\‘:’g A@ mortgage bond in the
s world of science, the
" three-year-old carcass of a
bowhead, while slightly acrid and a
bit mussy, is certainly filling. The
doctor knows because he ate a few
double portion slices. It was bow
head or nothing. As the doctor had
had plenty of the latter he welcomed
the bowhead.
It was in that forlorn country, where
even the polar bears have chills, 4,000
miles to the west and more than 1,000
north, and then some, that he made
the choice, relates the New York
World. He and V. Stefansson, as rep
resentatives of the American Museum
of National History, were up there
staring death in the face looking for
specimens. They are now returning,
after two years’ absence. Stories of
their hardships have got here first.
Catching the mails is no joke up there.
To get a letter in the letter box at
MacPherson in time for the July de
livery Mr. Stefasson wrote on March
13. If a letter is carried around in
one’s pocket over night the folks at
home have to wait another six months
for news.
Mr. Stefansson and Dr. Anderson
left New York on April 5, 1908. ‘They
made their way by railroad to Edmon
ton, Canada, the furtherest point to
which human ingenuity and daring
had been able to push the steel rails,
the advance agents of progress. From
Edmonton the two explorers made
their way to Athabasca, at the head
waters of the Mackenzie, where, the
river being free from ice, they would
find sturdy little steamers ready to
carry them one step further into the
wilderness of ice and snow. The mo
ment they left the deck of the little
boat that had served their purpose to
the best of its ability the two adven
turers plunged into the terrible fast
nessess of the great silent north.
Two Years in the Ice.
For almost two years the great
sweeps of snow and ice hid the two
men from the rest of the world almost
as completely as the walls of a tomb.
Once an Eskimo, traveling far from
his home down into the haunts of
sturdy white folks who were fighting
for existence on the very edge of
the arctic circle, brought with him
a story of two white men up above the
circle. Only one other time did word
come from the men. Then, by long
and tedious sled journeys, did an Es
kimo attached to their party carry a
letter to the daring skipper of a fish
ing smack that had literally forced its
way through the ice into the far
north. :
Now the men are making their way
slowly back, bringing with them de
tails of a story the mere hints of
which have outdone the dreams of
writers of fiction who love to tell of
imaginary adventures in the frozen
north. And the men who’faced perils
and hardships that would have tried
the courage and strength of the hard
est; who set out on long and painful
journeys when the mercury froze in
the thermometer; who were forced to
camp on mountain ridges and peaks
at the height of blizzards—they have
sent a plain, impassioned report of
their journeys without giving a hint
that they encountered aught but what
they expected when they left New
York.
’ Hardships of the Trip.
It would require far more space
than the limits of this article permit
to give more than a mere skeleton of
the story of the two years’ trip, as it
i 8 now in the possession of Dr. H. C.
Bumpus, director of the Museum of
Natural History, who authorized the
expedition. When the men themselves
arrive they will fill in with detail the
story of periods of ten days and more
that often elasped without a morsel of
sustaining food passing their lips, and
The Fowinton Bulletin.
NUMBER 48.
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Map of the Wanderings of Dr. Ander son and V. Stefansson in the Frozen
n Nor th
or th.
which they dismissed with a single
sentence in their preliminary report.
In many respects the trip of Mr.
Stefansson and Dr. Anderson sur
passes any other expedition ever made
into the north by white men. The dif
ficulties with which they had to con
tend, because of the very nature ot
their journey, exceeded even those
which confronted Commander Peary
on his dash to the north pole. His
was a hurried trip across several hun
dred miles of ice to the pole and
back. Carefully constructed sleds
drawn by the finest Eskimo dogs in
the arctic circle carried provisions
a-plenty.
Not so with Stefansson and Ander
son. Their mission was the collection
of specimens that would enlighten the
rest of the worid as to human, animal
and vegetable life within the arctic
circle. They had no single objective
point. Their wanderings and search
es took them a part of the time out
over the ice of the Arctic oceanand a
part of the time across mountain ran
ges that rise thousands of feet in the
air.
Food Stolen by Wild Beasts.
They also had plenty of provisions
when they started. As though, how
ever, the ordinary perils of the coun
try were not sufficient, the real own
ers of the country, polar bears and
wolverines, added to their dangers.
Time after time the daring scientists,
wearied by months of privation, would
seek the stores of food they had hid
den in caches for just such emergen
cies, only to find that four-footed ma
rauders Lad broken in and stolen hun
dreds of pounds of food.
Stefansson, as the actual leader of
the expedition, has reserved all but
the briefest summary for his personal
report to Dr. Bumpus. A brief ten
pages sufficed for him to announce the
results of the two years’ journey, as
‘well as to outline his plan for a last
dash into the country of the hostile
Coppernine people, Eskimos who
viewed with jealous eyes any attempt
on the part of white men to penetrate
their country.
On the map you will find a tiny
point of land projecting into the Arc
tic ocean and named Cape Parry.
Nothing illustrates better, perhaps,
the uncertainty of the position of the
explorers than the very first para
graph of Mr. Stefansson’s letter,
which was written from that place on
March 13 of this year.
“An Eskimo (the same ‘Jimmy’ Me
na-ran-na who accompanied Captain
Amundsen in 1905-6 from Herschel
island to the Yukon),” wrote Mr. Ste
fansson, “has come here from Baillie
i{sland and intends starting tomorrow
for the Mackenzie delta. I am giving
him this letter, hoping it may get into
the July mail at Macpherson.”
Just think of it—grave doubts as to
whether a letter will reach a malil
post in four months’ time!
“My KEskimos,” be wrote, “are in
deadly fear of theg Coppernine people,
who have the reputation of being a
murderous lot. While they have
agreed to accompany me, I can never
tell on what night they may have a
dream which they will construe as a
warning not to go and I will be left
to make the journey alone.”
The dangers from the people them
selves were not the greatest obstacles
to this, the climax of his trip, as Mr.
Stefansson hinted in his letter. The
trip would require, all conditions be
ing favorable, at least 15 days going
and the same time returning, to say
nothing of the time that must. be
spent in gathering scientific data. Six
'dln’. provisions, however, were all
IR‘VINT()N, WILKINSON COUNTY, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 1911.
that Mr. Stefansson had. For the rest
of his food he must depend upon a
country in which even the Esquimaux
found it exceedingly difficult to find
sufiicient food to sustain their lives.
The possibility of starvation, how
ever, did not deter the adventurer.
That he made the trip, secured his
specimens and is now safely on his
return is all that those who are most
deeply interested in his welfare know.
Dr. Anderson, who, shortly after he
set out from the frien¥ly deck of the
little river steamer on the Mackenzie,
gseparated from Mr. Stefansson and
headed a party of Esquimaux into the
country, has written a little more at
length of his two years’ trip. He too
has fqund a sentence quit«rsufli«zignt
to tell of experiences that must have
tried the heart and courage of every
member of the party.
Haillie island, in the Arctic ocean,
weas the headquarters chosen by Dr.
Anrderson for his party. From there
he wrote his report, which by its very
siipplicity and directness is one of the
most remarkable documents ever sent
through the mails of the United States.
Day by day has Dr. Anderson de
tailed his journey. Os the entire first
vear spent in the north his report says
nothing, the letter he had sent out
earlier on one of the two occasions
word was received from the adven
turers being sufficient in his opinion
to cover that period. Os the second
vear, when the provisions taken north
by the party had either been eaten
or stolen by the bears and wolverines,
he says but little more.
At the end of their trip, when death
and starvation stared them in the face,
they stumbled across the carcass of
a bowhead whale. Dr: Anderson, writ
ing of the find, said, “The carcass was
evidently two or three years old, but
the meat was fairly well preserved.”
Although it was still early in the aft
ernoon the party camped immediately
and there dogs and men feasted side
by side. “The meat,” wrote Dr. An
derson, “was fairly palatabia, slightly
acrid but not offensive and all in all
was very filling.”
At the conclusion of their letters
both Mr. Stefansson and Dr. Ander
son express themselves as being de
sirous of returning again to the coun
try in which they spent two suck ter
rible years to complete the work they
started.
The first specimens gathered by Mr.
Stefansson and Dr. Anderson have ar
rived at the Museum of Natural His
tory. The men will reach New York
in the near future.
Caring for Work Horses.
The New York Woman’s League for
Animals is making great effort this
hot weather to teach owners of horses
how to take care of them. Summer
bridles and fly nets have been dis
tributed to the drivers of work horses,
and the league has a farm where tired
horses may be sent for a few weeks’
rest, which often restores them to
health. Mrs. James Speyer is the
president of the league, and Mrs. Rus
sell Sage is one of the women deeply
interested in it.
sl e eLo
Held Fast to Their Rights.
Our ancestors were never inconsid
erate enough to trust those rights
which God and nature had given them
into the hands “of princes.—James
Warren.
His Stock.
“Has that man got much business?”
“Much business? Why, he has or
ders to burn.”
“But I thought he dealt in asbes
to3 goods.”
- We
Got to
MOVE!
Why not come in and look
at the low prices we are
- making on our present stock
of goods.
Did You Ever Move?
The trouble and expense
attached---the worries=-=are
many. We've got lots of
goods-=-stuff that will just
help you over the summer==-
and as it’s late we are going
to cut the price---then, too,
we don’t want to move these
goods. Come, let’'s look
these values over. If you
‘do we sure will sell you
your needs.
Our new home after Sept.
1, entire “Ohlman Building.”
Your friends, |
W. S. Myrick & Co.
SI.OO A YEAR.
