LIEUTENANT DKLON<;> SJ'KKCH. ~2[ 



" I dare say that after we have loft San Francisco, in our 

 passage to the northern seas, we shall experience very much 

 the same difficulties and hardships and trials that have been 

 experienced by everybody who has gone before us. It is one 

 of the most difficult things --in t'act.it is an impossible 

 thing for one starting out on an expedition of this kind to 

 say in advance what he is going to do. The ground which 

 we are going to traverse is an entirely new one. After 

 reaching the seventy-first parallel of latitude we go out into 

 a great blank space, which we arc going to endeavor to de- 

 lineate and to determine whether it is water or land or ice. 

 You will excuse me, therefore, from attempting to explain 

 what we are going to do. If you will be kind enough to keep 

 us in memory while we are gone we will attempt to tell you 

 what we have done on our return, which. I dare say, will be 

 more interesting than attempting to tell yon what we hope 

 to do. [ can only return to you my sincere thanks for the 

 kind reception you have given us and for the interest you 

 manifest in our peculiar undertaking." 



On the -')0th of .June the San Francisco Chamber of Com- 

 merce, specially convened for the purpose of expressing the 

 deep interest felt in the expedition by that body, adopted 

 the following resolutions : 



"Whereas the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce is 

 desirous of expressing its deep interest and good-will toward 

 all measures calculated to forward and extend any scientific, 

 explorations likely to benefit the commerce, navigation, or 

 agricultural interests of our country; therefore, on behalf of 

 the mercantile industry of the Pacific slope of the United 

 States of America, be it 



"Resolved: That we earnestly offer our cheering words of 

 hearty approval to encourage the well-planned American 

 Arctic expedition about to prosecute from our Pacific coast a 

 continuance of that noble work of polar exploration so gal- 

 lantly inaugurated and fearlessly advanced by the nations 

 bordering on the Atlantic. On behalf of our city, as a future 



