PREPARATIONS FOR THE EXPEDITION. 67 



Patterson at the Coast Survey Office, and by these hope to 

 secure for Mr. CoUins all the benefit of government insti- 

 tutions." 



From that time forward Captain De Long and Mr. 

 Collins worked together indefatigably to secure the 

 scientific objects of the expedition. 



The naturalist was Mr. Raymond L. Newcomb, of 

 Salem, Mass. In the case of these last named mem- 

 bers of the expedition a slight technical difficulty arose, 

 as will be seen by the following letter from the Secre- 

 tary of the Navy to Captain De Long, dated May 26, 

 1879: — 



•^ Your letter of the 18tli inst., requesting permission to ap- 

 point a meteorologist, naturalist, and ice-pilot, to accompany 

 you on the proposed Arctic Expedition, is received. In reply 

 you are informed that I do not think I have any authority to 

 make these appointments, as they are civil and in no sense 

 naval. The law gives me power to detail officers and enlist 

 seamen. They are neither. If you choose to take them with 

 you, all that I can do will be to give my consent, which I will 

 do at any time. If they were mustered as seamen perhaps 

 the object would be accomplished. It would, at all events, 

 subject them to discipline." (See Appendix B.) 



This course was followed, and they signed the papers 

 and appeared on the roll as seamen, but the relation 

 in which the meteorologist and naturalist stood to the 

 officers is clearly set forth in Captain De Long's letter 

 of explanation to Professor Baird of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, in which he says : — 



'' The Secretary replied (to my application) that he had no 

 authority to appoint these gentlemen under an Act of Con- 

 gress, and suggested that, in order to bring them under naval 

 regulations, I should ship them as seamen. This I have pro- 

 posed to Mr. Newcomb purely as a matter of form, and he 

 makes no objection. You will understand tljat in no other 



