PREPARATIONS FOR THE EXPEDITION. GU 



ceived. In reply I would state that I have room in 

 the Jeannette for nobody but her officers and crew. 

 These must be seamen or people with some claim to 

 scientific usefulness, and from your letters I fail to 

 learn that you may be classed with either party." 



Mr. Bennett and Captain De Long received frequent 

 advice and warnings with regard to the expedition. 



Ohzyu^^^€^ ^suc> ^^A. 



One theorist wrote solemnly that the explorers were 

 on the verge of a great discovery before which the dis- 

 covery of America by Columbus would pale, for they 

 were to enter a region, about the 87th degree of lati- 

 tude, where a tropical heat would meet them issuing 

 from the hollow centre of the earth. Another was 

 convinced of the feasibility of opening trans-oceanic 

 communication for commercial purposes between the 

 Pacific Coast and England ma Behring Strait, the Arc- 

 tic Ocean, Melville, Lancaster, and Davis Straits, and 



