358 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1882. 



In 1881 the edge of the ice-pack is said to have laid nearer to the 

 coast of Norway than is known to have been the case before. The 

 Matyuskin Shar and the straits south of Novaya Zemlya were heavily 

 blocked with ice, but the northern passages seem to have been clear, 

 and possibly" in September vessels might have made their way to the 

 Yenesei. 



In 1882, in spite of several determined efforts, steamers could not pass 

 the ice which blocked the approaches to the Kara Sea, and were obliged 

 in October to return. 



The facts seem to indicate that no reliance can be placed on the navi- 

 gability of these northern waters, except perhaps for steamers con- 

 structed expressly to struggle against the ice, and that the outlet for 

 the products of Southern Siberia must be looked for in the development 

 of railways and canals. 



The reports of the survivors of the unibrtunate Jeannette expedition 

 seem to show that beyond the discovery of three islands to the north- 

 eastward of the New Siberia groui) and the more exact delineation of 

 the shores of Wrangell Land, no important geographical results are to 

 be expected from their labors except the confirmation of the belief that 

 the waters surrounding the pole are constantly covered with a mass of 

 ice heaped up and impassable, or, in other words, that Sir George Narcs' 

 theory of the Paleocrystic Sea is the true one. 



The Jeannette left San Francisco on the 8th of July, 1879, fitted for 

 three years' stay in the Arctic regions, under the command of Lieut. 

 Commander G. W. De Long, U. S. N., with four other officers and twenty- 

 four men of the naval service and two civilian attaches. On the 26th 

 of August the ship started north from Saint Lawrence Bay, inclining 

 toward the coast of Siberia with the hope of communicating with the 

 Vega. On September 5 the ice-pack was entered, and on the 8th the 

 Jeannette was frozen in solidly and never escaped ; the ship after this 

 time drifting helplessly with the masses of ice until June, 1881, a period 

 of one year and nine months. The drift was with the wind, covering a 

 large area of ground and having a general direction towards the north- 

 west, and demonstrating that the only lands in this region were the 

 small, rocky, uninhabited islets called Jeannette and Henrietta Islands. 



On June 12, 1881, the Jeannette was crushed by the ice and sunk, 

 giving time, however, for the crew to land and to secure provisions, &c., 

 and on the 17th of June, with five sleds and three boats, the whole party 

 started in good order for the coast of Siberia. 



Progress over the rough and melting ice was slow and difficult, and 

 in was not till the 29th of July that Bennett Island, in latitude 70^ 38' 

 north, longitude 148° 20' east, was reached. This island, small, high, 

 and rocky, and the Jeannette and Henrietta islets, form the only geo- 

 graphical discoveries of this unfortunate expedition. 



After a few days' stay to rest the exhausted crew, the men and officers 

 were divided between the three boats and progress southward was re- 



