PROMOTION OF ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC DISCOVERY. 335 



must be interested in their rescue. British subjects are with them, 

 whom we are bound to befriend. Most certainly a special steamer ought 

 to be dispatched for their relief. But the time is very short. Hundreds 

 would gladly subscribe their mites, and the funds could have been 

 raised if there had been a year or so to collect it in. But there is 

 barely a month. The only hope was that a few very rich people might 

 be induced to come forward and save the credit of their country. I 

 felt very strongly that a vessel ought to be dispatched, and I therefore 

 made every effort, and left no stone unturned to obtain the necessary 

 funds. But I am sorry to say that I was not successful. Our sole hope 

 is now in the efitbrts of Mr. Nilson on board the whaler Eclipse, and of 

 those in the Falcon. The Falcon will sail from St. Johns early in July, 

 under the command of Mr. Henry G. Bryant, the recording secretary 

 of the Geographical Club of Philadelphia. It is hoped that Peary's 

 headquarters at Bowdoin Bay will be reached by July 25, but as Peary 

 and his inland party will not then have returned, the Falcon will have 

 about a month to spare for an independent cruise, before embarking 

 the Peary expedition in the first days of September. In a letter I have 

 just received from Mr. Bryant he assures me that he takes a deep inter- 

 est in the fate of the young Swedes, and his plan includes a landing at 

 Clarence Head and other points, and a search for records left by Bjorl- 

 ing and Kallstenius. Mr. Bryant also contemplates the exploration of 

 the channel leading west from Jones Sound. 1 have only just received 

 these jiarticulars from Mr. Bryant, which iDlace the chances of relief for 

 the missing explorers in a brighter light. I heartily wish all possible 

 success to the Peary auxiliary expedition and its gallant leader. Dr. 

 F. A. Cooke, who was with Peary in 1891-92, proposes to go up Baffin 

 Bay with a party of excursionists on board the steamer Neicfoundland, 

 owned and commanded by Capt. J. A. Farquhar, leaving New York on 

 June 25, and intending to return on September 10. Perhaps Captain 

 Farquhar may be induced to visit Clarence Head. 



I must take this opportunity of expressing my thanks to Mr. Trevor- 

 Battye for his enthusiastic efitbrts to promote the dispatch of a relief 

 vessel; as well as to Captain Haserick and to Mr. William Pine Coffin, 

 who both felt deeply the shame of leaving the gallant explorers to their 

 tate, and were ready to hel]), and did help, with the utmost zeal and 

 ardor in so good a cause. Mr. Trevor-Battye, failing the relief expedi- 

 tion, is about to start in the steamer Sajcon, of 150 tons, in company with 

 ]Mr. Mervyn Powys, to make a thorough ornithological as well as geo- 

 graphical examination of the little-known Kolguev Island, I believe 

 under Lord Lilford's auspices. Mr. Trevor-Battye has studied under 

 Mr. Coles, and the council has granted him the loan of instruments 

 necessary for navigation. To my mind Mr. Trevor-Battye is cut out 

 for a successful exjdorer. A hunter of elk on ski in Sweden, of moose 

 and wapiti in the Eockies, a salmon fisherman in the Far West, of pow- 

 erful physique and great powers of endurance, he is also a naturalist, 



