The American Museum Journal 



Vol. XII MAY, 1912 No. 5 



GEORGE BORUP IN MEMORIAM 



WITH a profound .sense of its loss, the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural History records the death of George Borup, assistant 

 curator of geology and one of the leaders of the Crocker Land 

 expedition ^ scheduled to sail from Sydney, Nova Scotia, July 20, 1912. 

 The loss is a lamentable one and on its professional side is forciljly accent- 

 uated in our minds by that very high esteem for the young explorer, which 

 has been \ariously expressed in the letters and official documents of the 

 expedition, as illustrated in the following: 



1, SAVILE ROW, 

 BURLINGTON GARDENS. LONDON, W., 



March 29, 1912. 

 My de.\r Bonrp, 



The programme of the Crocker Land expedition, along with a communication from 

 Colonel Feilden has been placed before the Council of the Society for their information. I 

 am directed to inform you that they place the highest value on the object which tlie proposed 

 expedition has in view and tlioroughly appreciate the care with which the programme has 

 been drawn up, so as to lead to the most satisfactory scientific results and to the extension 

 of our knowledge of any lands that may exist to the nortli of the American Arctic Archipelago 

 as it is known at present. 



Tlie members of the Council are greatly gratified to note tlie very thorough training whicli 

 you yourself have undergone in order to qualify you to carry out the work on the best pos.sible 

 lines. They ask me to assure you that they will watch tlie progress of the expedition with 

 great interest and with the assurance that you will be able to bring back a rich harvest in all 

 departments of geographical science, all the more so as we have the pleasure of reckoning 

 you among the Fellows of our Society. 



Yours very truly, 



(Signed) j. s. keltie 

 Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society 



The loss to the institution and to the scientific world is heightened also 

 by the memory of the evening of the polar celebration at the Museum 

 (April 5), when in listening to the address by Peary we heard Borup's 

 equipment for polar exploration given this greatest living explorer's un- 

 paralleled tribute of praise: 



And 1 doubly congratidate the Museiun on putting the expedition in charge of my two 

 hoys, Borup and MacMillan, than whom no two men could be better fitted for the work by 

 physique, temperament, experience and inclination. 



When I recall their sledge journey from Cape Sheridan to Cape Morris K. .Jesup and 

 their rettu'n from there, covering tAvo hundred and seventy-five miles in eight marches; when 

 I recall their work establishing depots westward along the north coast of Grant Land, and 



1 For complete description of the Crocker Land expedition see the Journ.\i. for March, 

 1912; also the article by Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary in the present number. 



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