77//; .1.1/ /;/.'/( '.i:^ MUSEUM JOURNAL 



601 



kersen, llic wc.-^tcni pail nf it in tlie 

 winter of liM"), and tlic cnstci'ii part in 

 llic siiiiiiiii'i' dl' lull, with the discoNCi'V 

 of an island about twenty miles in tli- 

 ameter. The coast lines of Isaclisen Land 

 also were checkeit up and rectified. 



When proceedinu' southward from 

 the Second Land in duly. I'JK!, ovei- 

 the ice of ITassel Sound, he reached 

 Kino- Christian Island (77° 41' N". lati- 

 tude), his route here crossing MacMil- 

 lan's from the east. Stefansson con- 

 tinued southw'ard to Finlay Island (77° 

 N. latitiide), finding a small new island 

 between Finlay and Paterson. His 

 work here breaks up the supposedly 

 large island of eighty miles diameter 

 shown on the Admiralty Chart, Isach- 

 sen's combined King Christian and 

 Finlay islands (1901), proving them 

 two widely separated, very small islands 

 (King Christian 15 miles diameter, 

 Finlay 13 miles) with a sea depth of 

 172 fathoms between. ]\Iuch work was 

 done in a survey of the interior of 

 Banks Island. Large lakes were dis- 

 covered, rivers traced, and the Avater- 

 sheds of the island marked. 



Like all other such heroic undertak- 

 ings, the story of this one is full of in- 

 cidents of a thrilling nature. One is 

 the finding of a copper tube enclosing 

 a record of the McClure Expedition, 

 deposited on the northern shore of 

 Banks Island in 1851. The document 

 is signed by McClure and announces 

 that from the given spot (John Kussell 

 Point) he saw^ the waters of j\Ielville 

 Sound and thus discovered the "North- 

 west Passage." Stefansson had in- 

 tended to return to civilization by way 

 of the Northwest Passage and the well- 

 sailed route to the St. Lawrence. Al- 

 though he \vas not able to do this 

 through failure of his ships to cooper- 

 ate with him, he gives it as his opinion 

 from ol)servations of ice movements, 

 that navigation is no more likely to be 

 hazardous or interrupted by this east- 

 ern route through Prince of Wales 

 Strait and ^felville Sound than bv the 



western route with the rounding of 

 I'oint Barrow. 



At Dealy island oil' the southeastern 

 slion* of .Melville was found an old food 

 cache of the Franklin Search days, 

 placed there by Captains Kellett and 

 IMcClintoek in 1853. Strange to say, a 

 great deal of the food was still usable. 



l>itnniinous coal was discovered in 

 many localities, for instance, at both 

 of the expedition's two camps on Mel- 

 ville (at Liddon Gulf and Cape 

 Grassy). Generally speaking, no drift- 

 Avood, such as has come from the 

 A'ukon and Mackenzie rivers and is to 

 be found on Banks Island and along 

 the mainland, Avas discovered in any of 

 the new lands. Also no musk oxen were 

 found in any of the new islands or in 

 Ellef or Amund Eingnes; and no 

 traces of bears were seen in these re- 

 gions except on the southern coast of 

 Ellef Eingnes Island ; while the species 

 of caribou is only about one half the 

 size of the caribou of the mainland. 

 Bears, musk oxen, and caribou abound 

 on the eastern coast of Melville Island. 



Stefansson has established his ability 

 to live and to have his expedition live 

 on the resources of the North Polar 

 country for an indefinite length of 

 time. He has carried forward the work 

 of his expedition for four years, often 

 with very large parties of white men and 

 Eskimos, without the loss of a single 

 man in the field parties; and what is 

 most remarkable in the light of previous 

 polar history, without the death of a 

 single dog from starvation or disease. 



Mr. Stefansson has been delegated 

 by the Canadian Government to pro- 

 ceed to the Pacific Coast to pay off the 

 crew of the "Polar Bear," lately arrived 

 in port from the North. He is ex- 

 pected to return shortly to New York 

 City to prepare a final report upon his 

 scientific observations to be submitted 

 to the Canadian Government. It is 

 hoped that he will give the Joukxal 

 the pleasure of publishing an account 

 of some phase of his remarkable work. 



