Is the Crocker Land Party Living like 



Eskimo ? 



THE CROCKER LAND EXPEDITION DISAPPOINTED IN ITS HOME-COMING 

 IN 1915, FORCED TO REMAIN IN THE ARCTIC A THIRD YEAR; ALSO TO LIVE 

 AS DO THE ESKIMO ON THE GAME OF THE LAND UNLESS RELIEVED BY THE 

 SHIP "CLVETT" — THERE IS NO CROCKER LAND. LAND WHICH PEARY 

 THOUGHT HE SAW AND NAMED DOES NOT EXIST 



THE unexpected pleasure comes to 

 tlic Journal of puhlishing the 

 following letters by members of 

 the Crocker Land Expedition in the 

 American Arctic, written personally to 

 Colonel H. D. Borup, father of George 

 Borup who was drowned in Long Island 

 Sound on April 28, 1912. This was 

 just at the time when he was laying 

 plans for the Crocker Land Expedition 

 of which he was to have been leader. 

 After one year's delay the expedition 

 went north (1913), with Mr. Donald 

 B. MacMillan as leader, and was ex- 

 pected to return the past fall (1915), 

 but the ship "Cluett" chartered by the 

 American ■Museum and sent to bring 

 back the party, failed to reach Etah. 

 Thus the men are not only disappointed 

 in their hope of arriving home for the 

 new year 1916, after two years of x\rctic 

 life, but also the supplies taken north in 

 1913 being exhausted, they face a year 

 of living as the Eskimo do, on the ani- 

 mals of the land without W'hite man's 

 food. 



The "Cluett" however did succeed 

 in reaching North Star Bay about one 

 hundred and twenty-five miles south of 

 Etah, and being equipped with food 

 and other supplies for two years, is 

 thus ready to act for the relief of the 

 Crocker Land party. Therefore even if 

 the motor Ijoat, which Rasmussen re- 

 ported as starting sometime in Septem- 

 ber to l)ring the men from Etah to 

 the ship, did not get through because 

 ■of ice conditions, the distance is a con- 



\'enient one for sledging between the 

 two points. The friends of the expedi- 

 tion are optimistic in believing that the 

 members of the original expedition and 

 the party of the relief ship "Cluett" 

 have joined forces either at Etah or at 

 North Star Bay, and that there is good 

 cheer in the enforced stay, while scienti- 

 fic work and exploration unexpectedly 

 continue into the third year. 



The following letter of November 28, 

 1914, is from Mr. MacMillan, leader 

 of the expedition at Etah, to Colonel 

 Borup : 



From the newspapers you have already 

 learned of the results of our first year's work 

 — a failure to find Crocker Land where 

 Peary claimed to have seen it and where 

 indicated on the latest maps. Here it is 

 placed due northwest of Cape Thomas 

 Hubbard one hundred and twenty miles dis- 

 tant. Our observations on three successive 

 days agreed remarkably well, putting us at 

 108° 22' 30" west longitude and 82° 30' north 

 latitude, one hundred and fifty-two miles due 

 northwest of the cape. This we covered in 

 nine marches, being held up twice by open 

 water for a few hours only. Between the 

 leads, of which there were thirty-four in all, 

 we found excellent going over a hard, compact, 

 rolling surface enabling us to cover twenty- 

 six, twenty-four, eighteen and twenty-four 

 miles respectively in the last four marches. 

 At the last camp, under perfect conditions 

 with our most powerful glass, there was not 

 a thing in sight throughout the whole horizon. 



On the fourth march we thought we had it. 

 All leads had frozen, the water sky had dis- 

 appeared, leaving the horizon as clear as 

 crystal. Stretching for at least one hundred 

 and twenty degrees there was every appear- 

 ance of an immense land — hills, valleys, snow- 



121 



