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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



ter however, for which Mr. MacMillan's 

 former Peary discipline and acquaint- 

 ance wuth the Eskimos pecuharly fitted 

 him, permitted a base in Buchanan Bay 

 on the west side of Smith Sound. From 

 there an overland march to Cape Thomas 

 Hubbard — opening the Peary cairns of 

 1906 at that point — launched the ex- 

 pedition in good form in March 1914, on 

 a straight course for the supposed Crocker 

 Land. Months later, and after much 

 peril, Mr. MacMillan and Ensign Green 

 returned to report that although they 

 had placed themselves upon the exact 

 location, only sea, with no sign of land 

 in any direction, was visible; and that 

 the further work of the expedition must 

 necessarily omit its central objective. 



Mr. MacMillan had however brought 

 his entire party through the winter in 

 good health, the smnmer had been profit- 

 ably occupied in scientific research and 

 the arrival of relief in the next season, 



1915, was confidently awaited. The three 

 organizations supporting the expedition, 

 therefore, a year ago in July, 1915, dis- 

 patched Curator E. O. Hovey, of the 

 American Museum, in the Grenfell 

 Labrador schooner "Cluett" to bring 

 home the expedition. 



The " Cluett " however did not return. 

 Midwinter brought news of her disable- 

 ment in Wostenholm Sound and the 

 certainty that both parties, the Crocker 

 Land and its relief, must winter as best 

 they might. Late in May of this year, 



1916, Mr. Tanquary forwarded from 

 the Faroe Lslands a cal)legram from Dr. 

 Hovey telling of disappointment, diffi- 

 culty and failure. The members of the 

 party were alive and well, scattered at 

 various stations and in different lines of 

 work; short of both food and transpor- 

 tation facilities, and in imperative need 

 of help from lioinc Mr. Tan(iuary, a 

 few days later arrived at Coi)enhagen 

 and in due course at New York. 



In the meantime the supporters of the 



expedition have engaged the " Danmark,"" 

 already in south Greenland, to bring out 

 the men this summer, and Mr. Knud 

 Rasmussen has been requested to carry 

 sufficient food in at once for the months 

 preceding the arrival of the " Danmark." 

 This American expedition, whatever may 

 be its final outcome, has fully realized the 

 inexorable conditions of Arctic work, the 

 uncertainty' of opposing forces of nature, 

 and certainty that the best-laid plans of 

 work will be greatly modified, if not com- 

 pletely changed ; also that the net results, 

 when the history is finally made, will be 

 altogether different from those expected, 

 although perhaps of no less value. 



Stefansson's departure, in 1913, was 

 full of promise. Adopted by the Domin- 

 ion of Canada, commissioned by it as its 

 first adequate Arctic explorer, he set out 

 from Vancouver on the Pacific coast. 

 The "Karluk" and her two auxiliaries 

 not only were freighted with sufficient 

 supplies and equipment but also carried 

 a scientific staff carefully selected, with 

 each man qualified for his especial de- 

 partment of investigation. Everything, 

 barring the usual minor difficulties, 

 promised well, until, late in the autumn 

 discouraging news came of the separation 

 of the ship from the shore, with Captain 

 Robert A. Bartlett, its navigator, and 

 nearly the whole company on board 

 drifting in the pack, while Stefansson 

 with three associates, hunting, was hope- 

 lessly marooned on land. 



The first winter closed in upon this 

 predicament and not until the following 

 May (1914) did Captain Bartlett bring 

 himself to St. Michael, Alaska, with his 

 tale of the three months' drift of the 

 "Karluk"; of her crushing and sinking, 

 late in January, 1914; of the loss of the 

 scientific party and also its supporting 

 party, headed from the ship for Wrangel 

 Island, and of the arrival at this island 

 of the survivors; of his own sledge jour- 



