TIIRKK POLAR KXPIWITIONS 



293 



ney with an Eskiirio over the pack to 

 shore, thence to Emma Harbor, Siberia. 



Later the Wrangel Lshxnders, were 

 taken off by the auxiHary schooner " King 

 and Wing," transferred to the coast 

 guard "Bear," and sent to their homes. 

 Then came Mr. B. M. IVIcConnell back 

 to civihzation, with word that having 

 wintered on the Ahiskan coast with 

 Stefansson, after they had been ma- 

 rooned on shore, he had left Stefansson 

 with tw'o comrades early in April, abont 

 sixty miles north of Martin Point, with 

 sixty days' pro\isions and the purpose of 

 making a reconnaissance, if possible, of 

 miknown land to the north. 



The next winter passed in silence, 

 doubts increasing week by week, almost 

 to despair, until nearly a year later 

 Stefansson himself arrived at Herschel 

 on the north coast of the continent, re- 

 porting a most adventurous and suc- 

 cessful year. He had journeyed seven 

 hundred miles northward and eastward 

 over the ice,' and had been obliged to 



' Of the severe winter ordeal, perhaps this hitherto 

 unpublished letter to General Thomas H. Hubbard, a 

 staunrli friend and liberal patron, whose lamented 

 death occurred before its arrival in New York, may 

 be interesting as a human document: 

 "West Coast of Banks Isl.\nd, near Lat. 7.3° 4.5' N. 



July 1, 1914. 

 Dear (ieneral Hubbard: 



I have heard that in drojjping a hundred feet to their 

 death men review the sins of a lifetime. W^e landed 

 here a week ago from a ninety-six day trip across the 

 ice from Alaska, on which (because of accidents near 

 the start) our fuel gave out over forty days before we 

 eventually made land. You will guess that there were 

 times of uncertainty and discomfort, especially when 

 water lanes impeded and contrary currents and winds 

 carried us faster away from land than we could travel 

 toward it, but 1 hope you will be glad to know that the 

 pleasant memory of your kindness to me in New York 

 when I came home the fall of 1912, was among the most 

 cheering of the mental resources I had to draw upon 

 and that — like the sinner falling to his death — I kept 

 thinking that I had failed perhaps in telling you clearly 

 how much I valued the "vote of confidence" you gave 

 me. Heaven knows when I shall get a chance to send 

 this out of Banks Island, but I hope it will get to you 

 some time to tell you that I at least remember your 

 kindness. We have had much hard luck, but we have 

 finished a trip more difficult than it looks and shall 

 continue to fight misfortune with what courage we 

 have. 



(Signed) Vilhjalmi'r Stefansson. 



winter on the western shore of Banks 

 Island, because he did not find there the 

 schooner "North Star," which he had 

 instructed to proceed there and await 

 his return. The following spring he had 

 journeyed over the ice westward and 

 northward. New land was sighted June 

 18, fourteen miles from camp (N. lati- 

 tude 77° 56'), of which approximately a 

 hundred miles of coast was defined. 

 Afterward he had made an overland 

 summer march across Banks Island, 

 returning in good order with his com- 

 rades to his base. Confronted by what 

 he thought "the unthinkable news" of 

 the loss of his flagship, the "Karluk," 

 he spent no time in vain regrets, and 

 purchasing the "Polar Bear," adapted 

 for his piu'pose, taking a new stock of 

 supplies and utilizing the fast-waning 

 summer, he set forth again to the un- 

 known North, piu'posing to winter on 

 Banks Island or Prince Patrick, and 

 then, in the Spring of 1916 to develop 

 to the farthest the possible reaches of 

 the new land mass, intending to return 

 to civilization late in the fall of this year, 

 1916, or early in the spring of next year. 

 In the meantime the southern land 

 detachment of the expedition, under the 

 direction of Dr. R. M. Anderson, has 

 been working diligently along the Alas- 

 kan coast in the delta of the Mackenzie 

 and eastward toward the Coppermine 

 with encouraging results. When Ste- 

 fansson's full narrative shall be sub- 

 mitted to the world, it will doubtless be 

 seen that no expedition has been more 

 fruitful in adventure or richer in scien- 

 tific reward. Captain Louis L. Lane, in 

 a new, not-yet-named, 300-ton power 

 schooner, left Seattle early this month, 

 hoping to meet Stefansson two months 

 later at Banks Island, and to bring him 

 and his Arctic sheaves of three years' ad- 

 venture to home and country. 



In the Antarctic the record exceeds. 



