THE CROCKER LAND EXPEDITION 



LETTERS arrived late in May from 

 various members of the Crocker 

 Land expedition, brought to civ- 

 iHzation by Knud Rasmussen, the Dan- 

 ish explorer. The Crocker Land expedi- 

 tion mader the leadership of Donald B. 

 MacMillan left New York on July 2 for 

 three years of exploration work over the 

 ice cap of Greenland and northwest from 

 Cape Thomas Hubbard to investigate the 

 land which Peary reported that he saw 

 over the sea ice and named Crocker Land. 

 Lentil these letters came, the Museum 

 had received no w^ord from the expedi- 

 tion since a report sent to New York 

 on August 30, 1913, when the expedition 

 was making preparations to winter at 

 Etah, the site of Peary's former camp. 

 In fact considerable disappointment 

 has been felt at not receiving frequent 

 news as the expedition carried wireless 

 and there had been hope of continual 

 commimication. It now appears that 

 the lack of result with wireless has been 

 due probably to two reasons: that the 

 location of the expedition's winter quart- 

 ers at Etah has been unsuitable to give 

 a proper lead for their aerial and that 

 the instruments carried are not of suffi- 

 cient power without the intermediate 

 station at Cape Wolstenholme, Hudson 

 Bay, which was to be established by the 

 Canadian government. 



^^^len the letters were written the 

 expedition's difficult work had not yet 

 been imder taken. The men had been 

 snugly ensconced at Etah in a commo- 

 dious well-heated house constructed of 

 lumber carried for the purpose. The 

 house is equipped with electric lights 

 within and without. There had been 

 plenty of the food of civilization. With 

 youth, health and what had proved 

 congenial comradeship, they had worked 

 in and about this "palace," as they 



named it, making only relatively short 

 excursions to hunt and to cache sup- 

 plies at Anoritok twenty-five miles 

 north and at the entrance of Buchanan 

 Bay across Smith Sound on Ellesmere 

 Land, although Ekblaw had made the 

 longer journey to Cape Melville to view 

 a meteorite purchased by Rasmussen 

 from the Eskimo. Their letters are 

 filled with enthusiasm for the four hun- 

 dred-mile journey planned for the spring 

 over Ellesmere Land and Grant Land and 

 an additional one hundred and twenty- 

 five miles of sea ice to the new land. 

 The following ciuotations give somewhat 

 the story of the months since they 

 reached Etah: 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTER FROM DONALD B. 

 MACMILLAN, LEADER OF THE EXPEDITION, TO 

 HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN, PRESIDENT OF THE 

 AMERICAN MUSEUM, WRITTEN AT ETAH, NORTH 

 GREENLAND, JANUARY 10, 1914 



The midnight of the long Arctic 

 night is over w^ith every one in good 

 health and eager for the big work ahead 

 of us. Apparently the darkness and 

 absence of the sun has had no effect at 

 all upon the boys ; they are just as happy 

 as ever and singing most of the time. 

 Ekblaw is now on a trip with dog team 

 to the shores of Meh'ille Bay to obtain 

 if possible a piece of a large meteorite 

 found b\-Koodlooktoo. We should make 

 every effort to secure all of it if the 

 Eskimo boy had not sold it to the Danes. 

 It is imdoubtedly part of the same 

 fall from which came "Ahnighito" and 

 the others secured by Peary in 1896 and 

 1897 .... 



The day after the ship left us we began 

 excavating with picks and d;yiiamite for 

 our house, selecting a well sheltered spot 

 in the midst of the Eskimo igloos. The 

 work went on day and night and on 



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