NEWS FROM THE CROCKER LAND EXPEDITION 



By Edmund Otis Hovey 



THE Museum received advices 

 November 23 from the Crocker 

 Land expedition to the effect 

 that Donald B. MacMilhin, leader of 

 the expedition, accompanied by Ensign 

 Fitzhugh Green, engineer and physicist 

 of the party, had journeyed one hundred 

 and twenty-five miles northwest from 

 Cape Thomas Hubbard across the ice 

 of the polar sea in search for Crocker 

 Land, the land whose mountainous 

 heights Admiral Peary thought that 

 he descried from an elevation of 1,400 

 feet on Cape Thomas Hubbard in 

 1906. For two days Messrs. MacMil- 

 lan and Green thought that they saw 

 land, but this proved to be a mirage, 

 and they finally concluded that Crocker 

 Land does not exist, at least within the 

 range originally ascribed to it. 



The journey out and l)ack from Cape 

 Thomas Hubbard occupied two months 

 and proved to be extremely perilous. 

 The party crossed thirty-eight leads on 

 thin ice, lost most of their dogs on the 

 journey and on the day after they got 

 back to Cape Thomas Hubbard, in the 

 middle of May, " the ice on the polar 

 sea broke up and became a hideous, 

 grinding chaos of broken ice on which 

 they would certainly have perished had 

 they not got back as they did." 



Mr. W. Elmer Ekblaw, geologist and 

 botanist of the expedition, through 

 whom the foregoing announcement has 

 come to the Museum, writes further as 

 follows, his letter being dated August 29, 

 1914, and written on board Knud 

 Rasmussen's motor, boat just south of 

 Cape Alexander, only fifteen miles from 

 Etah: 



Knud Rasmussen's boat (small motor 

 boat) has got to a hunting camp where Jot 



Small and I have been kept for six days by 

 ice and wind, unable to return by our motor 

 boat past Cape Alexander to Etah, and 

 Rasmussen's boat can not get by either. 

 His ship must leave [Thule, North Star Bay] 

 for Denmark day after to-morrow. On 

 account of ice conditions his motor boat can 

 not wait to go to Etah after our mail and 

 MacMillan's cablegrams. Jot and 1 came 

 down with three Eskimo to kill walrus for 

 our winter supply and have been unable to 

 get back since August 24. Thus we met 

 Rasmussen's boat. I may say that we are 

 all well, and have given up hope for a ship 

 from America this year; that Mac has said 

 that we must get back next year; that we are 

 trying against heavy odds to get a wireless 

 through this coming winter; that we are 

 planning a strenuous year's work for this 

 next season; and that everything thus far 

 has been eminently successful, both explora- 

 tion and scientific work. 



I am very much concerned as to what 

 effect this inability of Rasmussen's boat to 

 get to Etah will have, but we have been up 

 to the very base of Cape Alexander (a quarter 

 of an hour ago) and the sea is raging. Ap- 

 parently there is no hope to get any of our 

 mail back until winter sledging begins. Then 

 w^e shall be able to get our mail through as we 

 did last year, from Upernivik. 



Tanquary and I spent the summer at 

 Umanak, North Star Bay, studying the 

 geology and biology of the region there. 

 MacMillan and Green got back in the middle 

 of May after two months on the trail. I had 

 to return from Bay Fjord because of a frozen 

 foot (all well now). Only three of us started, 

 with seven Eskimo, ten sledges in all. 



At the best I have only a few more min- 

 utes to write, for Rasmussen's men will stop 

 only long enough, when they reach our camp 

 again, to unload the supplies and mail, for 

 the seas and ice necessitate their immediate 

 return to North Star Bay. Ice conditions 

 all along the coast have been bad this year. 



In conclusion, let all our friends know 

 that we are well and contented, that for 

 another year at least, we have plenty of every- 

 thing we need to keep the wolf from the door 

 of our igloo. Tell our friends that though 

 we think of them often, our work is not yet 



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