182 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



In addition to the strictly scientific staff of the expedition there will be a 

 surgeon. The climate of the Arctic regions is so healthful for white men that 

 there is not likely to be much for the doctor to do for the staff aside from 

 the treatment of frost bite and the results of accidents, but the Eskimo 

 furnish a fertile field for medical study and maintaining the health of the 

 whole party through properly balancing the diet is of high importance. 

 The surgeon has not yet been appointed although there have been many ap- 

 plicants for the post. 



The party includes an expert electrician to have the direct care of the 

 outfit of wireless and other electrical instruments at headquarters and his 

 duties will include making the meteorological and seismological observations 

 during the absence of Mr. Green. A good mechanic and boat-builder who 

 combines also the qualifications of being a good camp cook has been engaged. 

 The whole staff will seem nearly perfect, when a competent surgeon has 

 been secured. 



No American expedition has ever gone to the Arctic regions better 

 equipped as to men, supplies and instruments than this, which is to start 

 for the north in July of this year under the auspices of the American Museum 

 of Natural History and the American Geographical Society with the co- 

 operation of the University of Illinois and the assistance of the United 

 States Navy Department, the Department of the Interior (through the 

 Geological Survey and the Bureau of Mines), the Department of Agricul- 

 ture (through the Weather Bureau), the Department of Commerce and 

 Labor (through the Coast and Geodetic Survey), the Carnegie Institution 

 of Washington (through its Bureau of Terrestrial Magnetism), Yale Uni- 

 versity, Colgate University, Bowdoin College, Worcester Academy and 

 Groton School. 



Such an array of backers gives the enterprise a national character which 

 is further emphasized by the large number of individuals, about one hun- 

 dred thirty in all, who have contributed liberally of their means and the 

 score or more of prominent publishing houses and other firms that have made 

 either direct donations of their valued goods or concessions in prices that 

 have given the expedition's funds much greater purchasing power than other- 

 wise they could have had. Wireless telegraphy is to be utilized for the first 

 time to further the work of an Arctic expedition. This will be used in 

 connection with the fully equipped weather bureau station to be established 

 at the home base of the party on Flagler Bay (Kane Basin). The idea of 

 being in direct frequent communication with an exploring party north of 

 79° north latitude is one to stir the blood and fire the imagination, at the 

 same time that it removes some of the terrors of the long Arctic night. 



