340 
debasing fiction by tales which tell of 
man’s control and courage while facing 
actual and desperate conditions. 
To these wonderful victories of peace 
over the elements of nature, is now added 
the story of the hazardous sledge- 
journey, the successful endurance, the 
wonderful resourcefulness and the final 
discovery of hitherto unknown land by 
Vilhjélmur Stefansson. 
The trustees members of the 
American Museum of Natural History 
are especially interested in the success of 
Stefansson in his polar expedition of 
1913-15. Under the auspices of the 
American Museum, Stefdnsson scientifi- 
cally explored the Canadian shores of 
Arctic America, in 1906-07 and 1908-12. 
The American Museum in conjunction 
with the National Geographic Society 
financed at first the present expedition, 
from which the two societies withdrew 
in favor of Canada when the Dominion 
Government expressed its desire to 
outfit and control the expedition. 
Three objective points were in view: 
the discovery of the land predicted by 
Greely and by Harris to the northwest 
of Banks Land; the completion of the 
charting of the unvisited northern coasts 
of Victoria Island and of Prince Patrick 
Island; and the geological, anthropo- 
logical and biological exploration of the 
coasts east of the Mackenzie River. 
The first work was to be done with the 
“Karluk,” the largest ship. 
and 
She was 
beset however, off the northeastern coast 
of Alaska in August 1913, and later, 
driven by violent gales, she drifted 
northwest to 73° N. latitude, 164° W. 
longitude, and thence to the southwest, 
sinking from ice-pressures January 11, 
1914. 
Fortunately Stefansson was ashore 
hunting when the “Karluk” began her 
drift. With his largest ship gone, his 
force largely diminished and his main 
supplies lost, he faced conditions which 
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
would have seemed hopeless to a man 
of weaker fibre. His courage never 
failed nor was his purpose shaken. 
What he had planned to do by ship and 
sledge was now to be done by sledge 
alone, as far as geographical work was 
concerned. Dr. R. M. Anderson was 
given his ship for the scientific work 
in the Mackenzie region, while Stefans- 
son bent his energies to his sledge 
journey, which necessarily was to be 
northward over the rough ice of that 
portion of the Arctic Ocean, known as 
Beaufort Sea. A supporting sledge ac- 
companied him in March, 1914 to the 
Continental Shelf, located in about 70° 
20’ N. latitude, 140° 30’ W. longitude. 
On April 7, 1914, Stefansson started 
north, with Anderson and Storkersen, 
six dogs, 360 rounds of ammunition 
and food for about forty days. Such 
a journey would seem to the ordinary 
man as certain of failure, but Stefansson 
well knew the methods of sea-floe life 
and the possibility of living on game. 
He was destined to have his courage, 
skill and determination put to the se- 
verest tests. Violent gales, enormous 
pressure ridges, and absence of game 
were experienced until on April 27 he 
was forced to alter his course. He was 
then in 73° N. latitude, 140° W. longi- 
tude, about two hundred and fifty miles 
of travel from the Alaskan coast. He 
was in the middle of Beaufort Sea, 
which although ice-clad showed the 
effects of the spring sun by its disin- 
tegrating floes. He decided to go to 
the northwest point of Banks Land, 
about three hundred miles distant. On 
May 5 his kerosene was gone, and he 
was barely able for days to melt with 
lard (carried to oil the boat tarpaulin) 
enough floe-ice to quench thirst. Ten 
days later Stefansson saw the first seal, 
and the nerve of the hunter was shown 
by his killing it with a brain shot at 
three hundred yards. On May 24 when 
