NEWS FROM THE CROCKER LAND EXPEDITION 
THE EXPEDITION AT ETAH AND THE “CLUETT” AT NORTH STAR BAY 
BOTH TO WINTER IN THE ARCTIC 
[With quotations from letters from the Arctic| 
S announced at the time in the 
A New York City papers a cable- 
gram was received at the Mu- 
seum on November 10, from Mr. Knud 
Rasmussen, Copenhagen, regarding the 
Crocker Land expedition. This gave 
the news of the failure of the “Cluett”’ 
to reach Etah where she was to have 
taken on the members of the expedition 
for return to civilization. The Museum 
did not give up hope of the return of the 
“Cluett”’ and the expedition to New 
York this fall until the very end of 
November. It is now believed however 
that both the original expedition under 
Mr. Donald B. MacMillan and the ship 
with Dr. E. O. Hovey and Captain 
George Comer sent to bring this expedi- 
tion home, have been forced to winter 
in the Arctic, the expedition staff at 
Etah, the “Cluett” in North Star Bay. 
Both parties are well equipped with 
supplies and with every convenience 
for scientific work, so there can be no 
fear as to the safety of the parties, their 
comparative comfort and proficable sci- 
entific results from the enforced stay. 
The cablegram is given below: 
Mail from Crocker Land _ expedition 
arrived and delivered your [American] 
Embassy. ‘“Cluett”’ arrived North Star Bay 
twelfth September after thirty-five days ice 
hindrances and motor damage Melville Bay. 
Dared not go to Etah account autumn ice but 
kept near our station, while our missionary 
motor boat left for Etah to fetch expedition 
members to ‘‘Cluett.’’ All well. 
[Signed] Knup RasmMuSSEN. 
A letter supplementing this cable 
arrived ‘later from Mr. Rasmussen in 
which he says: 
Our own ship “Kap-York”’ has not yet 
arrived [at’ Copenhagen]. When it arrives, 
probably early in December, I expect to be 
able to supplement this letter with details 
obtained from my captain. The ‘ Kap- 
York” being obliged to proceed southward 
[from North Star Bay] under sail only, had 
to be tugged out of the harbor before our 
motor boat could be sent northward, and so 
we have no recent news of your expedition. 
The following is a quotation from a 
letter written by Mr. Donald B. Mac- 
Millan at Etah, North Greenland, on 
April 6, 1915, and received in New York 
on December 3, forwarded from Copen- 
hagen by the American Embassy: 
Mail received a few days ago tells of the 
European war and the terrible loss of life. 
It is said communication with Denmark 
is uncertain so you may not receive this 
letter for some time. We realize that affairs 
at home must be very unsettled making it 
doubly hard to secure a suitable ship at a 
reasonable price to transport the expedition 
to America. Naturally the boys are very 
anxious to get home and would be disap- 
pointed if a ship failed to arrive, but if such 
should happen, do not be a bit alarmed over 
our safety; we can pull through all right. 
The season is a very hard one here for the 
Eskimo. Within the memory of the oldest 
there has never been sucha year. They have 
eaten their dogs as the only food available 
and burned their sledges for fuel. It is 
possible to sledge even to the Cary Islands, 
something which has never been done before. 
The expedition will put in caches at six 
different points on the Greenland coast for 
the return of Ekblaw! from his trip of the 
next two months. The last cache will be 
at. Cape Constitution, two hundred and 
twenty-five miles north of Etah. This work 
will lead us over Dr. Kane’s whole trail.and 
will yield some unusually interesting photo- 
1 Mr. W. Elmer Ekblaw, geologist and botanist. 
415 
