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GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



ernors. There was a general suspension of 

 business, a draping of public and private build- 

 ings, and religious services in many churches. 

 The day was also extensively observed in Eu- 

 rope, and for the first time mourning was or- 

 dered in court circles in behalf of an official of 

 a republic. A committee was at once organ- 

 ized in Cleveland to take charge of the project 

 of raising an appropriate monument over the 

 final resting-place of the dead President, a 

 popular subscription for the purpose being in- 

 vited. Already a subscription had been started 

 in New York for the benefit of the bereaved 

 family, which reached the sum of over $360,000, 

 the income to be paid to Mrs. Garfield during 

 her life, and the principal to be divided among 

 her children on her death. 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DIS- 

 COVERY. On the 20th of December came 

 tidings from the Jeannette polar expedition, 

 which had not been heard from for two years 

 and a quarter, and was almost given up as lost. 

 The Governor of Eastern Siberia telegraphed 

 that the Jeannette had been wrecked, and that 

 two boat-loads of the crew had landed near the 

 mouth of the Lena River. The Jeannette was 

 crushed in the ice on the 23d of June, about 

 five hundred geographical miles northeast of 

 the Lena delta, in latitude 77 north, longitude 

 157 east. The officers and crew retreated with 

 sledges and boats. They embarked in three 

 boats, which kept together till, within fifty miles 

 of the mouth of the Lena, they were driven 

 apart by a heavy gale, and prevented from find- 

 ing each other again by a fog. The whale-boat, 

 containing Lieutenant Danenhower, who was 

 disabled, Chief-Engineer Melville, who took the 

 command, and nine men, entered the east mouth 

 of the Lena River on the 17th of September. 

 They were stopped by ice in the river, but found 

 a native village, where they received succor. 

 Melville placed himself in communication with 

 the Russian commandant at Boloemga. They 

 were promptly assisted by the Russian authori- 

 ties, and afterward conveyed to Yakutsk. Nin- 

 derman and Noras arrived at Boloemga, Oc- 

 tober 29th, bringing the information that the 

 first cutter, containing Lieutenant De Long, 

 Dr. Ambler, and twelve men, had landed at the 

 north mouth of the Lena. They were in a piti- 

 able condition, all badly frozen, and in danger 

 of starvation. Native scouts were sent out to 

 relieve them. As soon as he was able, Mel- 

 ville conducted a search-party to the mouth of 

 the Lena to relieve the other boat's crew. He 

 found the spot where De Long and his com- 

 panions had encamped, but they had all de- 

 parted. The log-books and instruments of the 

 Jeannette were buried in the ground, and the 

 spot marked by stakes. Three letters by De 

 Long were found in the deserted huts. Not- 

 withstanding the information afforded by these 

 records of the intentions of the retreating party, 

 a prolonged search proved fruitless. The Rus- 

 sian authorities took measures for continuing 

 the search during the winter. Melville received 



permission from Washington to remain with 

 two men and renew the quest in March. At 

 the close of the year no news had been received 

 of the second boat, containing Lieutenant Chipp 

 with the rest of the crew. Danenhower and the 

 other nine men of the rescued party set out for 

 the United States. Lieutenant Danenhower was 

 incapacitated for commanding the party or tak- 

 ing part in the search by reason of temporary 

 blindness. 



The Jeannette expedition was equipped at 

 the expense of the publisher of the " New 

 York Herald," J. G. Bennett, and departed on 

 a polar search in 1879, sailing from San Fran- 

 cisco, July 8th. The commander was Lieutenant 

 G. W. De Long, of the United States Navy, an 

 experienced Arctic explorer, who had taken part 

 in the expedition on the Juniata in 1873, in 

 search of the survivors of the stranded Polaris. 

 The steam-yacht Pandora, just returning from 

 an Arctic voyage, was purchased for the expe- 

 dition, and strengthened and fitted out with 

 every appointment for a long voyage in the 

 polar regions. She was provisioned for three 

 years. Captain De Long selected the route to 

 the east of Wrangel Land. He expected that he 

 would be obliged to resort to sledges in ascend- 

 ing to the pole, and chose this untried route, 

 because the ice in the regions north of Behring 

 Strait is of a more favorable character than 

 about Smith's Sound, or Franz-Josef Land, 

 where the highest latitudes had been made. 

 There was supposed to be much land north of 

 East Siberia, if Wrangel Land itself was not an 

 Arctic continent, possibly the continuation of 

 Greenland, as conjectured by Petermann. The 

 last authentic news from the Jeannette was the 

 letters to the "Herald," from Oonalaska and 

 St. Lawrence Bay, before she sailed for the 

 unexplored north, the latest dated August 27, 

 1879. She was last seen on the 2d of Septem- 

 ber of that year, sailing on the intended course, 

 fifty marine miles south of Herald Island. 



The Jeannette was a steam-yacht, built origi- 

 nally for the British Government, and intend- 

 ed as a dispatch-boat. She was bark-rigged, 

 with considerable rake, long and narrow, and 

 lying low in the water. She registered 420 

 tons. She was sold by the Royal Navy, im- 

 mediately after she was built, to Allan Young, 

 an English yachtsman and Arctic voyager. After 

 Captain Young had made one trip in her, she 

 was purchased by James Gordon Bennett for the 

 Herald expedition. Her beams and braces were 

 re-enforced until it was thought that she could 

 not be nipped in the ice. She already had a 

 wedge-shaped floor, a form which was supposed 

 to insure her against being crushed between ice- 

 floes, as is common with flat-floored or straight- 

 sided vessels, the sloping bottom being designed 

 to raise her above the ice. Lieutenant George 

 W. De Long was born in New York in 1844, 

 and received his promotion as lieutenant in 

 the navy in 1869. He was an enthusiastic 

 polar navigator, and was bent upon being the 

 discoverer of the north pole. He had the repu- 





