STEFANSSON 



5544 



STEINBOK 



clear coloring and excellence of composition. 

 That he was an industrious worker is known 

 from the large number of pictures he left 

 about a thousand, according to one authority. 

 Aside from the facts that he was born at 

 Leiden and studied in Utrecht and Haarlem, 

 little that is authentic is known of his life. 

 Among his notable works are Eve of Saint 

 Nicholas, The Rustic Wedding (both at Am- 

 sterdam), The Menagerie (The Hague) and 

 The Music Master (National Gallery, London). 

 The Metropolitan Museum, New York, pos- 

 sesses three examples of his work. 



STEFANSSON, sta' jahns sohn, VILHJAL- 

 MUR (1879- ), a Scandinavian explorer who 

 led an expedition which discovered a new land 

 in the Arctic Ocean (1915). This, his third 

 northern trip, was made under the auspices of 

 the American Museum of Natural History and 

 the National Geographic Society, and was 

 financed by the Canadian government. Its 

 object was the exploration of the regions to the 

 west of Parry Archipelago. About six months 

 after sailing from Victoria, British Columbia, 

 in June, 1913, the Karluk, largest of the three 

 expedition boats, prepared for three years of 

 scientific work, and carrying expert scientists 

 of several nations, was caught in the ice and 

 sank, with a loss of eleven lives. Stefansson, 

 with several others of the party, happened to 

 be ashore caribou hunting at the time of the 

 disaster, and was saved. 



Undismayed, the explorer resumed the jour- 

 ney by sledge. He and a supporting party left 

 Collinson Point, Alaska, in the spring of 1914, 

 the supporting sledge turning back when sev- 

 enty-five miles away from shore. Stefansson 

 pushed on with two men and six cfogs, making 

 a three-months' journey across a moving ice 

 pack of the Arctic Ocean. At this time he sur- 

 veyed large areas of the sea to the north of 

 Alaska and to the west of Banks Land. In 

 February, 1915, he started north by sledge from 

 Cape Kellett, Banks Land, and on this expedi- 

 tion discovered on June 18 an unknown moun- 

 tainous region near the seventy-eighth parallel, 

 extending from southeast to northwest for one 

 hundred miles. In 1916 he resumed his ex- 

 ploration of the Arctic land areas. 



STEIN, shtyne, HEINRICH FRIEDRICH KARL, 

 Baron vom (1757-1831), a German statesman 

 who introduced many internal reforms in Ger- 

 many, was born near Nassau. He attended the 

 University of Gottingen, where he studied 

 jurisprudence, history and politics. Stein vis- 

 ited many of the capitals of Europe, and in 



June, 1785, was appointed Prussian ambassador 

 to Mainz, Zweibriicken and Darmstadt. But 

 not liking the diplomatic service, he went to 

 England the following year to make a study 

 of political institutions, there gaining knowl- 

 edge which later assisted him greatly in the 

 conduct of Prussian affairs. 



In 1796 he was appointed supreme president 

 of the Westphalian chamber of commerce and 

 mines, and in 1804 became Minister of State 

 for Prussian trade. Stein instituted many re- 

 forms, abolished restrictions on internal trade 

 and developed the resources of the countiy. 

 He was offered the portfolio of Foreign Affairs, 

 but declined it. Being displeased with the ex- 

 isting administration, and very outspoken, he 

 soon offended the conservative Prussians and 

 was dismissed by the king in 1807. Meanwhile, 

 Napoleon completed the ruin of Prussia. 



But the. Peace of Tilsit (July 7, 1807) made 

 clear the wisdom of Stein's advice, and he was 

 recalled and made virtual dictator of impov- 

 erished Prussia. He immediately set about 

 introducing various reforms, abolishing serf- 

 dom, installing municipal and military reforms, 

 granting local self-government to all Prussian 

 towns, and opening the way for German unity. 

 A letter criticizing Napoleon's policies having 

 been traced to Stein, that ruler ordered the 

 minister's property confiscated and demanded 

 that the king should dismiss him. Stein re- 

 signed in November, 1808, and retired to Aus- 

 tria, where he spent three years. In 1812 he 

 was invited by the Emperor Alexander to Saint 

 Petersburg, and later was requested to act as 

 provisional administrator of East and West 

 Prussia. Stein took part in the drafting of the 

 Russo-Prussian convention in 1813, and after 

 the Battle of Leipzig openly denounced Napo- 

 leon. 



He was consulted in all the military diplo- 

 macy of this unsettled time, but many of his 

 theories were opposed by the narrowness of the 

 German statesmen. The federal system of gov- 

 ernment promised by Frederick was postponed, 

 and in 1815 Stein, finding himself helpless to 

 mend matters, retired, giving his time to the 

 promotion of art and science in Germany. He 

 died in Kappenberg, Westphalia, June 29, 1831. 

 STEINBOK, stine'bahk, or STEEN'BOK, a 

 very small antelope found in the southern part 

 of Africa. Its Dutch name, which means stone- 

 buck, was given because it is usually found in 

 rocky places. The steinbok is about twenty- 

 four inches tall, and has a reddish-brown coat 

 that is white underneath. The male has two 



