IVORY ISLANDS IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. AZ 
A few months afterwards the unfortunate American vessel 
Jeannette entered the Siberian Polar Sea. She left San 
Francisco on July 8th, 1879, and in September of the same 
year she was frozen into the ice, from which she was never 
extricated, as she sank on June 13th, i881. Captain De Long 
(her commander) and the crew escaped over the ice, partly in 
boats, and partly in sledges. Just before the Jeannette was 
enclosed in the ice, she discovered two islands which were 
named Jeannette and Henrietta Islands, and which lie in 
longitude 160° E. After having threaded their way for some 
time amidst masses of floating ice, and being carried along by 
drifting ice-fields, the crew of the Jeannette discovered a very 
large island which had hitherto been quite unknown. ‘This 
they named Bennett Island, and took possession of it on behalf 
of America.* This island contained high mountains which 
rose to a height of 2,500 feet above the sea, and were covered 
with snow, while glaciers descended from their snowy sides, 
and flowed down to the sea. Towering cliffs rose above the 
beach, and the precipices were alive with sea birds, which kept 
up a deafening screaming. The lower hills were quite bare of 
trees or bushes, but were covered with green moss, which made 
them look quite refreshing to the weary voyagers, who had 
been so long shut up in the ice-fields. The island is, in 
the main, volcanic, being chiefly composed of trap rocks. 
Bituminous coal also was found, which burnt readily. This 
occurred in a vein extending down the mountain side.t 
According to Baron Toll, who in 1902 visited Bennett Island, 
sedimentary rocks of Cambrian age occur in it, whilst in the 
brown coal he discovered the remains of conifers.{ Further to 
the eastwards, and close to the shore the water deepens, and 
the islands are fewer and smaller. 
Leaving Bennett Island on August 6th, the Jeannette’s crew 
shortly afterwards left the ice, and in three boats began their 
voyave to the south. The north shore of the island of New 
Siberia, which is perhaps the richest of all the islands of the 
Arctic Ocean in mammoth remains, was seen on the 20th, but 
the ice around the island-prevented a landing. Much beset in 
the ice the boats slowly drifted down the strait between the 
two islands of Fadeyeffskoi and New Siberia, until on the 
lst of August, the wearied voyavers landed on the island of 
* See Gilder’s Ice Pack and Tundra, chap. xxi. 
+ The Voyage of the “ Jeannette,” by Emma de Long, vol. ii, p. 283. 
t Geographical Journal, June, 1904, p. 770. 
