COLLINSON'S ARCTIC JOURNEY 



BY 



General A. W. GREELY 

 (Presented by title before the Society April S, 1892) 



Somewhat more than a year ago the members and guests of 

 the National Geographic Society had the great pleasure of hear- 

 ing from the lips of Lieutenant-Commander Charles H. Stockton, 

 U S N, a detailed and interesting account of his remarkable 

 voyage in the U S S Thetis, during the summer and autumn of 

 1889, from San Francisco through Bering strait, around point 

 Barrow, eastward to the mouth of Mackenzie river, and thence 

 westward to Herald and Wrangell islands, whence he returned 

 to his home port. It was a remarkable voyage, and Commander 

 Stockton deserves especial credit for the professional ability and 

 personal energy displayed by him throughout so trying and so 

 successful a trip. 



This account, somewhat enlarged, has been written up by an- 

 other hand than Stockton's and published for a very large audi- 

 ence, the readers of Scribner's Magazine, April, 1891. The value 

 of all journeys to remote regions depends primarily on the fidel- 

 ity and accuracy with which the account of such voyages may 

 be written. No one who knows Commander Stockton, or wdio has 

 heard his personal account, doubts that he has rather under- 

 stated than exaggerated the circumstances of his voyage. It is 

 therefore with a feeling of very great disappointment that every 

 well informed reader must have perused the opening paragraphs, 

 which are incorrect in statement and most unjust by inference to 

 the gallant predecessors of Commander Stockton. 



The article, entitled "Where the Ice never Melts," begins as 

 follows : 



" Two score years ago — it was in August, 1850 — a vessel lay at anchor 

 far to the north, beyond the Arctic circle. To the south of her rose a 

 lofty cone-shaped island ; to the north, to the east, to the west, beyond 

 the narrow lane of open water wherein she lay, stretched for untold miles 

 the blue ice, that, hard as granite, yields nothing to the blaze of the sun- 



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