216 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



tional polar station at Lady Franklin Bay a sledge party at the earliest moment 

 practicable to Cape Joseph Henry to look after the Jeannette or other vessels 

 missing. 



The proposition of Lieutenant Greely meets with the hearty concurrence of 

 this Department and is considered an eminently commendable one on his part. 



The department has no particular suggestions to make that would be of value 

 to Lieutenant Greely, but encloses for his information a copy of a communication 

 from Rear Admiral John Rodgers, who was president of the Jeannette ReHef Ex- 

 pedition Board, in relation to the proposed co-operation of Lieutenant Greely. 

 Very respectfully, William H. Hunt, 



Secretary of the Navy. 



REAR ADMIRAL RODGERS' SUGGESTION. 



In the letter of Rear Admiral Rodgers, referred to by Secretary Hunt, he 

 says : 



Cape Joseph Henry in is one of the passages given by Arctic maps as leading 

 from Herald Island into Baffin's Bay, and is, consequently, in the route in which 

 the Jeannette may have been carried by the ice, even though she had not chosen it. 

 So many abandoned whalers have been forced by the northeast current in the 

 same direction that some of them may be found there, even should the Jeannette 

 not be in that direction. 



Captain Cogan said, in his examination before the Board, that when the 

 Jeannette passed into the ice near Herald Island a current which, at certain 

 seasons, sets northwest in that locality, had already began to run, and that the 

 Jeannette would be carried northwest by the ice, he thought. 



The United States Ship Vincennes, in 1855, found the current running to 

 the northwest, from an anchorage to the northward of Herald Island, so that it 

 is not improbable that the Jeannette may have been carried for some distance to 

 the northwest, and afterward been set to the northeast. 



We can only speculate as to her possible position in an unknown sea, with 

 unknown forces acting upon her, and, it may be, constraining her movements, 

 and all the points readily reached should be examined. Cape Joseph Henry is 

 one of the points full of interest, and the offer of Lieutenant Greely should be 

 accepted, I think, with hearty thanks. 



The Steam Whaler Proteus, of 688 tons burthen, was chartered by Lieutenant 

 Greely at St. Johns, New Foundland, to transport the party and supplies to Lady 

 Franklin Bay, and sailed from St. Johns, July 7th. 



The following orders show the organization of the expedition: 



War Department, 

 Office of the Chief Signal Officer, 



Washington, D. C, June 17, 1881. 



special orders no. 97. 

 I. By direction of the Secretary of War the following named officers and 

 enlisted men are assigned to duty as the expeditionary force to Lady Franklin 



