226 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



the day before his arrival. He estimated its thickness at about one hundred feet. 

 He said the current had already commenced running northwest at the rate of 

 about twenty miles- a day, and this current was carrying the ice in the same di- 

 rection. Captain Cogan's remarks are worth quoting: "There appears to be a 

 strait between Wrangel Land and some land to the northeast that forms a kind of 

 sluice-way, and when there is ice on both sides there will be a little stretch 

 where the current runs about twenty miles a day, so that in whaling we have to 

 run south every day after that hole opens, to hold our position. In cutting in a 

 whale to the south coast of Herald Island, I found we were drifted twenty miles 

 to the northwest. If you get further to the eastward of -Herald Island, you get 

 out of this current." 



He says: "I did not see the smoke of the ' Jeannette.' I was there when 

 they reported smoke, but I did not call it smoke. I think it was frost rising from 

 the holes in the ice. There were twenty different places where it looked as if 

 smoke was rising. I did not call it smoKe, but it might have been." 



The smoke, however, is unimportant. The captain of the "Sea Breeze" 

 saw the " Jeannette " the day before the smoke was reported.. Nor would a 

 whaling captain mistake the "Jeannette" steamer, plainly seen, for a whaler. 

 What the captain of the " Sea Breeze " saw, was undoubtedly the " Jeannette." 

 Her smoke was reported, on the 6th of September, further north than when 

 seen by the "Sea Breeze: " but if this was really her smoke it only proves that 

 she was still going to Herald Island, which we should naturally assume without 

 proof. 



As preliminary work, the "Mary and Helen" should visit Petropaulovsky 

 for Arctic clothing, for dogs, sledges and dried salmon for dog food. Thence to 

 St. Michaels, to St. Lawrence Bay, to East Cape, to Cape Serdge Kamen, to 

 Kumotschin Bay for tidings of the "Jeannette," to Herald Island; thence to the 

 southeast coasts of Wrangel Land for cairns or other notices and to examine the 

 harbors for wintering quarters on the south or southwest of Wrangel Land or in 

 Siberia near some Tchuktchi village. 



To give time for visiting the various places named the " Mary and Helen " 

 should leave San Francisco about June ist, so as to arrive at Herald Island near 

 the middle of August, for it does not appear that any earlier arrival will be useful 

 It is only late in the season that the ice leaves Wrangel Land. 



Congress, it appears, had no will to risk another exploring vessel. (See 

 Commodore Jeffers' letter appended.) The " Mary and Helen " should not be 

 caught in the ice away from a harbor, except from accident beyond control. If 

 she winters on the southeast coast of Wrangel Land or on the southern shore she 

 would easily return home next year, after having usefully spent her time available 

 for the purpose in examining the coast by means of sledge journeys. 



Second, " The means best adapted to the search." 



The available means best adapted to the search is the employment of the 

 " Mary and Helen," fully officered, thoroughly supplied with stores and the nee- 



