96 
THE SO-CALLED ^‘JEANNETTE RELICS” 
Avhich Avas sent some time before the starting of Nansen’s latest 
expedition. Baron Nordenskibld was also informed some time 
before Nansen sailed, so that there is no doubt that Nansen was 
cognizant of the fact that the authenticity of the relics Avas seri- 
ously questioned. He had preAuously admitted as much in 
his paper above cited, but did not on that account relax his faith 
in them. 
Conclasiom. — It is evident that the ])roof that the relics Avere 
the result of a hoax is not complete, and. in the nature of things, 
unless the parties actually concerned shall admit it, is never 
likely to be com})leted. Each person Avill form his OAvn opinion 
from the data submitted. I have spent some ten years of my 
life at sea, nearly half of the time in command of a United States 
surveying A^essel, and I am quite aAvare of the nature of sailor 
men and sailors’ evidence. Dr Bessels Avas for years my inti- 
mate and valued friend and associate, and in all our intercourse 
nothing ever occurred to lead me to doulit his earnest endeavor 
to get at the truth of this matter. iNIy oavu conclusions are, first, 
that the relics Avere not authentic, and, second, that they Avere 
probably due to a hoax, as stated above. In' support of the first 
conclusion, beside the data given, the probability that De Long 
himself would be Avriting out receipts for stores is very small. 
There has been since 1818 an average of tAVO or three ships a year 
lost in the ice north of Bering strait, and in the vicinity of the 
point Avhere the Jeannette entered the pack. Not a single relic 
of all the enormous fleet of oA'er one hundred Avrecks has ever 
been identified on the Greenland coast, A\diere AA'ood has ahvays 
been of the greatest value. Driftwood from northern rivers is 
cast up on the Greenland coast more or less every year, hut there 
is no evidence that it comes from points east of Nova Zembla. 
It is not im})ossible that some of it does, but it cannot be- proA^ed. 
Some tAA'enty-odd years ago a throAving-stick, of the pattern used 
at Port Clarence, near Bering strait, came ashore on the coast of 
Greenland, near Godhaab, and Avas presented to the museum at 
Christiania by Dr Rink.* When one remembers hoAV the creAVS 
of Avhaleships collect curios Avhich they carry to all parts of the 
Avorld, and Avhich are often throAvn aAvay or lost in the most un- 
expected places, the certainty that this stick drifted from Port 
Clarence, a distance of not less than 4,000 miles, is evidently not 
to be taken for granted. I have received from lagoons on the 
*Cf. Qeog. Tidskr., ix, No. 4, pp. 75-G, Copenhagen, 1887. 
