292 ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS. 



the Ripple readied the Cary Islands on August 16, only thirteen days 

 after leaving G-odhavn, but was, unfortunately, wrecked the following 

 day while taking on board the provisions deposited there by Captain 

 Xares in 1875. The party remained several weeks on the island, but 

 eventually left in an open boat for Cape Clarence or Cape Faraday, on 

 the west side of Baffin Bay, in the hope of falling in with the Eskimo 

 that were supposed to be in that neighborhood. The date of the letter 

 is October 12, 1892, and a significant statement was made in it to the 

 effect that their provisions would not last beyond January 1. Their 

 numbers were then undiminished, but one man was dying. This is the 

 last news that has been received of these gallant and enthusiastic young 

 explorers. Careful search was made for them in the Gary Islands, at 

 Clarence Head, Cape Faraday, and along the north shore of Northum- 

 berland Island, as well as the entrance to Jones Sound, during the sum- 

 mer of 1894, but, alas ! with an unsuccessful result, and it seems more 

 than probable that they lost their lives while attempting to cross from 

 the Cary Islands to Cape Clarence, a distance of about 50 miles, in a 

 frail and probably leaky boat. 



I will now conclude my address with a brief summary of the results 

 that would accrue by a systematic exploration of the unknown area in 

 the arctic regions. 



The most important would, in all probability, be those connected 

 with physical geography and geology. The geology of the far north is 

 known only in fragmentary patches, but even this limited knowledge 

 proves it to be of a A^aried character. If all these patches were joined 

 and dovetailed together, facts even more remarkable and interesting 

 than any yet known would be revealed. What can be more interest- 

 ing, from a scientific point of view, than the account of Baron Toll's 

 valuable researches in the New Siberia islands, and the extraordinary 

 Post-Tertiary deposits that he discovered there? Then, again, it must 

 not be forgotten that the north shore of Grinnell Land, and also the 

 coast of that part of North Greenland known as Hall Land, are plen- 

 tifully bestrewed with erratice ice-born bowlders. Dr. Bessels, the 

 chief of the scientific staff of the Polaris expedition, was, I think, the 

 first to recognize that these bowlders had no connection with the rocks 

 in situ; but he came to what I can not help thinking (and in this belief 

 I am supported by Colonel Fielden, who served as naturalist in Nares's 

 expedition) was an erroneous conclusion, viz, that they must have been 

 transported from South Greenland, and consequently at one time the 

 current must have been from the south to the north. It is, in my opin- 

 ion, far more likely that these erratic bowlders were transported on 

 ice floes from land nearer to the north pole than we are at present 

 acquainted with. 



I do not think, but I speak under correction, that the glacial geology 

 of Europe can be properly understood and described without a more 

 thorough knowledge of the great glacial sheets of the north, for we may 

 safely assume that the arctic regions at the present moment are in very 



