July 25, 1884. 



SCIENCE 



91 



point could not be reached. All Greely's records, 

 and all the instruments brought by him from Fort 

 Conger, are recovered, and are on board. 



From Hare Island to Smith Sound I had a con- 

 stant and furious struggle with ice in impassable 

 *floes. Solid barriers of ice were overcome by watch- 

 fulness and patience. No opportunity to advance a 

 mile escaped me ; and for several hundred miles the 

 ships were forced to ram their way from lead to lead, 

 through ice varying in thickness from three to six 

 feet, and, when rafted, much greater. The Thetis 

 and Bear reached Cape York June 18, after a passage 

 of twenty-one days in Melville Bay, with the two ad- 

 vance ships of the Dundee whaling-fleet, and contin- 

 ued to Cape Sabine. Returning seven days later, fell 

 in with seven others of this fleet off Wostenholme 

 Island, and announced Greely's rescue to them, that 

 they might not be delayed from their fishing-grounds, 

 nor be tempted into the dangers of Smith Sound in 

 view of the reward of twenty-five thousan'd dollars 

 offered by Congress. Returning across Melville Bay, 

 fell in with the Alert and Loch Garry off Devil's 

 Thumb, struggling through heavy ice. Commander 

 Coffin did admirably to get along so far with the 

 transports so early in the season, before an open- 

 ing had occurred. Lieut. Emory, with the Bear, 

 has supported me throughout with great skilfulness 

 and unflinching readiness in accomplishing the great 

 duty of relieving Greely. . . . The Greely party are 

 very much improved since rescue, but their condition 

 was critical in the extreme when found, and for sev- 

 eral days after. Forty-eight hours' delay in reaching 

 here would have been fatal to those now living. The 

 season north is late, and the closest for years. Smith 

 Sound was not open when I left Cape Sabine. The 

 winter about Melville Bay was the most severe for 

 twenty years. 



This great result is entirely due to the unwearied 

 energy of yourself and the secretary of war in fitting 

 out this expedition for the work it has had the honor 

 to accomplish. W. T. Schley, Commander. 



From a despatch to the New- York Herald, we 

 learn fuller details of the explorations, mostly under- 

 taken by Lock wood and Brainard, to northern Green- 

 land and the interior of Grinnell Land, which are 

 positive additions to geography. The position of 

 Lockwood Island (latitude 83° 24' 30" north, longi- 

 tude 44° 45' west) was astronomically determined by 

 observations extending over two days; and, in their 

 journey to this point, animal life was found to be 

 abundant, with scant vegetation similar to that met 

 with in Grinnell Land. Traces of hares, lemmings, 

 ptarmigan, and snow-bunting, and the tracks of a 

 bear, were seen, and droppings of the musk-ox as far 

 as twenty miles north of Cape Britannia. The party 

 was absent fifty-nine clays. In one of their journeys 

 in the interior of Grinnell Land, Lockwood and 

 Brainard reached its western coast, and looked out on 

 the polar sea. They found an immense glacier, named 

 Agassiz Glacier, forming the ice-cap of southern 

 Grinnell Land, with a belt of land sixty miles wide 

 between it and the northern ice-cap. At the mouth 

 of Greely Fiord they rested three days for observation, 



and determined their position to be latitude 80° 48' 

 39" north, longitude 78° 26' west. From a cliff twenty- 

 two hundred feet high, they saw, on a clear day, 

 that in the north the land terminated in a high head- 

 land fifty to sixty miles distant, which they called 

 Cape Brainard; and in the south, more distant, they 

 named another headland Cape Lockwood. Beyond 

 this, with open water between, they descried land 

 which they took to be separate from Grinnell Land, 

 and named Arthur Land. Lieut. Greely himself 

 made two journeys into the interior, on which he was 

 absent twelve and nineteen days respectively, and 

 discovered a large body of fresh water, which he named 

 Lake Hazen, fed by streams from the northern ice- 

 cap, and discharging through Ruggles River into 

 Weyprecht Fiord. The river was open at its mouth 

 in April. Winter quarters of Eskimos Mere found, 

 and some relics showing that they had possessed dogs, 

 sleds, and iron. Two ranges of mountains were 

 found parallel to and beyond the United States range, 

 which he named Conger and Garfield ranges. Greely 

 ascended Mount Arthur, about five thousand feet 

 high, and the highest point in Grinnell Land. Game 

 was found abundant on this journey, a hundred 

 musk-oxen having been seen, with hares and birds. 



The return party left Fort Conger with the steam- 

 launch, ice-boat, and two boats in tow, on Aug. 9. 

 The next day they reached Cape Baird, across Lady 

 Franklin Bay. They were frozen for five days in the 

 ice before reaching Cape Lawrence, and gained Cape 

 Hawkes by the 26th, where they took in the provis- 

 ions left there by the English, and, leaving the same 

 day, had open water for six hours; then the pack 

 closed around them, and they drifted with it, being 

 finally driven to within six miles of Cape Albert, just 

 south of Victoria Head. Here they were obliged to 

 leave the launch and one of the boats; and, making 

 two small sleds from the timber of the launch, they 

 started over the ice for Cape Sabine, eleven miles off. 

 making the slow progress of about a mile a day. On 

 Sept. 13 they had to abandon their last boat, the 

 large sled weakening under it. Twice they were 

 driven back into Kane Basin by south-west gales. 

 Finally the floe, much broken, was driven, on Sept. 

 22, into the mouth of Baird Inlet, the piece on 

 which they were established being reduced to 

 about fifty yards in diameter. They finally forced a 

 landing on the northern side of the inlet on Sept. 

 29. The sad prospect before them was speedily 

 discovered by scouting-parties ; and, to be nearer 

 the base of their scanty supplies, they made their 

 way northward through a passage to Buchanan 

 Straits (proving Cape Sabine an island), and then 

 eastward along the coast, to where they made their 

 final camp, the advance reaching here Oct. 15. 

 Here they built a hut of stones, roofed with a broken 

 whale-boat and canvas, and banked with snow. 

 This they were compelled to abandon early in May 

 from the moisture from the melting snow, and to 

 occupy the tent higher up the hillside, where the 

 relief-party found them. During the entire winter 

 they had no fuel, except to warm, not cook, their 

 food. As soon as their scanty stock of provisions 



