- 
ManrkcwH 28, 1884. | 
ter; (8°) if they reached Cape Sabine, they are 
there at present, unless forced to attempt the 
transit of Smith Sound, —a task fraught with 
such difficulty that it may well be doubted if 
they could accomplish it. If accomplished, 
*the absence of provisions expected to be found 
there would prove a grievous disappointment, 
and possibly the cause of disaster. But we 
think the prospect of the party, as a whole, 
reaching the eastern side of Smith Sound, to 
be almost unworthy of serious consideration, 
were it not that in matters like this nothing is 
unworthy of consideration. 
The report of the board is sound and judi- 
cious, and was doubtless founded in great part 
upon the wise counsel of men like Nares and 
Schwatka, which is appended. It recommends 
a bounty to be offered for the recovery of the 
party, if north of Cape York, as urged in this 
journal and by various competent arctic ex- 
perts among those consulted. 
Since then the secretaries of the navy and 
war departments have united in a letter to 
Congress, which is too lamentably absurd to be 
any thing but comic. It has been well an- 
swered by Mr. George Kennan in the New 
York herald of March 19. That those poor, 
dear. stupid sealers and whalers might get 
themselves into trouble by rushing in where the 
navy is so much better fitted to tread, is essen- 
tially the reason offered by these landsmen as 
proof of the inadvisability of a reward. The 
common sense of mankind will put a right 
value on such a plea. The necessity for com- 
petent ice-navigators is sufficiently evident to 
any one, and is recognized by the board in its 
report. The necessity of leaving the ice navi- 
gation absolutely to their judgment is hinted 
at by Schwatka in his letter to the board, and 
much more fully developed by him in an inter- 
view published in the San Francisco post of . 
March 1. Upon this much depends, as the 
experience of the Proteus in 1883 gives evi- 
dence. 
The plans of the expedition are not yet fully 
matured, or at least not officially made public. 
It is stated that the Bear will sail, about April 
25, to St. Johns, Newfoundland, to coal, take 
dogs on board, and proceed at the earliest 
possible moment to Disco and Upernavik, 
which it is hoped will be reached about the third 
week in May. The Thetis will follow from 
New York about May 1, coaling at St. Johns, 
and convoying a coal-steamer to Upernavik ; 
when all three will proceed toward Cape York 
and Littleton Island, or Port Foulke, opening 
communication with the Eskimo at the earliest 
opportunity. 
SCIENCE. 
319 
The Alert should arrive at Upernavik by 
June 1, and proceed during the month toward 
Littleton Island with the intention of provid- 
ing a station. to fall back upon for the crews 
of the two advance vessels, and later to send 
a sledge-party along the east coast of Smith 
Sound as far as the Humboldt glacier. This 
duty completed by Sept. 1, and the advance 
vessels not having been heard from, the Alert 
should return to St. Johns with her report. 
The programme for the Alert is open to se- 
vere criticism. It cannot be too often repeated, 
that nearly all the chances are against any of 
the Greely party having reached the east side 
of Smith Sound, unless from Cape Isabella. 
The relief-vessels must follow the land-water 
on the Grinnell Land shore, to make northward 
progress. If they come to grief, they will have 
to retreat by that shore; and for them, as for 
the Greely party, a station on the Greenland 
side will be of no use, beside adding greatly to 
their perils — unless Smith Sound is navigable 
for small boats, which is hardly to be expect-- 
ed, late enough for a party wrecked north of 
latitude 79° 30’ to reach the Greenland side. 
The sledge-party along the Greenland shore 
will be useful only as a training in sledging 
for the youngsters. Here it may be observed 
that the report of the board contains a draw- 
ing of a new kind of sledge most ingeniously 
contrived to be worthless in the arctic regions. 
It weighs two hundred pounds, and contains 
bolts, bars, rivets, and varieties of metal, — 
enough to delight a locksmith, and, at arctic 
temperatures, keep him more than busy mend- 
ing the breaks, and the surgeon as much so 
alleviating the blisters, which would rise wher- 
ever bare skin touched it. 
It is understood that the expedition is to 
be commanded by Commander Winfield S. 
Schley, who will take charge of the Thetis, 
with Lieut. Uriel Sebree as executive officer, 
Lieuts. Emory Taunt and 8S. C. Lemlsy, 
Ensign Harlow, Chief-engineer Melville, and 
Passed assistant surgeon Green. The officers 
of the Bear will be Lieut. W. H. Emory 
(commander), Lieuts. Colwell and Reynolds, 
Ensign Usher, Engineer John Lowe, and Dr. 
Ames. The Alert will be commanded by Com- 
mander George W. Coffin, assisted by Lieut. 
Charles J. Badger and others not yet named. 
Jt is, of course, possible that changes in these 
details may occur at any time before the expe- 
dition departs. No opportunities are to be 
afforded for scientific observations not inevi- 
table to the voyage — unless, perhaps, on the 
Alert, which returns to civilization. 
That the expedition, in spite of crudities of 
