Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1912 — TO SEEK NEW LAND [ARTICLE]

TO SEEK NEW LAND

Noted Explorers Are to Sall for Crocker Land. Leaders of Expedition With Peary Alm to Study Polar Territory That Still Remains Mystery to Geographers, Boston, Mass. The last considerable mass of unknown land on our planet north of the equator is Crocker Land, a vast and vague region bordering the polar sea northwest of Grant Land and westward of the route which Peary followed over the ice to the pole. Recently brief and preliminary announcement was made of the expedition which will set forth during the coming summer for the exploration of this land and for other scientific work which remains to be done in the far north, especially in the_unknown interior of Greenland. i The coming expedition will be under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History and the American Geographical society with the cooperation and Indorsement of other scientific bodies, and will be assisted financially by numerous individuals. Each of the two societies named has contributed $6,000 to the fund of $50,000 which is being raised. Yale has contributed SI,OOO, and Bowdoin alumni will contribute as much or more, through their interest and pride in MacMillan, who was one of Peary’s lieutenants on his successful dash to the pole. < As to Crocker Land itself, it was given its name by Peary in the expeditions next before his last one, the name being in honor of George Crocker of New York, a leading member of the Peary Arctic club. In June, 1906, on several clear flays In succession Peary was able to make out from the summit of Cape Thomas Hubbard in latitude 81, the snow-clad summits of a distant land in the northwest above the ice horizon. It is figured that this land, which no polar explorer has ever visited, is in 100 west latitude and 83 north latitude, or about 130 miles from Cape Thomas Hubbard, which is the northern tip of Axel Heiberg Land. Men of science feel that the verification of these observations and deductions by making a long trip northwestward from Cape Thomas Hubbard

is the last great geographical problem for solution. The expedition will leave Sydney by special steamer on July 20, and will establish winter quarters at Flagler bay in north latitude 79. On the way whale and walrus meat and dogs will be collected and the ship will Joe sent home. In September and through the long arctic i night, when the moon is favorable, the supplies will be sledged to Cape Thomas Hubbard, 330 miles farther on toward the goal. When the arctic day begins to dawn in February, 1913, the expedition will push over the 130 miles of ice to the unknown Crocker Land, and if no game is found the return to Cape Thomas Hubbard will be made in the following May. On the return to the headquarters al Flagler bay scientific work, will be carried on in Grant Land, and then the headquarters and the collections will be transferred southward to Etah, the village of the most northerly Eskimos. * In the spring and summer of 1914 the expedition to the Interior of Greenland will be made and an attempt made to reach the summit of the great ice cap at the middle of the widest part of the island. No man has ever been there. On the return to Etah a ship will be awaited to bring the expedition back to civilization in the autumn of 1914. - The expedition will be jointly in charge of Donald B. MacMillan and George Borup, both of whom were with Peary. The only white men with them will be a physician and a cook.