Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 147, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1915 — TO SEEK TWO ARCTIC EXPLORERS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TO SEEK TWO ARCTIC EXPLORERS

BWO arctic relief expeditions will leave the United States this summer, bent on bringing back explorers marooned in the frosen polar regions. One is quite confident of success and not a desperate business, as such work goes. It will seek to reach the party of Donald B. MacMillan, now believed to be at Btah, North Greenland, and reported safe in August of last year. The second, a forlorn hope, will attempt by aeroplane search of the terrible northern seas to locate stouthearted Vilhjalmar Btefansson, who a year ago with two companions marched straight north into the unknown from the Canadian coast near the mouth of the Mackenzie river, i lfacMillan and Stefansson engaged in what has aptly been described as a race for an unknown continent. There is a great stretch of territory lying north of Alaska and Canada and branded on the north by the North pole, which has never been surveyed by human eyes. Admiral Peary, standing at elevations of 2,000 feet and later 1,000 feet on islands west of northern Greenland, believed he saw mountain peaks of this unknown land far to the westward. He dubbed It Crocker Land. If it exists, it is by far the largest area of solid earth now unexplored. The lure of it to the arctic pioneer is beyond understanding to the dweller under southern skies. Last summer MacMillan pushed across the strait from Greenland and then over several large islands to the westward until he came to Cape Thomas Hubbard, the last place from which the discoverer of the North pole, Peary, believed he caught a glimpse of Crocker’s Land mountains. Here a stretch of frosen ocean presented itself. For 125 miles MacMillan dashed over the ice straight west. Several times he thought he saw the land he sought At last he had to give up and concluded what Peary had seen was only a mirage. It is improbable Peary could have seen land farther than MacMillan went MacMillan nearly lost his life before he got back to the comparative comfort of Etah. This summer he may attempt new feats, but he will undoubtedly keep in touch with Etah, or at any rate let his whereabouts be known He will not be the staring mystery Stefansson has become. A relief party will leave Labrador in July aboard the schooner George H. Cluet. The vessel is sent out by the backers of the MacMillan expedition. including the American Museum of Natural History, the American Geographical society and the University of Illinois. All the arrangements are being made at New York. Capt. George Comer of East Haddam, Conn., will serve as ice pilot. If Stefansson is ever rescued it will be through the devotion of his secretary, Burt M. McConnell, who bade farewell to his chief April 7, 1914. No

one has seen Stefansson or the two men he kept with him since then. His vessel, the Karluk, drifted several hundred miles to the westward and was crushed in the ice. Part of those aboard the Karluk were rescued through the perseverance of McConnell. Then McConnell came back to the States and started his efforts to organize a relief expedition. It was he who evolved from his brain the idea pf hydro-aeropland. Many of his plans were talked over in the Eight Oars, E. W. Demiug's studio in artistic Macdougal alley. The Canadian government is chided by McConnell for failing to fit out a relief expedition, as Stefansson is upon Canadian service. But the great war has Intervened and monopolizes Canada’s energies. *'l consider it my duty to search for Stefansson,” McConnell said. “As a survivor of the expedition, I shall not be content to sit idly and in comfort in civilization until I know that my comrades are safe, or what has happened to them." Opinions differ as to what has happened to Stefansson. He may be drifting on a field of ice somewhere north of Alaska. In this event he would reach Siberia, if still alive, about two years from now. McConnell thus outlined his plans recently: “Our expedition is not more hopeless than that of the Rodgers, which started out to rescue the creV of the Jeanette In 1879, two years after she had sailed. “As to the practicability of using hydro-aeroplanes, it is well known that Amundsen intended taking flying machines with him into the Arctic and using them for scouting while his iceship, the Pram, drifted about in the ice pack. In using hydro-aeroplanes, too, we may discover the hypothetical continent of Crocker Land which Stefansson sought. “North of Siberia, Alaska and western Canada lies an unexplored area of

more than a million square miles. Truly this is the last frontier,’ the last unexplored area on the face of the globe. The prime object of the Canadian Arptic expedition was to explore that area as much as possible, but when the Karluk was lost Stefansson was compelled to rearrange his plans accordingly. He immediately decided to go over the treacherous, moving, crushing ice fields north of Alaska in search of the continent which some students of tidal phenomena have argued exists —and which others have argued as conclusively does not exist. “Admiral Peary and the president of the Aero club both declare the plan feasible. My plans pre simple. We would leave the ship, which would be near the shore, every favorable morning, flying about 800 feet high, and go in a straight line to a point 175 miles from shore, scanning the ice fields with powerful glasses. Then we would turn at right angles for 20 miles, turn again and fly to shore parallel to the outgoing course. “The ship, in the meanwhile, would have sailed to a point 20 miles east along the coast, where she would welcome us back. "I would bring together the crew and outfit at Victoria, B. C.. as Stefansson did. We should sail from home not later than June 1, 1915. The hydroaeroplanes would have to be thoroughly tried out before starting and then could be set up either at Nome or Port Clarence and tried again. The date of sailing from Port Clarence, which has the best harbor on the northwest coast of Alaska, will depend on the state of the arctic ice pack, which generally comes down to Bering strait late in July or early in August. “The hydo-aeroplanes would be of the most reliable type, with a carrying capacity of two men ami 100 pounds. Their tanks should hold enough fuel for a 400-mile trip, and their pontoons should be re-enforced and equipped with sled runners, so that we may land at will on ice or water. Both machines should be of identical build, so that parts may be interchanged in the event of an accident to one of the planes.” Mr. McConnell believes Stefansson has found the mysterious land he went out to look for and is now unable to return to his base on* the north coast of Alaska. McConnell was one of the three members of this expedition who gained the mainland of Alaska after drifting about on the ice for nearly a month. He thinks Stefansson is able to provide for the party of three with the two rifles and 400 pounds of ammunition they had when last seen. When Stefansson bade farewell to McConnell and the meteorologist of the expedition he kept with him two companions, Stprkersen and Ole Anderson. It was quite fitting that these three adventurous spirits should be descendants of the race of Leif Ericsson, the man who probably discovered America. All three were picked veterans of many arctic campaigns. They knew all the wiles of the Eskimo*, besides the scientific learning of the white men. Only some terrible misfortune could have extinguished them.