Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 218, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1917 — MACMILLIAN TRIP ARCTIC ROMANCE [ARTICLE]

MACMILLIAN TRIP ARCTIC ROMANCE

American Explorer In Frozen North Makes Important Discoveries. DIDN’T KNOW ABOUTTHE WAR Party Wn Cut Off From* Civilized World for Four Year*— Rescue Ship Appeared When Food Ran Very Low. New York.—The return to civilization of Daniel B. MacMillan, American explorer, brings to a successful cLose one of the most remarkable stays in the-iceof the roof of the globe recorded In the annals of Arctic exploration. Unusual good and unusual bad luck marked the expedition’s history. No less than five ships were usejj to get the party into northern Greenland, and on the two unsuccessful and one successful attempts to bring MacMillan back home again, but not a single person involved lost his life, and there was no more serious casualty than the loss of frozen toes. This is a unique record for an Arctic expedition lasting four years. Although the enterprise cost about $250,000 and was one of the most, If not the most, costly ever known, scientists of the American Museum of Natural History here are frankly delighted today with the wealth of new information and the specimens of minerals and the fauna and flora of the frozen North which MacMillan brings back. * Worked All the Time. Most uninitiated persons think an Arctic expedition consists of periods of intense labor interspersed with long, aggravating waits in absolute idleness, while the weather prevents traveling far. But this is a mistake. MacMillan was working all the time. Even when forced to stay near his main base at Etah, he kept busy, very busy. That is why, says MacMillan, he found the last four years the shortest of his life. —Many times he went 36 to, 40 hours without sleep, pursuing his scientific studies. And he had cbnstderable-time-to devote to these studies, for actual_ exploring can only be done in three months out; of the twelve. , MacMillan is eager to return to this bleak but interesting region of the north pole and .will undoubtedly do so as soon as he can find sufficient financial backing. • !' Will Fly Over Ice. '> His'next trip will be something entirely novel in Arctic exploration, for he proposes to use an airplane to widen his radius of action. “I expect to do as much in a day with an airplane as I can do in 20 days with the dogs,” he explained. MacMillan was greatly pleased to learn of the progress in aviation which has taken place on account of the great war during his stay away from the world. He thinks airplane construction has now been carried to a point of perfection where he can rely on certain types of flyers as fully as he does on his “huskies" and his snowshoes. MacMillan lcft N.-S., aboard the Diana in July, 1913. The ship was wrecked off Barge Point, Labrador, but was finally pulled off and taken to St. John’s, where the supplies were transferred to the Erik. ' Three Rescue Attempts. In the second ship the party reached Etah, on the west Greenland coast, August 20. It was more than two years ago that the first relief expedition was sent out. Doctor Grenfell’s Labrador missionary schooner, the George B. Cluett, started In July, 1915, for Etah, but was unable to go through the heavy floes of ice encountered. Dr. Edmund O. Hovey of the American museum then fitted out the Denmark, but this ship failed also, and is believed to be still frozen in the ice off the Greenland coast. It was Capt. Robert Bartlett, companion of Peary on the trip when he reached the north pole, who finally succeeded where the others htel failed. He used the staunch sealing steamer Neptune, and by his feat he adds considerably to the reputation he made on his several voyages with Peary. Bartlett says the ice on this trip was the heaviest he had ever met. MacMillan was also one of Peary’s lieutenants on the polar trip. Many of the things MacMillan has accomplished in the far North will be appreciated only by the scientific world. But even the. layman can understand, his work in mapping a great stretch of the coast of Ellesmere Land, across Smith’s sound to the west of Greenland; discovering the second biggest glacier in the northern hemisphere; locating two new Islands and disproving the existence of two more, showing that Crocker Land, seen by Peary from the summit of an immense cliff, is only a mirage, and penetrating many miles over the frozen ocean beyond the point where Crocker {Land was supposed to begin. Reached Just in Tim*. When rescued by Bartlett at Etah, (MacMillan and the members of his party were living on dog biscuit and ’ducks’ eggs, but were in good health. jThey would probably have endured , severe hardships next winter, however, |lf they had not been reached in time. MacMillan crossed Smith’s sound I once every year he spent in the North, and every time came through without a mishap, a remarkable feat Ift itself.

He found rich mineral-bearing rocks and extensive coal fields. The exact nature of these discoveries la not yet entirely disclosed. A complete report will be given out by the American museum. The expenses of the trip were borne by the museum, the American Geographical society, the University of Illinois and various persons Interested in Arctic exploration. With his thousands of specimens so valuable to the scientific world, MacMillan brings back an insignificant tin box, which to one person In the world means more than a hundred nar-whale skeletons. MacMillan told the story of this little box as follows: "I gave this box to a little Eskimo girl, who will cry her eyes out over the loss of it. She insisted upon coming with us up-from Etah. Forty miles from there we had to chase her off the boat, and in her hurry she left this tin box. She can comfort herself with the other treasures priceless tp her. I gave her a little silver watch, a toothbrush, bits of gaudy cloth, a rattrap, some parafln which she used as chewing gum and a piece of soap. I first saw the child when I came north with Peary on the trip When he found the pole.” W. Elmer Ekblaw and all the members of the party gave high praise to Dr. Morton P. Porslld, a noted Danish scientist, head of the Danish government scientific station at Godhaven, Disco island, Greenland. Ekblaw was the first American scientist to spend any time vdth Doctor Porslid, although

students from several European countries have been sent to the station for Instruction. “Doctor Porsild is doing work In botany, geology, astronomy and zoology and In the study of Eskimo culture which will gain recognition from the whole scientific world,” said Ekblaw. “He and his wife have been at Godhaven since 1905; their daughter was bom there and has never been out of Greenland. He Initiated his work and the Danish government was so Impressed by Its value that they allow him 10,090 crowns (about $2,880) a year to carry It on. It extends throughout the Baffin Bay region and along the east coast of Greenland. ' “Doctor Porsild Is forty-five years old, but looks older. He has a beautiful home, an extensive library and a well-equipped laboratory. The numerous hot springs at Godhaven render the climate and vegetation similar to those some 600 miles to the south."