Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1890 — To Winter in the Arctic. [ARTICLE]

To Winter in the Arctic.

3an Francisco Alta. Three vessels from this port now in winter quarters at the mouth of the Mackenzie River, withinl,200 miles of the North Pole. They are the steamers Grampus and Mary D. Hume of the Pacific Storm Whaling Company, and Magee and Battle's schooner Nicolene. They went north intending to winter where JJthey are now tightly frozen, bo the colony of sixt or seventy men, comprising the irews, have none to blame but themselves for their frigid insolation It will be late next summer befor they can be heard from, unless by some chance a trapper might find his way that far north by sledges and back again to some of the British fur-trading ports. This is not at all likely, so friends of the three skippers—Norwood of the Grampus, Tilton of the hume; and Herendeen of the Nicolene —and their 3hipmates, have settled in their minds that nothing can be dona but wait patiently for nearly a year for news from the North. Alluring stories of bowhead whales so thick in the water that you could walk about on their backs as on broken ice i 9 what drew the vessels to the place where they Are now located. The master of the whaler Alton, which arrived in port a short time since, saw the three vessels at their cruising ground in August, They then reported all well, but no whales The location is near some Indian villages, and from the Indians provisions in the way of fish and game were secured. The Nicolene is only after whale bone and ivory, as her capacity will not permit her to carry oil. The first whaling steamers that go north next spring will be especially 3ommisioned to eeok the exiles and lake from the vessel* whatever cargo they have to send down. This is understood to be the first time whaling vessel have voluntarily wintered in this location.