Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1880-11-27
AMONG THElcEBERGs.
The Cruise of the Corwin i'm the Polar
Seas.

seas.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14.-Captain c. l..
Hooper, of the United United States
revenue steamer COrwin, has just
submitted to the Secretary of the
Treasury report of the cruise made by
the Corwin in Behring Sea and the
Arctic Ocean, in obedience to depart
ment orders of May Is last. The vessel
made three trips into the arctic regions,
and its course covered the whole
of the Arctic Ocean, from Point Barrow,
on the American coast, to point within
twenty-five miles of Wrangell Land.
Captain Hooper was within three or four
miles of Herald Island, and cruised on
three sides of it. The vessel sailed from
San Francisco on May %, and arrived at
Ounalaska on June 3. As far north as
information could be obtained it was
found that the previous winter had been
mild and pleasant. After taking in a
supply of coal and fitted out the crew
with warm clothing, the COrwin sailed
on June s, and arrived at st. George
Island on June 9, and thence went to the
Island of st. Paul:
THE VOYAGE.
After giving in detail the movements
of the vessel, and the trouble Occasioned
by the heavy ice, the report refers to get
ting under way from st. Michael's on
June %, with the hope of working north
inside of the ice on the Arctic side, and
says stops were made at st. Lawrence
Island for the purpose of of investigat-
ing the reports of deaths of natives by
starvation. At the first village about
fifty had died; at the second. fifty-fOur
dead bodies were counted, and it is eSti-
mated that there were $50 who died at
this village. At the third village twelve
dead bodies were found, and the num-
ber of deaths are estimated at thirty. At
the fourth settlement there were found
thirty alive. 1t was ascertained that 200
had died there. This general starvation
occurred last winter. Captain Hooper
estimates that more than 400 natives
died of starvation on this island. The
cause he attributes to the continued cold
and stormy weather, with quantities of
ice and snow, which prevented hunting
walrus and seal, together with the i'm
prOvident habits of the natives, whom he
speaks of as being perfect slaves to rum.
They will barter anything they possess
to procure it, and remain drunk until it
is gone. A more horrible state of affairs
cannot well be imagined than now ex-
lists On this island and will continue un-
til some active measures are taken by
the government to remedy it.
NO LIFE ON HERALD 1SLAND.
The report goes on to srsek Of the at
temptS of the COrwin to reach Herald
Island. On the Goth of August the yes
sci managed to get within three or four
miles, of the island, when he was stopped
by ice from twelve to forty feet high. A
close examination was made of the
island with a glass while the COrwin lay
so near, and Captain Hooper says he is
sure there were no human inhabitants
on it. He states it is his opinion that
the ice around Herald Island was old;
does not leave Herald Island free, and
that the ice rarely breaks up between
Herald Island and Wrangell Land. On
August % the COrwin reached Point
Barrow, which is the most northern
point of the United States, and lacks
only seventy-five miles of being the most
northern point of the continent. The
report continues:
On the 18th of September we saw the
high hills of Wrangell Land. We ran
in toward it until we came to the solid
pack, the ice having the same general
appearance as that we had previously
encountered in the vicinity of Herald
Island, except in being covered with
newly fallen snow, and being con-
sequently white. We judged the land to
be about twenty-five miles away. The
highest hills, which seemed to be more
distant, were covered with snow; Others
were partly covered, and still lower ones
were almost entirely bare. That part of
Wrangell Land which we saw covered
an acre of the horizon of about fifty de-
grees from N. W. Il n. tow a E, and was
distant from twenty ave miles on the for
mer bearing to thirty-fiye or forty miles
on the latter. On the south were three
mountains, probably 1900 feet high, en-
tirely covered with snow, the central
one presenting a cOnical appearance
and the others showing round tops. To
the nOrthward of these mountains was
chain of rounded hills, those near the
sea being lower and nearly free from
snow, while the back hills, which prob
ably reach an elevation of 1000 feet
were quite white. To the north of the
northern bearing given, the land ends
entirely, or becoming very low. The
atmosphere was very clear, and we
could easily have seen any land above
the horizon within distance of sixty or
seventy miles, but none could be seen
from the masthead. There is a re-
port that Sergennt Andrejew, a COssack,
reached this land in 1862 by crossing
over from the main land on the ice with
dog teams, and that he found 1t lnhablt-
ed by a race of nOmads called "Grahaf-
Oy." This report, however, is possibly
without foundation.
THE JEANETTE'S POSSIBLE DISCOVERY.
Admiral Wrangle, who was the first
to report the existence of this land, says:
"We endeavOred to collect from the in
habitants of .Nishne KOlymsk' all the
information they could give in relation
to the country, and everything that was
remembered among them respecting
early travellers having any bearing on
the subject. They knew a great deal
about the three officers who were here in
1867, but could tell us very little about
Sergeant Andrejew, who was here only
five years before, in 1862. They had
learned generally that he had been to
the Indegirka and afterwards to the
Bear Islands, but were ignorant of his
supposed discoveries which were in.
cluded i'm our most recent charts, and
when we spoke of land north of the
Bear Islands and traces of a nOmad
race in that direction, they treated it as
fable. Some of their own people haG
accompanied Andrejew on that Tourney
how then could the existence of &
large inhabited land have beer