Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-12-17
The Arctic Riddle.

The mystery OF the North Pole, like
the riddle Of the Sphinx, costs the
lives of those who try and fail to guess
it. The icebergs that tower in those
frozen waters are but so many monu-
ments to the universal death that
everywhere reigns. The news from
San Francisco that the exploring vessel
Jeanette, sent on tour of investiga-
ton by the New York Herald, will never
be head from again, meets the report
of Lieutenant Schwatkas expedition,
in search Of relics of Sir John Franklin,
that the exact fate of that eminent but
Inflated explorer will never be known.
1t was thirty.ive years last July since
his g. " were for the last time seen in
Baili4 Gay. Three years afterward
England sent the first expedition in
search of him and his men, and since
that time more than twenty more have
sailed. Little by little and piece by
piece, they have brought nomo the
relics and mementoes which have grad
ually told the story of the fate that
overlook them in that land Of perpetual
ice. For many years, there were iloat-
ing about vague belief, that he and his
men were still alive, and might one day
be fonrd again. This tradition was fos-
tered by l4idy Franklin's devotion to
her husbands memory, and her heroic
measures for discovering the secret
locked up somewhere i'll the dreary
Arctic wastes. Her bereavement in
fecied tho sympathies OF the civilized
world, aud the crusaics which were
preached and led, sometimes by English
pluck, often 10y American enterprise,
have 1T last brought back tho tidings
that hing more can ever be known.
In 1854 skeletons OF some Of the men
were discovered. In 1919 paper
found in IL cairn where 1t lad been
placed by one Of Franklin's officers,
bri, ily saying Sir John Franklin died
the figures which the Imagination fam
cied 1t saw still moving i'll that northern
twilight, and nearly destroyed Lady
Franklin's griei-stricken mind. Tnen
half ~ dozen spoons, lnwtuuBht with
Sir John Ffanhlin's crest, were, i'll 49,,
given by native to Captain barry, AN
American explorer, with the stateMent
that he had taken them from earn
zoo miles distant, where books and
other relics still remaiued. Captain
Barry, with lieutenant Schwatka, were,
two Z ara ago, sent out 10y the enterprise
of New York merchants, aud landed at
tho head of Repulse Bay. Thence.
going and returning, they made sledse
Journey of 900 miles, travelling over
ice ANA snow, and, what was still more
ditlicult, over broken and jagged clay
stone, with marshes Intervening, and
covered with patches of brown and
green moss, with purple flowers peeping
through the cruvices Of tue stones. On
this journey they lived aud preserved
their health by eating the food which
tue T. ,quimauX eat and the game which
i'll sou. places abounded. Daring the
winter the thermometer was frequently
from 81 to 90 degrees below zero, and,
ut one time, fell to lOJ.
They found no earn, rs VAS told TO
Captain Barry, but they discovered
several skeletons, Il ships boat, or
rather the prov and stern post, with Il
few clinkered boards still holding
together, gilt navy buttons, copper and
iron bolts. shot, cartridges. powder
cans, barrels, broken medicine aud wine
bottles, axes and a few barrel slaves.
The rigid climate had preserved, fer
over thiIty years, pieceo vi navy piue
cloth which wero scattered along the
shores of the inlets. With the eXcep-
ton OF Il scrap of paper marked with
an index finger pointing southerly, no
writing of any sort was found.
And so, after enduring great hard
ships but no great suffering, the expc-
ditlon returned, still leaving to the
E,quimaux and the eternal Geld the
remains of Franklin and his crew.
Bey the fact that they abandoned
their vessels, the Erebus and Terror,
and attempted to drag their boats
overland in the hopes Of launching
them III the open water again, nothing
is yet, nothing probably ever will be-
definitely known of their struggle and
their end. Detroit Free HE,>$.