Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-10-07
FROM ARCTIC SEAS.

FraukIin's Expeddtfxn DESTROYED by the
Natives-The Coldest Weather Ever En-
dured by White Men Experienced By the
Search Party.
BOSTON, Mass, September %.
The bark George and Mary, Captain Baker,
has just arrived at New Bedford from Hud-
sons Strait, bearing news from the Arctic re-
gions. The Franklin search party, under
Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka, U. S. A., are
passengers on board the George and Mary, and
have been the recipients Of much kindness
from Captain Baker and his subordinate Off
GERS and men. After returning to Depot
Island, from a sledge journey of over 1000
miles, occupying eleven months and four days,
they were reduced to the verge of starvation
through the rascality of Captain Thomas F.
Barry, of the whaling schooner Eothen, of
New York, who stole their remaining provis-
ions to fit out his vessel for an additional
whaling voyage. Had it not been for the
timely aid offered by Captain Baker they
would have suffered extremely, as the native
EsQuimaux with whom they were living were
short Of provisions, and had been reduced to
the necessity Of eating some of their dogs on
two previous occasions during the winter
while on King William Land and in its imme-
date vicinity.
During the summer of 1879 Lieutenant
Schwatka's party established the fact that the
dition, which persisted there in the year 1913,
were entirely destroyed by the Notchillik Es-
quimaux, who found them in a sealed tin box,
which they broke open and whose contents
they scattered to the winds more than thirty
years ago.
The party have secured many interesting
and valuable relics and identified the remains
of Lieutenant John Irving, third officer Of the
Terror, by silver prize medal awarded to him
(<1I1o fot.
found in his opened grave. During the re-
turn trip the search party encountered the
severest cold ever experienced by white men,
while tray cling, and lived upon the same
fare, such as raw or boiled reindeer meat,
and fish, as did their native EsQuimaux assist
ants.
The party left New York on the 18th Of
June, 1878, in the schooner Eothen, and pro-
ceeded direct to Camp DAILY, as it was called,
in North Hudson Bay, latitude sixty-three de-
greeS forty-seven seconds north, longitude
twenty degrees west, having had a pleasant
passage up. Here the supplies were landed,
and the party established themselves and
made preparations to enable them to endure
the rigors of the Arctic winter, which they
knew was fast approaching. Skins were pro-
cured from animals slain. and soon the party
were warmly clothed and ready for business.
Abundant supplies of food, arms and ammu-
milton had been provided through the munif-
cence of American merchants. So far the pro-
cess of Staying animals was greatly simplif!ed
to the practiced marksmen. The summer of
1879 was passed in active earch for more
light on the fate of Sir John Franklin and his
crew.
Lieutenant Schwatka, in his report of the
sledge journey, says: " 1t is the longest sledge
journey ever made, both in regard to time and
distance, having been absent from its base
eleven months and twenty days, and having
Travelled 2,Sl9 geographical or 3,251 statute
miles. 1t IS the first sedge journey that has
been undertaken by white men in the Arctic
midwinter, but know of none before this en-
comprising the whole duration of the last I'M
favorable months of that season, and, in fact,
they have been generally very short, and
under circumstances where comfort COM
mensurate with the exposure could be easily
attained from some suitable base. 1t expert
enced the coolest temperature ever recorded
by white men in the field. Not only
was single observation II degrees
Fahrenheit January 3, 1850, but also in regard to
protracted cold, there being no less than six
teen days when the average shows one hun
bred degrees below the freezing point, and
twenty-sev en- days when the thermometer
stood below sixty degrees Fahrenheit, during
very nearly all of which weather the party
prosecuted its journey without severe frost
bites, and even in cOmpa rative comfort. 1t is
the first Arctic expedition whose sole reliance
for the subsistence of itself and its draught
animals has been placed in the game of the
locality, and W hose experience I'm that respect
has been spread constantly over every month
of the year, having st arted with less than one
months full rations for the consumers, and
having been absent for period already
stated. 1t may not be amiss, however, to
state that it was also the finest armed
party that ever entered the Arctic regions,
which fact placed it on almost favorable
footing for such an experience. 1t was the
first expedition wherein the men of the party
lived solely upon the same diet, voluntarily
assumed, as its native allies, which fact,
coupled with those already stated, shows that
white men are not only able to live the same
as ESqumaux in the Arctic region, and with
equal comfort, but also to prosecute any
projects that their superior intelligence may
dictate or their ambition may desire, and I'M
der all circumstances that the natives them
selves would similarly venture to undertake
far less laudable objects; and it might be
further added that the prosecution of these
schemes need not be limited to such particu-
larry favorable seasons of the year as the ex-
perience of the Arctic expedition would lead
one to infer.
"The party was the first to make an extend
ed summer tour over the ground covered by
the unfortunate crews in their explorations,
although glance at the map will show that
their base was in far less favorable position
for such an undertaking than that of the great
majority of the numerous searchers who pre-
ceded them. 1t performed the last sad rites
for the few remains of the lost crews. Owing
mainly to the favorable circumstances of a
summer sojourn, and from the thoroughness
of the search and the conspicuous contrast of
the bleaching bones with the brown clay
stones composing the fiat coast of King Will
lam Land and the adjoining main land, do
not hesitate to state that not single unburied
man of Franklin's unfortunate expedition
probably exists. Where nature had not an
ticipated my party, which she had in the
greater majority of cases of the 115 men
known to have abandoned the ships. or the re-
treating crews themselves performed the
burial, my party completed these sad Offices.
From the Incompetence of the skeletons,
their inextricable confusion and widely-scat-
tered condition. it is hard to place close esti-
mate upon the number inferred. which,
roughly speaking, varies between twenty and
forty. 1t established the loss of the records Of
the Franklin party beyond all reasonable
doubt, as these alone have been the main in
centives to the many expeditions since DR..
Ross, in 1854, who established the loss of the