Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-11-26

TINS land OF mystery came thronging to mind.
This Is, perhaps. the most likely place to find
traces OF the Jeanette expedition in case any
portion OF this country was reached Would
we find such traces? Had the country any
human inhabitants? Would we find reindeer or
musk oxen? What birds shall we find, plants.
rocks, streams. etc? We intended to walk the
five miles of ice, dragging light. skin covered
boat with us to cross any open spot that we
might come to. but ere we could set off the fog
began to settle gloomily down over the land,
and We determined to wait until the next morn
ing. and in the meantime steam back out of the
narrow. ice damned throat of the lead a few
miles to a safer position, in case the ice should
close upon US. Just as we turned from our
nearest point OF approach we fired a cannon to
stir the echoes among the hills. and give notice
OF our presence in case anybody was near to
listen.
Next morning, steaming ahead once more to
the end OF our water line. we were rejOiced to
find that though there was now about eight or
ten miles of ice separating us from the shore, it
was less firmly packed. and our little vessel
made way through ii without difficulty, until
we were within two miles of the shore, when We
found the craggy blocks extremely hard and
wGdged closely, but patch of open water near
the beach, now plainly in sight, tempted us to
continue the struggle. and with the throttle
thrown wide open the barrier was forced. and by
ten O'Clock a H. the Corwin was riding at
anchor less than cables length from dry
gravel bar. stretching in front of the mouth of q
river. TIE long battle we had fought with the
ice was fairly won, and neither the engine nor
the hull of the ship seemed to have suffered any
appreciate damage from the terrible shocks and
strains it had undergone.
Going inland, along the left bank of the river
we found it much larger than it at first appeared
to be. There was no snow left on the lCwlands
or any Of the hills or mountains i'm sight eX-
cepting the remnants of heavy drifts: neverthe-
less, it was still about seventy-ive yards wide
twelve feet deep, and was flowing on with
clear, stately current, at speed of about three
miles an hour. While the SHOW is melting it
must be at least two hundred yards wide and
twenty feet deep. and its sources must lie well
back in the interior of the country.
Not the slightest trace, however. could we
md along the river, along the shore or on the
bluff to the northwestward of the Jeanette
party or of any human inhabtant. A land more
severely solitary could hardly be found any
where on the face of the globe. The beach was
well tracked with polar bears. but none of the
party could discover any sign of reindeer or
musk oxen though the country seems to abound
In the kind of food they require. A single fox
track was observed, and some of the burrows of
species of marmOt. also few birds and about
twenty species of plants, most of them i'm bloom.
The rock is clay slate, which weathers smoothly
ana Is covered with sparse growth of MOSES.
llchen and Towering plants. not unlike that of
the adjacent coasts of Siberia and Alaska