Morning journal and courier., 1881-11-07

doubtless made for the nearest land which
 might be contingent between Cape Bathurst and Point Barrow, Banks Land, Melville i Sound or Prince Patrick's. If on the conti- nent they could communicate with the signal | service party at Point Barrow, under com mand of Lieutenant Ray. If the distance was too great for them to travel they could send word by natives who are constantly passing back and forth along the coast hunt ing. trading or fishing. If they landed at be able to kill sufficient game to subsist they would be unable to get away until vessels were sent to their relief. The distance to Hudson Bay or to any place occu- pied by white men would be too great for men to travel. If therefore no tidings of
 them are received through any of the search ing parties of the present year I would re- spectfully suggest that vessel be sent to
 Melville Sound as soon as the ice will permit,
 carrying three sledge parties-ons for Banks
 Land, one for the west coast of Melville
 Island and the third for Prince Pat
 rick's Land. Whatever is to be done
 for their relief must be done promptly.
 If still alive they are now entering upon
 their third winter of hardship in the Arctic
 region, and if they have been compelled to
 abandon the vessel and are waiting for a
 vessel to be. sent to their relief unnecessary
 delay will in all probability prove fatal On
 the 18th off icy Cape Corwin we spoke the
 whaling barks JoEn Rowland and Rainbow
 and learned from them that the Daniel Web
 ster had been crushed and part of her people
 had reached the fleet off the icy cape and
 that the larger portion of them were still on shore. The whale ships had passed north the
 day before, and, says Captain Hooper, we were
 told undoubtedly had taken the shipwrecked
 men on board. We arrived at Point Barrow
 the same evening and found the report true.
 After repeating the published stories of the
 Webster's crew as to her fate, Captain
 H1L Lo IIaI A<,
 add that I can see no hope for the missing
 whalers Mount Wollaston and Vigilant. I
 understand from the daily papers that some
 of the articles found by our sledge party and
 forwarded to San Francisco had been
 identified as belonging to the Vigilant and
 others as belonging to the Mount Wollaston,
 which would seem to indicate that the latter
 vessel had been abandoned and the crew had taken refuge on board the Vigilant. I can only account for her presence on the coast of Asia by supposing that in attempting to get south in 1879 she encountered the ice, which filled the southern part of the ocean, and in attempting to pass to the westward was crushed, and during the season of 1880 the ice did not break sufficiently far west to re- lease her. Had any of her crew succeeded in reaching the coast of Asia I feel confident they would have been kindly cared for by the natives and some tidings of them reached us during the past two seasons.
 
 Paul Brown of work done by him on Score tary Shermans house at the expense of the government has caused decided sensation in political circles and has resurrected the re port that Judge Folger will make things live ly in the Treasury department. It is known that two CT three were armed with informa- tion damaging to certain officials now in the department, as well as some recently retired. They claim to have been promised places under the new administration under the consideration that they will fur nish the facts. These people claim in some way to have obtained possession of testi- mony taken by the Treasury investigation committee, which, now that the committees report has been made, has been allowed to be officially forgotten. It is probable not only that more of it than the Sherman stable mat ter will be made public, but that the new Sec retary of the Treasury will himself take steps to have Congress investigate the whole matter 1 thoroughly to the effectual purging of the de ! partment The same plan having already ! been officially determined upon in other de | partments it is certain that the coming Con | gress will be particularly lively in the way of l investigation and report.