Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1881-07-02
OUR FOUR ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS.
[From the N. Z. Herald, June %. I

Two important expeditions set out
for the Arctic regions yesterday. On
the Pacific the steamer Rodgers, re-
Gently purchased and refitted for the
purpose, left San francisco, te ell
deavor to pursue, in the Arctic seas,
the course of the exploring steamer
Jeannette. She viii! go. as the jean
nette did, by way of Behring Strait !;
will visit, if possible, the compare
lively unknown world of Wrangell
Land, and will exhaust the courage
and ingenuity of accomplished and
capable officers in the hunt for cairns
OF other traces of the previous visit
aud adventures there of Captain DE
Long and his comrades. Her further
movements will be determined by the
results of that hunt.
On the Atlantic the Alliance will
proceed 10 the neighborhood of Spltz-
bergen, will explore 80 much of the
seas between that country and Green
land to the westward, and Franz
josef Land TO the eastward, as the
Ice or other obstacles will permit.
Her voyage is based upon the theory
that while the Rodgers may be vain
ly pursuing i'll Behring Sea and the
waters te which it Immediately opens
a vessel which passed, more or less
fortunately, through those seas many
months since, that same vessel, hav-
ing been carried by the eastward
drifts, may be coming out on the
Greenland coast or at Spitzbergen or
Franz Josef Land, and may be sadly
in need of assistance at one or the
other of those points. That assis-
tence the Alliance will be prepared
| to render.
1t is now nearly two years since
the Jeanette left San Francisco. She
sailed from that port on July, 8, 1879.
She was last seen OH September in
tnat year. On that occasion she was
about fifty miles south of Herald
Island, was in motion and steering
due north, with the evident intention
of making the island or point near
it on Wrangell Land. The expert
enced Arctic navigator who saw her
then has said since, II have never
doubted but that she would be able
to reach the latter place." He, on the
spot, acquainted with. the natural
forces that affect the movements OF
the ice, aware of the actual condition
of the ice then aud of the extent to
which the winds aud currents were
in operation, is the highest practica
authority that can be had upon the
probabilities of the case. If the Jean
nette did not reach Wrangell Land il
the early days of September. 1879, j
must be supposed that some natura
event then occurred, some phenomen
al circumstances arose of which il
the sagacity and judgment of tn,
old navigatOrs of that rcgiO ther,
could be no provision. 1t must b.
supposed that the appearances wer
such as to completely deceive them
But the evidence as to what Occurrt'
for several days subsequently With
: fifty miles of where the Jeannett
was last seen was to the effect tha
} Nature was i'll her ordinary mood
1 that the expected winds came, an
r that the regularly anticipated move
: ment of the ice followed.
Q Every probability, therefore, favor
Il the opinion that the Jeanette di
r actually reach Wrangcll Land i'll Sci
o tembcr, 1879, ThR was the first i'll
Il portant objective point of her voyag
She wintered there, AID the month
1t of her enforcou stay were doubtle.
d passed in the study OF Il region TIN
y may prove as new to us as Amerit
IS was to the Old World in the tifteen
IS century. UuhAppily for the existil
8, race of explorers the older ones spit
" about the earth with so much emery
to and activity as left no chance to e
I'd such another prize as Columb
IS. stumbled against i'll the Octob
a. night when his good eyes earned hi
y, ten thousand maravedis. There a
Mt no more continents to be found
ay regions near the Equator, aud the
is, in short, little left to be detin
,ct of ordinary geography save III co
s." paratively inaccessible parts of