Connecticut western news., 1882-02-15
THE ARCTIC SEA.
Voyage of the Jeannette,
IFrom the New York Herald

From the New York Hcrald.l
 In the interesting dispatch from Lieutenant Danenhower are narrated many circumstances not hitherto re- ported that will help to make out the history of the voyage and loss of the Jeannette. Although it seems to desig- nate the precise limits of the region in which Captain De Long disappeared it is unfortunately not much more pre- else in this particular than the state ment published some days since for the Siberian names of places, tele- graphed successively over Russian, Ger man and English lines, reach this city at last in an orthographical condition in which their identity has to be guessed at. We cannot find in the maps of 1 Siberia the names that appear in the dispatch. If they stand for Bulun and Ost Olensk, as is probable, they indi- cate the geographical direction rather than the immediate vicinity in which the men are to be looked for. It is said that this "wilderness" is plowed in the spring time by heavy drift ice. Consequently it is not 8 wilderness in the sense in which that word is most commonly understood in this country that is, it is not merely 8 trackless wooded region. It is apparently des- olate waste within those limits beyond which the river rises when the snow melts in Central Asia. Here, therefore, is 8 reason why it is 8 wilderness, but bility that men may be able to live there at those times of the year when the river is low. It is not the seat of any hu- mau habitations, not because it is more rigorous there than elsewhere, but be- cause that place is periodically the scene of violent demonstration of the destructive forces of the icy world. If the result shall happily prove that De Long and his comrades have found a refuge and sustenance in that unknown
 district they will be saved from the
 greater danger if reached before the river rises, and this will certainly be
 by the parties now on that errand.
 Lieutenant Danenhower seems to in
 dicate theory in regard to Chipp's boat that is especially worthy of attention
 He says: "Chipp's boat did better thar ours." It is not therefore reasonable tx suppose in this view that the second t cutter was lost in sea in which tn F whaleboat could live. But if she dit l not go down in that stormy night wha i became of her, as she was not visible 8
 daylight |? She could not have returne ? the course she had come, because tn gale was against her. In the "stron . easterly current" and the masses ( @ driftwood referred to there may be ), solution of this mystery, and it may ye J. happily prove that Chipp has found @ refuge at some other point of the coa: d toward the mouth of the Kolyma Rive 1T At least one point of great interest o shown by this record in the reference
 the health of everybody on board dow l. to the time of the great struggles il t, volved in the retreat. It is, therefor, It not impossible for picked crews to | J. kept in 8 sound condition through e, }. tended periods of residence in Arctic r,
 gions. Not only did all these men r'
 tain, in the ordinary sense, good healtl
 but their morale also appears to ha,
 been admirable, and through the almo 0 hopeless months of mere endurant >, they retained the spirit, courage an a resolution shown in the retreat.
 o Evidently only small part of tt e record of scientific observations mad X upon the voyage has been saved. Son d of those that are said to have gone dow 's with the ship related to,investigations is great interest, particularly those mad D. in the study of the phenomena of th n aurora. In the first five months of th e steamers drift she was, as we no a know, in the very grip of the mos
 tremendous force in nature she was z
 the point where the enormous pressu1
 of the frost force was most effective. A st the thousands of square miles of th Il Arctic ice are moved-vast masses
 contrary directions-a point is mad IS where the crash, pushed irresistibI
 from one side and encountered irresist |. bly, on the other, is forced into rotf
 tory movement somewhat as the cu e rents of air are forced in their cycloni d rotation. In such 8 fearful mill tn n little ship was tried for five months, an d came stauchly through the trial. Tn @ is sufficient answer to those who hay d whispered that she was not fit ship It send into the ice. Danenhower testifie n how the trusses put in as she starte
 saved her from fearful day in Noven
 Der, when, if she had perished, nobod
 would ever have reached land. He 1t great strength saved her till good r'
 treat was possible.