St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1882-01-07

of the Lena on September %, and another
subsequently, while the third has not
reached land The survivors were in their
boats from seventy to ninety days, and their
condition ON reaching land is described as
pitiable Their sutferings must have been
even more heartrending than those of the
Polaris castaways, whom De Long himself
rescued off the coast of Labrador: for, al
though they, too, left their ship in latitude u
degrees and had been 1876 days on the floating
ice when they were picked up by the Iigress,
they had started with more than boat $ load of
provisions. The escape of two-thirtls Of the
Jeannette's crew is deliverance almost
miraculous. The sufferings of these brave
sailors will excite q thrill of sympathy wher-
ever this last story of Arctic adventure told
The Englsh-speaking world, recognizing their
Anglo-Saxon grit will rejoice with one con
sent over the safety of those who have been
rescued, and will lament the possible fate O;
the missing boats crew.
Has De Long the same solice which Payer
and Weyprecht enjoyed, when they reap
peared after their two years voyagcs They
had discovered Franz Josef Land 1t an
accident. to be sure. for their vessel had been
caught in the ice and they had been drifting
in utter helplessness for months when Their
eyes first caught glimpse of that mysterious
shore; still, it was a discovery which richly
compensated them for all their sutferings and
trials. Has De Long done anything more
than to return halfway on the track Of Nor
denskjold the intrepid Commander of the
Vega: Unable to break through the ice Oh
the Behring Strait meri dian, has he turned t.
the left through Long Strait, and, spending
two winters on the Siberian coast, only edged
his way as far west as the Siberian Islands. On
has he also made discoveries in higher I'll
tudes, that he can do something
besides compare notes with Nordenskjod:
The details of his cruise will be awaited with
the keenest interest. The latitude where dis
aster overlook his trim little vessel indicates
that he had a higher ambition than to repeat
the Swedes exploit. 1t is a higher latitude
than that of the northernnost cape which the
Vega rounded, and is on a level with Prince
Patrick Land and the southern edge of Spitz-
bergen. Whether it was the highest latitude
which he had reached, or whether he had made
discoveries of real Importance before his ship
was abandoned, we shall know when the log
is furnished in detail. 1t will be melancholy,
indeed, if this gallant commander and his
plucky companions have struggled and suf
fered as they must have done without having
added materially to the sum of human knowI
edge or enlarged the horizon of the pola,
basin.
In the first flush of this sudden news from
the Jeanette, science and geography count
for little. 1t is the human element which
touches the hearts of people of generous in.
stincts There is JOY over, the deliverancc OF
the bulk of the crew; there is sympathy for
the brave Commanders wife, who has beer
waiting so anxously for twenty-eight long
he ar If of hnr
row chat she ships company has been divided
and that so many brave men may have perish
ed. But the scientific aspects cannot be en-
tirely overlooked The failure of this exped
ton may tend to simplify the future course OF
Arctic exploration. The theory generally
adopted in recent years has been that in order
to reach high latitude within the Arctic
Circle the vessel must follow coast line
trending northward. When De Long left San
Francisco in 1879 there were three coasts which
seemed to offer peculiar advantages for Arctic
exploration. One was the Greenland shore,
lowed; another was the recently discovered
Franz Josef Land which has since
been partially explored by Leigh Smith; ana
the third was Wrangell Land which was sup.
posed to be large island and possibly one OF
a chain of islands stretching toward the Pole.
Wrangell Land and in following what was fan
cied might be polar archipelago far TO tbe
north. Wrangell Land is now known to be
small island with an impenetrabe sea TO the
north, and Leigh Smiths disappearance IN the
Kara Sea discourages attempts to make franz
Josef Land a base of operations. If the phan-
tom quest for the Pole is ever to be resumed,
the old route through Smiths Sound must be
considered the safest highway The little col
ony of Americans and Eskimos winch was
landed in Lady Franklin Bay last summer mas
better opportunities for scientific research ana
extended explorations in the highest ATTITUDES
than any ships crew exposed to the terrible
risks Of the Siberian waters and the Barentz
Saa can possihIv have " Y TritlTX,