Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-01-16
Foreign Views OtIhe Jeanneite's
Voyage.


Nobody has, We suppose, considered
the pretended ~Soulkewsky report in
regard to a boat with corpses found on
Herald Island as having any relation
to the Jeanette. Her company has
been all accounted for at another point
at least a month later than that as
signed for the discovery of this myth
ical boat. Our st. Petersburg dispatch
is clear in contradiction of the whole
story.
The English press, while waiting for
fuller tidings from the Jeanette ex-
petition before forming conclusions az
to the results it has achieved, ex-
presses the general and great interest
felt by foreign scientists both in the
safe return Of the expedition and in
the novel path Of discovery which
they have tracked. 1.-The route
they took" says the London science
journal, Nature, was a perfectly
new one, and it is possible they
may have something new and impor-
tant to tell u.s." THE expedition, -
it also says, was in some respects OF
the old fashioned kind, rushing blind
ly into regions about which nothing
was known; but this is how all knowl-
edge has been purchased" This
opinion is undoubtedly correct. When
the Swedish expedition in the Vega was
projected its leader made two prelim
mary Polar reconnaissance to ascer-
tain the pra~cticability of carrying out
his plans. In this case such prelimi.
nary attempts were feasible. But ia
the scheme of research devised for the
Jeanette expedition, which carried
it into an unknown Arctic sea and into
much higher ATTITUDES thar
the Northeast Passage" expedition
under Nordenskjold attempted Il
reach, no course remained to Captain
De Long but boldly to push forward
as did the great Genoese navigator O.
the fifteenth century, into regions
about which absolutely nothing wal
known" As an eminent geographeI
said last year, Discovery has nov
taken a new direction and the scientift
conquest of the globe has begun" l
is certain this conquest will not b,
carried very tar unless just such effort
as those made by the Jeanette ar,
undertaken into new fields of discov
cry. 1t is possible, also, that in tryinj
new Polar tracks the perils OF the dis
coverer may be fewer than those whicI
have for centuries been so disastrousl
encountered in the beaten paths O
Arctic voyaging.
Tho London Daily Telegraph, com
menting on the news from the Sibe
rian coast, well says: "The J%eannett
might perhaps, have reversed he
course with success, but she was try
ing, we presume, a more brillian
game" That she could have reverse,
her course (taking the old route cas-
Of Behring Strait into the labrynth @
ice north Of America) is probable
But scarcely any discovery that SD
could have made in that quarter q
the Arctic would have promise.
much. The attainment Of a mode
rately high latitude in the unknow
area north ofthe new Siberian Islands
where she finished her exploration
geographically of far greater momen
than making a much higher lattiud
p in the oft visited area lying to tn
, northward Of America. The Telc
graph therefore congratulates tn
I. friends Of the Jeanette expeditio
!. that the story of their exploits wi
! not be buried in the mystery Of tn
,, still invisible pole"