New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-02-10
DE LONGS DISCOTERIES.

DE LONGS DISCOTERIES
The HerGlTS Interpretation of its special dis
patches from Lieutenant Danenhower at
Irkutsk seems to us faulty IN some respects.
Locatinc the three islands discovered by the
,Jcannettc's crew, il finds the largest OF them'
Bennett Island well to the west OF the other
two and of the position of the steamer when
she was crushed in the ice 1t is unable TO
determine whether this island was discovered
by a sedging party from the steamer OF
whether there il IA telcgrapmc error Ill the
positions indicated in Lieutenant DanenhoWers
latest dispatch. We venture to suggest
that the telegTaphic error occurred IN an carrier
dispatch from Lieutenant Danenhower. III
which he gave the latitude of the scene OF the
wreck as :7Go ~ whereas the previous
accounts authorized by Engineer Melville had
represented it as 10 -. Accepting the
lower latitude as correct, me Herd"
makes the position of the Jeanette when she
was abandoned at least degree south OF
Henrietta and Jeanette Islands, and leaves
Bennett Island still further removed from
the supposed line of retreat The infer
ence would be that the vessel after
drifting for twenty -one months in north
westerly direction had suddenly moved
southwark from Henrietta Island n whole
degree of latitude. This assumption
is directly cOntradictcd by Lieutenant Danen-
hover himself, who states that during the
first week of the retreat over the ice they
driftcd back twenty-seyen miles inilher thah
they could advance. Evidently the pack lee
was still moving nOrthward as 1t had done
from the time the ship entered it of Herald
Island.
Now if we locate the wreck i'll latitude
To 10, in place Of 76' 10, Lieu
tenant Danenhower's latest dispatch ex-
plains itself The Jeanette. after drifting
twenty months III a nOrhwcstery direction
from Herald Island, on May 49, 1851, passed
Jeanette Island in latitude 76' AZ, longitude
1852 So This was small and rocky, and the
crew did not visit it, On May 81 larger
island was discovered in latitude ~ $, longi-
tude 1877 So, and was visited probably by
hunting parties in search of game. In june
either on the 18th or 10th. both dates having
been mentioned, the ship was abandoned in
latitude To 49, longitude 1j1' East. Tins
position to the north and west of Henrietta
Island can be readily accounted for by
fortnights drift of the pack. Bennett
Island. in latitude 76o IS, longitude 1852 20',
would lie midway betweenthe scene of the wreck
and Kotelnoi Island, the largest OF the Ncw-Sl-
berian group. and would be in the direct line
of retreat to the mouths of the Lena. 1t is
safe to conclude therefore, that it was diScov-
cred by the crew in the course OF their retreat
from the vessel Tie HerdId by recaSting its
map and locating the point where the
.Jcanncttc was crushed at II 10, as
indicated in the first accounts received
from the mouths Of the Lena. will find it
easy TO trace a new line of retreat, which will
skirt the coast Of Bennett Island. Subsequent
details may change the aspects OF the case, but
the explanation we have made answers all the
conditions so far as they are now known.
IF Bennett Island be rs large in extent as
Lieutenant DanenhOwers dispatches indicate,
its discovery is the only substantial gain de-
rived from this Inflated expedition. Wrangell's
sledging parties sixty years ago penetrated to
ATTITUDES nearly as high as tir,t reached
bv De Long at the end of his twenty-tirst
month of helpless drift with the pack !;
and singuarly enough, those parties were
searching for land north of the new Siberian
Islands not q great way distant from the island
which the Jeanncttc's boats crews have discOv-
cred in their retreat from the wreck. Walrus-
hunters and two surveyors had declared that
there was land in that quarter, and although
they could not find it they believed it was
there and i'll the same way they looked for
Wrangell Land and could not reach it, yet
believed it would one day be found, and
located it with tOerable accuracy on their
maps. De Long, caught in the Ice two years
AGO, deserted Wrangell Land in the dim dis
lance, but left the expeditions which were to
20 in search of him to land there and explore
the island and if, after protracted voyage
and a retreat marked by agOnizing suffering,
he returns in safety, his only trophy will be
the discovery of Bennett Land and the two
islands near the scene of the wreck. The Pole
itself was the goal he aimed to reach, but his
fmthest point has been distanced many hun
dred miles by various explorers
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