The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1882-01-07

of the Lena on September 20, 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 sufferings must have been
even more heartrendmg than those of the
Polaris eastaways, whom De Long himself
rescued off the coast of Labrador; for, al
though they, too, left. their ship in latitude a
degrees and had been 1876 days on the floating
ice when they were picked up by the Tigress,
theyhad started with more than boat sloadoi
provisions. The escape of two-thirds of the
Jeannettes crew is a deliverance almost
miraculous. The snfferings of these brave
sailors will excite thrill of sympathy wher-
ever this last story of Arctic adventure is Id!
The English-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 Of
the missing boats crew.
Has De Long the Some solace which Payer
and Weyprecht enjoyed, when they reap
peared after their two years voyage? They
had discovered Franz Josef Land. 1t was an
accident, to be sure, for their vessel had been
caught in the ice and they had been drifting
eyes first caught glimpse of that mysterious
shore; still, it was a dis very which richly
compensated them for all their sufferings and
trials. Has De Long done anything more
than to return halfway on the track of Nor
denskiold, the intrepid Commander of the
Vega. Unable to break through the ice on
the Behring Strait meridian, has he turned to
the left through Long Strait and, spending
kt-p Mt tba
his way far west as the Siberian Islands Or
has he lso made discoveries in higher lAti-
tudes, so that he can do something
besides compare notes with Nordenskjoldi
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 Swede's exploit 1t is higher latitude
than that of the northernmost cape which the
Vega rounded, and is on 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 meancholy
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 knowl-
edge or enlarged the horizon of the polar
| basin.
| In the first flush of this sudden news from
the Jeanette, science and geography count
| Tor little. 1t is the human element which
| touches the hearts of people of generous in
| stinets. There is joy over the deliverance of
| the bulk of the crew; there Is sympathy for
| the brave Commanders wife, who has been
waiting so anXiously for twenty-eight long
| mouths Tor tidings of his safety; there is sor-
row that she ships company has been divided
and thai so many brave men may have perish
| II a. - an no an
tirely overlooked. The failure of this expedi-
| tion 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 a 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,
which Kane, Hayes, Hall and Mares had fol-
| lowed; another was the recently discovered
Franz Josef Land, which has since
been partially explored by Leigh Smith; and
the third was Wrangell Land which was sup
posed to be large island and possibly one of
chain of islands stretching toward the Pole.
DE Long hoped to succeed in wintering on
Wrangell Land and in following what was fan
cied might be polar archipelago far to the
north Wrangel Land is now known to be a
small island with an impenetrable sea TO the
north, ann Leigh Smiths disappearance In the
Kara Sea dscourages attempts to make Franz
Josef Land base OF operations. II tho 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 Eskimus which was
landed in Lady Franklin Bay last summer has
better opportunities for scientific research and
extended explorations in the highest ATTITUDES
than any ships crew exposed 10 the terrible
risks OF the Siberian waters and the BarentE
Sea can possibly have.-N T. Tribune