News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-03-02
THE ARCTIC SEA.
Voyage of the Jeanette,
from the New York Herald. I

from the New York Herald
In the interesting dispatch from
Lieutenant Danenhower are narrated
many circumstances not hitherto re-
ported that will help to make cut the
history of the voyage and loss of the
Jeanette. 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 successfully over Russian, Ger
man and English lines, reach this city
at last in an photographed condition
in which their identity has to be guessed
at. We cannot find in the maps OF
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. 1t is
said that this Wilderness" is pIowed
in the spring time by heavy drift ice.
Consequently it is not wilderness in
the sense in which that word is most
commonly understood in this country
that is, it is not merely a trackless
wooded region. 1t is apparently des-
olate waste within those limits beyond
which the river rises when the snow
melts in Central Asia. Here, therefore,
is a reason why it is a Wilderness, but
reason quite consistent with posi-
bility that men may be able to live there
at those times of tie year. when the
river is low. 1t is not the seat of any hu-
man habitations, not because it Is more
rigorous there than elsewhere, but be-
cause that place is periodically the
scene of a 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
dictate theory in regard to Chipp's boat
that is especially worthy of attention.
He says: "Chipp's boat did better than
ours" It is not therefore reasonable to
suppose in this view that the second
cutter was lost in a sea in which the
whaleboat could live. But if she did
not go down in that stormy night what
became of her, as she was not visible at
daylight E? She could not have returned
the course she had come, because the
gale was against her. In the "strong
easterly current" and the masses of
driftwood referred to there may be
solution of this mystery, and it may yet
happily prove that Chipp has found
refuge at some other point of the coast
toward the mouth of the Kolyma River.
At least one point of great interest is
shown by this record in the reference to
the health Of everybody on board down
to the time of the great struggles in
volved in the retreat. 1t is, therefore,
not impossible for picked crews to be
kept in a sound condition through ex-
tended periods of residence in Arctic re-
gions. Not only did all these men ret
tain, in the ordinary sense, good health,
but their morale also appears to have
been admirable, and through the almost
he Of
they retained the spirit, courage and
resolution shown in the retreat.
Evidently only small part OF the
record of scientific observations made
upon the voyage has been saved. Some
of those that are said to have gone down
with the ship related TO investigations of
great interest, particularly those made
in the study of the phenomena Of the
aurora. In the first five months of the
steamers drift she was, as we now
know, in the very grip of the most
force in nature she was at
he point where the enormous pressure
If the frost force was most effective. As
he thousands of square miles of the |
Arctic ice are moved-vast masses in |
contrary directions-a point is made |
where the crash, pushed irresistibly !
rom one side and encountered irresisti-
'ly on the other, is forced into rota-
DRY movement somewhat as the cur
ents of air are forced in their cyclonic
citation. In such a fearful mill tine
title ship was tried for five months, and
anne stanchly through the trial. This
S a sufficient answer to those who have
that she was not fit ship to
end into the ice. Danenhower testifes
low the trusses put in as she started
aved her from fearful day in Novem-
'er, when, if she had persisted, nobody
would ever have reached land. Her
reat strength saved her till a good re-
reat was possjhIa