Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-08

Chip: Capt.W. Dunbar, Albert Sweetman,
Henry Warren, Peter johnson, Edward
Star, Shawell, and Albert Kaihne.
The Story Discredited.
WASHINGTON, Jan. Cen. KEENAN,, of
this city, who has travelled extensively in
Siberia, and who is perhaps the best au-
thority in this country upon the geography
of Arctic Asia, speaking of the statement
telegraphed from Boston that the bodies
of the crew of the Jeannette's second cut
ter had been found by an American artist
on the gulf of Khatanga, a long, narrow
arm of the Arctic ocean south and east of
the Tanner peninsula, says the story
strikes him as very clumsy invention.
KEENAN, adds: ''The mouth of
the gulf of Khatanga is more
than 800 miles in an air
line and more than 500 miles following
the coast from the place where the boats
of the Jeanette separated. Lieut.. Chipp
intended to land at the mouth of the
Lena. and it is hardly to be supposed he
would deliberately and voluntarily go 800
or 400 miles further westward and land on
. the edge of Tanner peninsula, the dreariest
and most desolate and least known part of
the entire North Siberian coast. Of course
he might have been blown there against
his will, but it is in the highest degree
improbable. If you should lose sight of
small boat fifty miles off Sandy Hook
with gale blowing on shore, you could
hardly expect to find that boat on the coast
of South Carolina.
But this is perhaps the
least of the story's improb-
abilities. The artist who is said to have
discovered Lieutenant Chipp's party on
the coast of Khatanga went there, accord
ing to his letter, for the purpose of finding
brother-in-law, exiled to the Sherma
mines. do not think there is mine or
Russian settlement of any kind within 400
miles of the mouth of Khatanga gulf in
any direction. The nearest in
habited places are Yssaisk and
Khatangsk, both 400 miles
inland. A few Samoyades wander i'll sum-
mer over the Toondra, which lies along the
Arctic ocean in that vicinity, but in winter
even they retire to the interior and leave
the whole region uninhabited. The mouth
of the Chatanga gulf lies in latitude
seventy five degrees, almost as far north
do GAO WiAbCI NuetI VI LIZ 4AdAO3 ttGS ~
could be reached at the season when West
says he went there only by a well equipped
Arctic expedition. The letter telegraphed
from Boston, besides being suspieiously
vague in it's geographical details, is
full Of ebsurdities and inaccuracies.
The presence of man in
the north can be detected at distance of
half mile or so by peculiar strong odor.
Neither do mon at the north inhabit cairns.
The Chookchees, of whom West is repre-
sented as being afraid, do not live within
800 miles of Khatanga gulf, and it is next
to impossible that a traveller in that re-.
gion should even learn their name. All
the details Of finding the supposed survi-
vors of the second cutter strike me as
simply preposterous. According to the al
legged record found in the Bible supposed to
belong to Kuchna, one at least of the crew,
lived until the I'd of March, 1882. In other
words, an inexperienced sailor, thrown on
the uninhabited Taimeer peninsula, in lat
itude IS, without food, proper clothing or
shelter, lived through an entire arctic win
ter, in the course of which the sun was
continuously below the horizon for nearly
100 days. II Capt. De Longs party could
not keep themselves alive longer than a
month in the Lena Delta at the be-
ginning of autumn, it is hardly rea-
sonable to suppose any one Of
Lieut.. Chipp's crew lived through
the winter six month";, on a still more
barren coast, and at a point two or three
degrees north. Finally, if the story con-
tanned in this letter had any foundation in
fact, finding the men would have been
known through regular Russian channels,
of communication. The loss of the Jean
nette had been known months in every
Russian settlement of northern
Siberia. If the bodies of
white men had been found on the Gulf Of
Khatanga last spring as represented by
the letter, the Russian authorities at Yeni-
sayisk would have been informed of the
fact before midsummer, and we should
have had the news promptly by telegraph"
Neither Secretary Frelinghuysen nor
Secretary Chandler have received infor-
nation with regard to the alleged finding
of the bodies of the Jeannette's second
cutter.
WASHINGTON, Jan. THE navy de-
partment to-day received from Ministe-
Hunt the following telegram:
ST.. PETERSBURG, Jan. 7-Chandler, Sec
rotary: l have just received from Ensign
Hunt the following telegram: Please in
form the secretary as follows: KIRIEsK,
Dec. 31-Aneguin is seriously i'll, in hos
pital and Bartlett remains here. 1t will
probably delay two weeks. Leach,
Lautsrbach, and Thomas precede, and
await me at Irkutsk."
The Russian government has not yet
ordered its authorities to perm it andas-
sist in removing the bodies.
Signed. Hunt, Minister.
The Nickel Plate.
CLEVELAND. Jan. Cen. Devereux and