Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-01-08
FROM WASHINGTON.
THE FATE OF LIEUT.. CHIP
And Men-A Sensational Report OF the
Finding of Their BOdies-lt is BE.
lieved TO be improbable.

George KEENAN, of this city. who has trav-
eled extensively in Siberia, and who is, per-
haps, the best informed authority in this
country upon the geography Of Arctic Asia.
was interviewed today, with regard to the
sentiment telegraphed from Boston that the
bodies of the ere, of the Jeannette's second
cutter have been found by an American
artist, On the Gulf of Khatanga. MIR. KEENAN,
said:
1.-The story strikes one as being very
clumsy invention. The mouth of the Gulf
of Khatinga is more than 500 miles from the
place where the boats were separated. Lieut..
Chip knew very well that Capt. DeLong in
tended to land at the mouth of the Lena, but it
is hardly to be supposed that he would de-
liberately go three or four hundred miles
further to westward, and land on the edge of
Taimur Peninsular, the dreariest, most DESC
late 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 a small boat,
fifty miles off Sandy HOOK, with gale blow
ing on shore, you would hardly expect to
find that boat on the coast of South Carolina,
but this is. perhaps the least aof all stories,
the most improbable. The artist who is said
to have discovered Lieut. Chips party on
the coast of Khatanga, went there according
to his letter, for the purpose of finding a
brother.in- who had been exiled to the
"Szerma Mines Do not think there is a
mine or Russian settlement of any kind
within 400 miles of the mouth of K,atanga
Gulf in any direction. The nearest iniabit-
edplaces are Yesaisk and khatangsk, both of
which are 400 miles inland. A few Samoy-
odes wander III summer over the loonetra,
which lies along the Arctic Ocean, but in
winter, even they retire TO the interior, and
leave the whole region uninhabited.
The mouth of the khatanga gulf lies in
lat. 70, almost as far north as the winter
quarters of DR.. Kane, and it could be
reached at the season when West says he
went there only by a well equipped arctic
expedition.
The letter telegraphed from Boston, be-
sides being suspiciously vague in its geo.
graphical details, is full of absurdities and
inaccuracies. The presence of a man in the
Drth cannot be detected at distance of
If q mile or so by the ''strong odor,' ~
either do men at the north inhabit ''cairns.' .
The ''Chookches," of whom West is repre-
scented as being afraid, do not live within
800 miles of Khatanga Gulf, and it is next
to impossible that travellers in that region
should even learn their name. Details of
the finding of the supposed survivors of the
second cutter strike me as simply preposter-
Gus. According to the alleged record found
in the bible, supposed to belong to Kuehene,
one, at least. of the crew lived until the
I'd of March, 1882. In other words, an in
experienced sailor. thrown on an uninhabited
laimur peninsula in lat. IS, with
out food. proper clothing or shelter,
lived through an entire arctic winter in
course of which the sun was continuously be-
low the horizon for nearly one hundred days
If Capt. DE Longs party could not keep
themselves alive longer than month in Lena
Delta, at the beginning of autumn. it is hard
ly reasonable to suppose that any one of
Lieut.. Chips crew lived through the winter
Of six months on a still more barren coast,
and at point of two or three degrees further
north. Finally. if the story contained in this
letter had any foundation in fact we should
long ago had full particulars of the finding of
the men through the regular Russian chan
nels OF communication. The loss of the
Jeanette has been known for months in
every Russian settlement in 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 Yen
isayisk would have been informed of the fact
before midsummer, and we should have had
news promptly by telegraph. think the
story q hoax"
Neither Secretary Frelinghuysen nor Sec.
Rotary Chandler have received any informa-
ton with regard to the alleged finding of the
bodies of the crew of the Jeannette's second
cutter on the Gnlf Of Khatanga in northern
Siberia last spring.