The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-01-08
The Story Discredited.

WASHINGTON Jan. George Kenna, of
this city, who has travelled extensively in
Siberia, and who is perhaps the best author
ity in this country upon the geography of
Arctic Asia, speaking of the statement tele-
graphed from Boston, that the bodies of the
crew of the Jeannette's second cutter had
been found by an American artist in the
Gulf of Khatanga, long, narrow arm of the
Arctic ocean, south and east of the Taimur
peninsula, says the story strike him las very
clumsy invention" Kenna 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
Lieutenant Chip knew very we'll that Cap
tain De Long intended to land at
the mouth o. the Lena, and
it is hardly supposed that he would
deliberately and voluntarily go 300 or 400
miles farther westward, and land on the edge
of the Taimur Peninsula. the dreariest, most
desolate and leastknown 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 a gale blowing on
shore you would hardly expect to find that
boat on the coast of South Carolina. But this
is, perhaps. the least of the storys improb-
ability. The artist who is said to have dis
covered Lieutenant Chipp's party on the
coast of Khatanga went there, according to
his letter, for the purpose of finding a
brother-in-law exiled to 1.-The Szerma mines"
l do not think there is a mine on the Russian
settlement of any kind within 400 miles of
the mouth of the Khatanga Gulf in any
direction. The nearest inhabited places
are Yesaisk and Khatangsk, both 400 miles
inland A few Samoyades wander in the
summer over Toendra 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 Khatanga Gulf lies in latitude rs de-
grees almost as far north as the winter quar-
tiers of DR.. Kane and it could be reached at
the season of the year when West SAYS he
went there only by well-equipped Arctic
expedition. The letter telegraphed from
Boston, besides being suspiciously vague in
its geographical details, is full of absurdities
and inaccuracies. The presence of man in
the north" cannot be detected at distance
of half mile or so by peculiar strong
odor." neither do men at the north inhabit
cairns. ChoOncheese, of whom West is
represented as being afraid, do not live
within 300 miles of the Khatanga
Gulf and it is next to impossible
that traveller in that region should even
learn their name. All the details of finding
the supposed survivors of the second cutter
strike me as simply preposterous. Accord
ing to the alleged record found in the Bible,
supposed to belong to Kuchne, one at least
of the crew lived until the I'd of March, 1892
In other words, an inexperienced sailor
thrown on an uninhabited Taimur peninsula
in latitude IS, without food, proper clothing
or shelter, lived through an entire Arctic
winter, in the course of which the sun was
continuously below the horizon for nearly a
hundred days. If Captain De Longs party
could not keep themselves alive longer than
a month in the Lena Delta, at the beginning
OF autumn, it is hardly seasonable 10 suppose
that any one of Lieutenant.Chipps crew
lived through the winter six months on
still more barren coast, and at a point two
or three degrees farther north. Finally, if
the statement in this letter had any founda-
ton in fact the finding of his men would
have been known through regular Russian
channels of communication. The loss of the
Jeanette had been known for months in
every Russian settlement of northern Siberia
Ii the bodies of whites had been found on the
Gulf Khatanga last spring as represented by
this letter, the Russian authorities at Yenis-
ask would have been informed of the fact
before midsummer, and we should have had
news promptly by telegraph.
Neither Secretary Frelinghuysen nor Sec
rotary Chandler have information with re-
gard to the alleged bodies of the crew of the
Jeannette's second cutter.