Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-03-17

The appearance of icebergs in the At
lantic Ocean OFT the banks of New Found
land last February attracted wide atten-
ton and leads Arctic navigatOrs to enter
tain the opinion that during the last few
months there have been unusual disturb
ances in the Polar regions. These ice
bergs very seldom make their appearance
in the North Atlantic before June or July.
In May they are very rarely seen there.
1t may be that such disturbances have
occurred as will permit the Greedy re-
lief expedition. that is now being fitted
out. to reach a higher latitude during the
coming summer than ever before. A
great deal of interest centers in the eXpe-
dltion. 1t is to consist of three vessels,
viz. The Bear, Thetis, and the Arctic
cruiser Alert, presented to the United
States by the British Government.
The Bear and Thetis are now
having the necessary changes made to fit
them for the service required of them. 1t
is expected that the expedition will be
ready to start sometime during the month
of May. The best opinion appears to be
that it ought not to start later than that
month. Whether Lieut.. Greedy and party
Will be found near their station at Lady
Franklin Bay or at LittletOn Island, where
stores were to have been left for them by
the expedition last summer, but by strange
bluudering were not, or whether he Will
be found at all, are questions about which
there can be only speculation. The
general impression appears to be that if
foundat all he will be found at the Lady
Franklin Bay station. The theory on
which this impression is based is that
having reached Littleton Island, in ac-
cOrdance with the previously arranged
programme, and finding no supplies there
as expected, he made his way back to his
station at Lady Franklin Bay. A brief
epit0me OF the events which led to the
Greedy expedition may not at this time
prove uninteresting. They are furnished
by the Scientific american as follows:
For the solution of certain meteorologi-
al problems. Lieut.. Weyprecht. the Aus
trian explorer, now dead, proposed a
scheme OF simultaneous observation TO be
undertaken jointly in Arctic regions by
the leading nations of the world. At the
three international Polar conferences.
held at Hamburg i'll 1879, at Berne in 1880,
AID at st. Petersburg in 1881, the pro-
gramme ard details were settled. At the
last meeting it was decided to delay the
beginning Of the enterprise from 1881, as
first proposed. until 1881 Preparations
had been made in this country, however,
for carrying out our part of the original
programme; and in the summer of
1881 two expeditions set out, one
for the nOrthernmOst point of Alas
ka, under Lieut.. p. IL. Ray,
the other under Lieut.. \. W. Greedy, for
Discovery HarbOr, Lady Franklin Bay,
81 deg. 80 min. \. lat. and 90 deg. w. long,
800 miles from the pole. The other ten
stations selected were: Fort Ray, north
of Manitoba, by the British; Cumberland
Island, north of Hudson's Bay, by the
Germans; GOOdhaab, Greenland, by the
Danes; Jan Maven Island, by Austria;
SpitZbergen, by the Swedes; BOsskOpp,
near North Cape, by Norway; point
near the White Sea, by Finland; Nova
Zembla. by the Russians, who had another
station at the mouth of the Lena river in
Siberia; and Dickson Haven. near the
mouth of the YenIsei river, by the Dutch.
The Dutch expedition failed to reach its
destination, having been caught in the ice
in the Kara Sea. Observations were made
during the winter, however, and the par
ty made good their escape when their yes
sci sank, on the breaking up of the ice in
the following summer. All the other ex-
petitions were successful, with the pos
sible exception of the most nOrtherly one
of all, that of Lieut.. Greedy, at Discovery
Harbor, from which nothing has been
heard.
The Greedy party, numbering twenty
four in all, sailed from st. Johns in Au-
gust, and reached their destination easily;
the Proteus, which conveyed them, had no
trouble from the ice seIther going or re-
turning.