Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1884-07-24
Helena, Montana, Thursday, July "a, 1884,

|
available at the time the relief expedition
was fitted out?"
"Unquestionably; that is the pity of it..
1t doubles the grief which is mostly felt in
the fact that such terrible catastrophe to
think that two ships in successive years,
and probably third, were in position to
land stores which would have saved the
lives of 1S dead men. Beebe, in '62, an
Cape Sabin, with ship full of stores.
Darlington next summer anchored in the
same place, also with ships full of stores,
months provisions on board, was only 30
miles away. Any one of these three ships
might have landed stores enough exactly
where Greedy afterwards made his winter
camp to have carried that brave party
through, but their commanding officers
were not ordered to do so, and they did
not think of it.
"Were the Greely movements those
which it was anticipated he would maker
''They were precisely such as | antici-
| pated. 1t was thought at the signal office
| that he would remain at his station until
| September 1st, hut as | pointed out in a
! letter to the New York Herald on the 18th
| of last September, if he remained until
| September 1st he could not get away at all
that year on account of the impracticabili-
ty of sledgipg operations along that coast
in the fall. | therefore thought he would
abandon his station in July or August and
come down to the mouth of Smiths Sound
in boats as he was in fact doing at the
very time my letter was written. 1t was
of course a terrible hardship and disap-
pointment to him when he failed to find
shelter and food where he expected. But
the party seems to have faced the terrors
of an Arctic winter without shelter, fire or
adequate food, in the most heroic way and
to have held out to the last with
untlinching courage and tenacity.
If few hundred more ratlOns could have
been saved from the wreck they would
have carried the whole party through. All
but one Of the dead perished last spring
after the 4th of April
How important are the discoveries made
by Lieutenant Greely?'
From the point of view of an Arctic
geographer they are of firstclass import
ance Lieutenant Greely has not only
taken away from Commander Markham,
of the British navy, the blue ribbon of
Arctic discovery for the highest latitude
ever attained in any part of the world, but
he has greatly extended the limits of explo-
ration both in Greenland and in Grinnell
land. The fact that two of Greely's sledge
parties were stopped by open water in the
Polar sea, and that both were at times
adrift in strong currents which threatened
to carry them hopelessly away northward,
would seem to show that the Polar basin
is not the solid sea of immovable ice which
Mares described, and which he said was
never navigable."
Lieutenant Greely's explorations extend
ed over three degrees of latitude and near
ly forty of longitude. He has virtually
ascertained the true outline of Grinnell
Land, has crossed it from east to west,
and on the northern coast has gone one
degree of latitude and ten of longitude
beyond the farthest point reached by
Captain Mares or the accomplished sledg
ingofficer, Lieutenant Beaumont. These
achievements alone reflect the hig hest
credit upon Lieutenant Greedy and mis-
men, but there must of course be added
the great mass of scientific knowledge
gathered by the party during their two
years at Lady Franklin Bay.
NO MORE ARCTIC RESEARCHES.
PoUGHKEEPsIE, N. Y, July 17.-Sec
retary Chandler was found at West Point
this evening reading dispatches from the
acting Secretary at Washington relative to
the Greely rescue, and said: Il have in
accordance with the suggestions made by
Commander Schley in his dispatch issued
instructions to have the remains Of the
dead preserved. and the whole party will
come home soon"
When asked if there would be any more
Arctic researches, Mr.. Chandler said:
mo; | don't desire 10 enter into that
matter at this time"
Dispatches have been coming to the
Secretary all afternoon congratulating him
upon the success of the expedition, and in
company with few friends he has been
busy perusing them.