The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-08-08
The Rescued Arctic Explorers.

SdlI6u 1dSt W1nI6r Tor the T0ll6T OF Lieu
tenant Greedy and his party, who have
now been absent in Lady Franklin Bay
since 1882. and whose safety has been
very doubtful, has been a complete sue
cess. The preearious position that the
Greedy party had been placed in was
due TO the blunders Of the Navy Depart
ment last year.
In the spring of 1882 the United
States Government dispatched small
party of explorers under Lieutenant
Greelv to Franklin Bay, to remain until
the autumn of 1883, to make scientific
observations in accordance with the
! plans determined by the international
| Arctic Association. As is well known,
the other nations succeeded in bringing
safely back their respective parties last
fall, while the party sent to relieve the
American expedition only perpetrated
a series of unparalleled blunders, and
returned to leave Greedy to battle with
his second winter in the highest lati-
tude ever reached by any expedition.
The popular notion is that Arctic ex-
| plorat.on is reckless, foolish and waste
full, of little Importance to the world,
and that the men who risk their lives in
going to the Arctic regions are hardly
worth the risk and expense of rescue.
The truth is. that these men devote
themselves to the cause of science, and
to the benefit of their fellow-men.
They go to observe physical phenomena
under extreme and singular circum-
stances, and when fortunate enough to
return they give most valuable knowl-
edge to the world. By practical scien-
lists the great value and Importance of
scientific observations in the Arctic
regions have long been acknowledged.
Nothing is more necessary for us to
thoroughly understand in a country
| which, like ours, stretches over such an
extent of latitude than meteorology.
This can not be thoroughly understood,
or its laws defined, until we obtain q
more extensive knowledge of the phys
ical condition of the polar basin. The
unsolved problems of electricity and
magnetism are also of world wide inter-
est. Hence all geographical societies
and scientific bodies have paid special
attention to thewscientiic equipment of
all the recent Arctic expeditions; and
while much light has been thrown on
purely geographical questions, important
results have also been obtained in vari-
GUS departments of physical science,
Hitherto, however, these results have
been too isolated and scattered to adj
NIT of comprehensive generalization.
Each expedition has worked on it's own
particular lines, without reference to
any common system by which alone the
key to the Interpretation of the phe-
nomena could be obtained. To remedy
this state of things the lamented Lieu
tenant Weyprecht, the discoverer of
Josef Land, suggested that the money
spent in fitting out expeditions for the
purpose of discovering new lands. or
attempting to reach the pole, would be
more usefully applied in making a
thorough physical investigation, on
the basis of a common plan, of the
lands already discovered He further
proposed that, to obtain this object,
the North Pole should be encircled by a
corona of fixed observatories, and that
two stations should be established in
the Antartic Seas Mr. William Lee
Howard, the Arctic voyager, strongly
pushed this matter at the International
Geographical Congress, and was strong
advocate of Lieutenant Weyprecht's
plan. The value of this suggestion was
fully recognized by Count Wilczek,
well-known and munifcent patron of
Arctic enterprise, and to his generous
support and active co operation the full
fiIment of the scheme is largely due.
Finally the plan was submitted to the
Meteorological Congress at Rome. 1t
there met with most favorable consid-
Grafton, and was referred to an Inter-
national Polar Conference, which was
held at Hamburg, the States represent
ed being France, Holland, Germany,
Austria, Russia, Sweden, Norway and
Denmark.
The scheme was at last put upon it's
feet by the promise of the United States
to establish two stations, and it was
then announced that the eight stations
required were secured. BY July, 1881,
the final arrangements were completed.
It was determined that the observations
should be commenced at all the stations
in the polar regions, as well as those in
the temperate zones, as soon as posi-
bic after August l, 1882, and that they
should be continued, as far as practical
bic, until september l, 1883.
Denmark was established at God
thaab; America sent Greedy to Lady
Franklin Bay, in Smith Sound (the
northernmost of al the stat ons); Ger
many was stationed at Cumberland
Sound, OH the west side of Davis Strait,
and England at Fort Rae, in the heart
of the Hudson S Bay Territory, near the
Great Slave Lake. The United States
also had station at Point Barrow;
Russia took up her stand at the moeth
of the Lena, and Holland occupied
Dickson's Haven, the Russian branch
station being at Moller Bay, Nova
Zembia. Norway took an easy station
at Bosekop, in the Alien Ford; Sweden
selected Spitzlsergen, and Austria gar
risoned Jan Mayen Island, the most
dreary station of the lot, being only a
volcano rising directly out of the Arctic
Ocean, and when not entirely sur
rounded by ice is enveloped in thick,
cold fog.
France went far a-feld, establishing
station at Cape Horn, while Germany
ever foremost in scientific research
established third station on one of
the islands of South Giorgid, in "a deg.
30 min. south latitude, Al deg.
81 min. Is sec. west longitude, some
eleven hundred miles east of Cape
Horn. The object in establishing sta
tons in the antartic regions was to ena-
BILE some scientific data to be obtained
upon the correspondence or dvergen-
ces between arctic and antartic phenom-
ena, and to Incorporate with the observa-
tories Of Cape Town and Melbourne.
Thus we had during the years '82 and
'83 no less than fifteen expeditions car
rying out the full programme of the In
ternational Polar Commission, and on
the LIST and 10th of each month magnet
ic and meteorological observations were
taken at various permanent Observable
ries, as we'll as on board numerous ships
of war and merchant vessels Materials
for comparison on an extended scale
have now been obtained from all parts
of the world, and, with the exceptions
of the Dutch expedition, which failed on
account of the ice to reach its destina-