Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-08-18
GREELY'S LIFE INTHEIC ICE.
THE ARCTIC HERO TELLS THE
STORY OF HIS TRIP.


Last Glimpse of the PrOteus-PIeasures
of the Winter Life at Fort Conger-
How the Men Spent Their Time-LIeut.
LockwOOd's Journeys to the North.
PORTSMOUTH, n. H., Aug. 17.-For the
purpose Of obtaining some idea of the
general nature and probable value Of the
scientific observations made by Lieut..
Greely at Lady Franklin Bay, an As
ISOLATED Press agent visited the Lieuten-
ant at his cottage on Seavey's Island
Saturday afternoon. He was very cOrdi-
| ally received by Lieut.. Greely, and when
he stated the object of his visit the Lieu
tenant at once willingly consented to give
all the information desired.
Lieut.. Greely first stated the object
of the Lady Franklin Bay expedition,
viz, to establish at Lady franklin Bay a
polar station as one of the thirteen sug-
gested by Lieut.. Weyprecht of Austria,
who discovered Franz Josef Land. Sim
ultaneous observations of all physical
phenomena were to be taken. The COM
plete programme which was to be follow
! ed was arranged by an International
Polar Congress, in which representatives
OF thirteen nations took part. The Obser-
Yati0ns, in which the greatest possible
accuracy was to be had, were those of
the declnatiOn and deviation Of the mag
netlc needle, the temperature of the air
and of the sea, height of the barometer.
and the mean and maximum rise and fail
of the tides. All explorations were in
cldental to the main objects of the expedi-
ton.
START OF THE EXPEDITION.
The expedition was fitted out under the
authority of an act of Congress- approved
May l, 1881. The party was composed of
three officers of the army, one acting AS
sistant Surgeon and nineteen enlisted
men, selected by recommendation from
the ranks of the army. Stores for twenty
seven months were put on the PrOteus for
the party. The PrOteus steamed away
from st. John, n. f., July Z, 1881,
with the party on board. She touched
at Disco Island and Upernavik to procure
sledges, dogs, skins and dog food. Two
EsquimauX were added to the party at
Proven. A landing was made at Carey
Island in north water, and provisions
cached by Lieut.. Mares in 1879 in the
Alert were found in good condition. At
LittletOn Island Lieut.. Greely per-
sOnally recovered the English Arctic mail
left by Sir Allan Young in the Pandora
in 1876. At Carl Ritter Bay, in Kennedy
Channel, cache of provisions for
use on the retreat was made
1t was the original intention
to establish a polar station at Water
| Course Bay, but heavy masses of ice
which were encountered rendered Water
Course Bay an exceedingly dangerous
anchorage.
THE FIRST STATION.
In moving to Discovery Harbor a sta
Fsre,
occupied by the English expedition of
1875. The erection of a house was at
once commenced and stores and equip
ments were landed. On Aug. % came
the parting between the Greedy party and
the men of the PrOteus. The little band
gathered on the frozen shore and watched
the PrOteus as she steamed slowly
down Lady Franklin Bay, leaving
them to the mercies of the cruel north.
On the evening of the same day the tenn
perature sank below the freezing point,
and the icy Arctic winter was on them in
earnest. Their house was finished about
a week after the PrOteus left. 1t was
named, in honor OF Senator Conger, Fort
COnger. During the first month the cold
affected the men more than at any subse-
quent time at Fort COnger. Later on, in
December, the temperature sank to from
80 to 60 degrees below zero and so remained
for days at time, but even in that weather
the cooks favOrite amusement was dane
ing bareheaded, barearmed and with
slippered feet on the top of snow drift.
HOW THE TIME WAS SPENT.
During the day the men dressed In or
binary outside clothing, but their flannels
were very heavy. Five of the men were
generally for a part Of the day engaged in
scientific work under Lieut.. Greely's di-
rectiOn, and in the duties of the camp.
The rest of the men were employed gen.
orally about one hour per day, and de-
voted the remainder of the time to amuse-
ment. All slept in hunks. The quar-
ters were heated by large
coal stove, the average heat maintained
being 80 degrees above zero. Playing
checkers, cards and chess and reading
We're the amusements of the evening. The
life was said by Lieut.. Greely to be far
from a lonely one, and many of the men
said that they had never passed two hap
pier wears than those spent at Fort Con-
ger. On Oct. 10 the sun left them for 1856
days, and twilight, varying from half an
hour to q hours, succeeded. For two
month it was so dim that the dial of
a watch could not be read by it. On
April IL the sun came above the horizon
and remained there 135 days, giving the
party great sufticiency of midnight sun.
WEIRD SCENES BY NIGHT.
During three months the stars were
visible constantly, the consultations of
Orion, the Bear and Great Bear being
brightest. The North star looked down
from almost overhead. Standing alone
outside of the fort on one of these nights
the scene was weirdly grand. 10 the
north famed the aurora borealis, and
bright consultations were set like jewels
around the glowing moon. Over everything
was dead silence so horribly oppressive
that a man alone is almost tempted to
kill himself, so lonely does he feel. The
astronomer of the party said that with
the naked eye a star of one degree smaller
magnitude than can be seen here in the
same way might be discerned. The moon
would remain in sight for from eleven to
twelve days at time. The thermometer
registered on June 80, 1882, the highest
temperature at Lady Franklin Bay which
we knew during our stay. 1t was 81 de-
gTees above zero.
66 BELOW ZERO.
The lowest was in February, 1883, and
was sc degrees below zero. In this Feb
ruary our mercury frOZe and remained
solid for fifteen days, so intense was the
cold. The mercury in the thermometer
invariably rose during storms or high
winds. The highest barometer was
slightly above 81 and the lowest slightly
below 30, showing a great range. The
greatest variations were in winter. An
electrOmeter, an instrument used to
ascertain the presence of electricity,
was set up, but to the astonish-
ment of Lieut.. Greely, not the
slightest results were obtained. The
displays of the aurora were very good, but
not TO be compared with those seen at
Disco Island or UpernayIk. AS far as
Lieut.. Greedy could observe no cracking
sound accompanied the displays, and the
general shape was that Of a ribbon. The
sOuthwesterly horizon was the quarter in
which the brightest displays were seen.
Sir George Mares reported in 1876 that no
shadow was cast by the aurora, but Lieut..
Greely says that he distinctly observed
his shadow cast by it.
NO ELECTRICAL DISTURBANCE,
There were no electrical disturbances
save those manifested by the rumbling of
distant thunder, heard twice far away TO
the North. In the course of tidal obser-
vatiOns very interesting fact was dis
covered, viz, that the tides at Lady
Franklin Bay come from the north, while
those at Melville Bay and Cape Sabine
come from the south. The temperature
of this north tide is , degrees warmer
than that of the south tide at Cape Sa-
bine. Why this was Lieut.. Greedy would
not venture to state. He used in meas
uring the ebb and flow of tides a
fixed guage, an iron rod planted in the
mud. The average rise of the spring
tides at Lady Franklin Bay was found to