The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-07-19
DR.. Kennett Interviewed.


WASHINGTON, July IL George
Kenn+ tt, of this city, a well-known
Arctic traveller and author, who has
taken an active interest in the recent
attempts to relieve Lieut.. Greely's
party and who went before the Arctic
relief board last spring to urge the Of
ferlng of such reward IS would Sc
cure the cooperation Of whalers
in the search, was asked
by an Associated Press reporter to-
night what he thought Of the news
received from st. Johns. He e
piled: ut is a remarkable story and
q heroic achievement in a field
clouued by disaster, due to incom-
petence III Washington. If Lieu~
tenant Greeley and his party had all
returned in safety to the United
States, as they might have done had
they been properly supported, their
Arctic record. in point of skillful
management and success, would
have been unparalleled. Nc other
Arctic expedition has ever spent
two consecutive winters and part of
the third in such high attitudes and
ACHE we'd such results without casual
ty or a single case of serious sick
If Lieutenant Greedy had found At
south of Smiths Sound shelter and
food, which he had a right to expect
there, he would probablyhave brought
his entire PARTY back to America in
perfect health. After three winters
in the highest northern ATTITUDES that
has ever been reached. and after a
series of siedging campaigns which
for b0ldness and skil.iul execution
have rarely. if ever, been surpassed.
Gould the disaster which befell
his party have been averted with the
knowledge available at the time the
relief expeditions We're fitted Out:"
Enthusiastically, and that is the
pity OF 1T. It doubles the grief which
is mostly felt in the fact OF such a
terrible catastrophe 10 think that two
ships in successive years, aud pro~
ably a third, were in a position to
land stores which would have saved
the lives of those eighteen dead men.
Beebe, in 1882, anchored in Prayer
Harbor, Just north of Cape Sabine, |
with aship load of stores. Darlington,
the next summer, anchored in the
same piece also with a ship load of
Stores. and a few days later the Yam
tic, with four months provisions on
board, was only 80 miles away. Any
one of these three ships might have
landed stores enough exactly where
Greedy afterward made MS winter
camp to have carried that brave party
through, but their commanding Off
Gers were not ordered to do SO, ami
they didn't think of it,"
"Were Greely's movements those
which 1t was anticipated he would
make:."
They were precisely Such as l an
ticipated. 1t Vas thought at the Sig
nal office he wonld remain at his sta
ton till September LIST, but as 1
pointed out in q letter to the New
York Herald on the 17.h of last Sep
Timber. if he remained till September
lst lie could not get away at all that
year TN account of the impracti-
cability Of sledging operations
along tie coast in the fall, therefore
/ thought he would abandon his
In July Or August and c)me
down to the mouth of Smiths Sound
IN boats, as in fact he was doing at
the very time nv letter was written.
It was, of course, q terrible hardship
and disappointment to him when he
10 find shelter and food where
he expected. but the party seems to
have faced the terrors Of an Arctic
winter without shelter, fire or ade-
quate food in the most heroic way
and to have held out to the last with !
unfi.nching courage.
How important are the discoveries
made by Lieut.. Greedy p
"From the point OF view of an
g~eographer they are OF first
class Importance. If Greely has not
only taken away from Commander
of the British navy. the
blue ribbon of Arctic discovery for
the highest latitude ever attained in
that part of the world, but he has
greatly extended the limits of explor-