The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-07-19
RESULTS OF THE work.
Important Geographical Points Settled by
Greely's ExpIorations.

& 6reely'S ExplOFaClOn6s
Washington Special
Among those who were at the signal Office dis
cussing the finding of the Greedy party was Lieut.
Ray, who commanded the expedition sent to
Point Barrow in 1871 and returned in safety last
November. He said "Greely's party and mine
were the two furnished by this government Of
those established by different nations in 1881 to
make complete chain of circumpolar stations.
European stations were in Greenland, Iceland,
Spitzbergen, Finland, Siberia and British
America. They were for one year and all have
returned safely save the Greely party which
was in nearly four degrees higher latitude than
any other Our objects were primarily to dis
cover the true secret of the magnetic currents.
We observed chiefly the perpendicular and hori-
zontal magnetic attraction at each point and the
magnetic intensity. Our results will settle that
the center of magnetic force is west of Hudson's
bay and 200 miles south of the magnetic pole. /
have just returned from Vienna, where all
the commanders save Greedy were present.
and when the reports are compared and made
public, as they will be in a year or two, it will
be found that our observations have doubled the
worlds knowledge of the magnetic forces We
had five hundred men inside the polar circle, and
every one of them came back in safety save
those nineteen men, and, he added with word
Of suggestion, they would have been alive to-
day had it not been for the blunder here in
Washington
What do Greelys explorations meanF he
was asked.
'iHe has settled several important points. Be
fore him no man had ever reached the open po-
lar sea save Sir George Mares, who in 1875,
with the Alert. one of the vessels in the present
rescuing expedition, passed up through the mar
row waters above Smiths sound and wintered
just inside the open polar sea- He traced the
shore twenty degrees to the west and ten to the
east; towards the north he could see
nothing but ice and water In the spring
of 1876 Lieutenant Markham, Of his party,
with sledge put off over this icy sea and
reached 1872 20, north, about forty miles from
the shore of Grinnell land Here was seventy
two feet of water and no sign of land. He ex-
pected that he had found the open Polar sea, and
Greelys experience proves it almost beyond a
doubt Markham was in 63o of longitude
Lieutenant Lockwood, Greely's brave young as
sistant took the wild course of following the
shore eastwardly from Robson channel, 10
above Lady Fraklin bay, and where the open sea
is reached Lockwood followed this shore 15o
further east than Mares went and found it
trending to the northward, so that while still on
shore he was in latitude 63o, twenty -four or
twenty-five miles further north than Markham
reached. From an altitude Of 2, 400 feet to the
north and west they saw no land, but eastward
Greenlands rugged coast was still in view in
longitude 38o, west, or 27o east of Lady Franklin
bay. This settles one important point that
there is polar sea whose shores have
been viewed for AZ degrees east and west, and
no land seen to the northward. Thorc is polar
ocean, but it is not open Another thing.
Greely has added ~ degrees to our maps on the
northern shore of Greenland. For several years
Arctic navigators have believed that Franz Josef
land, north Of Spitzbergen, is continuation of
Greenland It looks like it. We have now
traced Greenland in big headlands to 38 degrees
west, and have no doubt that soon it win be
demonstrated to be solid land to Franz Josef
Further, Naress party, in 1876, found solid
shore line to 65 degrees west but Lieutenant
Lockwood, by following pp Archer ford west