The Southern herald., 1886-05-22
ARCTIC RELICS.
New Mementos ofPolar Expeditions Taken
to England BY WhaIer.

to England BY WhaIer.
When Captain Fairweather Of the
Arctic whaler Terra Nova made his
vessel fast to the edge Of the foe in
Prince Regents Inlet in June last he
was very much surprised bya visit
from number Of Esquimaux who
were clad In cloth trousers, serge and
woolen shirts, big pilot overcoats and
English caps They had entirely dis
carded the usual Esquimau trappings,
and it was evident that they had found
the treasure trove left behind by some
Arctic travellers. 1t did not take the
captain long to ascertain that they had
plundered the depots made by the
Franklin search expedition some thirty
years ago on Beechey Island, which
was the Arctic headquarters Of the
many search parties that entered the
archipelago north Of this continent by
way Of Lancaster Sound. 1t was found
later that they had stripped the
Beechey Island depots Of every thing
that would be Of service to white men
in those desolate regions.
It was the cousins of these Esqui-
fnaux, little further south, who, in
their ignorance; destroyed SO many
precious relics Of Franklin's Inflated
party-relics which were Of no earthly
use to them, and which they could
easily have bartered for enough tobac-
co and other little Injuries to last them
half century. Captain Fairweather
met Ills party Of natives just in time to
save some very interesting documents
in tin cases which the Esquimaux
thought would serve them admirably
as wadding for their guns AS it was,
the captain obtained the records Of
every ship that had visited Beechey
Island; except two; from Belcher's
search expedition Of 1852 to 1881. The
earliest records detailed the many vain
endeavors of the party to find the Ere
bus and Terror and their unfortunate
crews, and the disasters which had
overtaken the search expedition itself
These records, and some other inter-
esting relics Of the famous search in
which over twenty ships and nearly
one thousand men were engaged, Cap
tain Fairweather brought home to Dun
dee, and he left the natives to enjoy
the tobacco, rum and other booty with
which they had laden their sledges at
the Beechey Island depots.
England, Germany, Holland and the
United States all possess interesting
collections Of relics Of polar expedi-
tons that became famous through their
achievements or misfortunes. Almost
every article belonging to the jean
nette expedition found by the various
search parties along the Lena river has
been brought home. They include
even the board with rudely-carved let
ters that marked the place where
Erickson'S body was buried in the Le-
ma, and also articles of clothing worn
by De Long and his comrades when
their bodies were found. A number of
these relics are temporarily in the care
of Mr.. William Bradford, the artist,
and they were recently exhibited in a
Brooklyn store window. Among them
we're De Longs large Bible. DR.. Amb-
ler's case Of surgical implements, and
some very interesting plants and flow
ers gathered and pressed by one OF
Greely'S men around their station at
Lady Franklin Bay.
The two most interesting collections
of Arctic relics are the remains of the
Franklin expedition gradually gathered
together during many years and now
in an English museum, and the Barents
relics now exhibited at the Hague,
which were recovered a few years ago
after lying for nearly three centuries IN
the rude house at the north end Of
Novaja Zemlia, where Barents and his
men spent the long winter night "in
great cold, poverty, misery and grief
Many Of these articles, over two hun
dred in number, were already we'll
known through the graphic narrative
of De Geer, the historian of the expedi-
ton, and they are exhibited in room
which is arranged to represent, as
nearly as possible, the interior of the
Arctic hut as it is represented in the
picture De Geer made of it.-M Y