Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-16
on THE JEANETTE LINES.
Will Follow the Course of Bering
Strait Ice, Not Against 1t.
A CURRENT is PROVED TO EXIST.
The Party Is to Make the Perilous Journey
in V-Shsped Ship.
EXPECT CURRENTS TO ASSIST THEM

Norske Geografske Selskab,'' held at
Christiania, DR.. Nansen expressed his views
concerning Arctic research, and stated his
reasons for having determined on endeavor-
ing to reach the North Pole in a manner
and by route which have hitherto only
been attempted on one occasion.
II was in 1879 that the ill-fated Jeanette
expedition sailed to the Bering Sea in the
hope of finding more or less open water
wav. caused by the warmth of the Japanese
current, which, flowing through the Bering
Strait, passes northward along the east
coast of Wrapgel Land, possibly extending
10 the pole itself, the experience of whalers
being that whencompelled to abandon their
ships In those waters these invariably
drifted northward, thus indicating that the
prevailing currents flowed in a northerly
direction.
The failure of other expeditions which
Lad attempted to reach the pole from the
Atlantic on either side of Greenland, and
subsequently the loss OF the Jeanette, in
dGced DIR. Nansen to study the
MOVEMENTS OF THE ICE,
as well as the present known ocean cur
rents, so as 10 proceed with instead of
against their flow. He also came to the
conclusion that where the ice has invariably
hindered an advance northward in an Or
dinarv ship, or crushed it to pieces, that by
going with the stream in q specially con-
strucJed ship which, when pressure took
place, would lift and lie on the surface
itself the ice should be the motive power
which should bear the ship and expedition
II ,n aud 6po1 dica a1arSr ifS
burden into the East Greenland Sea at
about 500 north latitude.
Thus, instead of opposing the natural
forces he would make use of them as a
means of lOcomotion. In his study of the
ocean and ice currents he has been ably
assisted by various men of science, notably
Prots AIohn and Storm, If Christiania In
order to prove the feasibility of his theory
DR. Nansen has produced various interest
ing facts, from which one must presume
that ii is correct. The facts are mostly con-
veyed to US by inanimate objects and relics
Of the dead.
A LESSON FROM THE JEANNETTE.
Dr. Nanscn concludes that it has been
clearly proved that the route by Batin' Bay
is inpracticable, as is that adopted by Parry
in 1927, for the latter, after reaching 800
10 found that the movement of the ice
was SO great that he could not advance as
quickly north as it bore him south.
The Jeannette expedition is the only one,
in his (Dr. Nansen's) opinion, which had
hit lloon the correct theory of attaining the
object in view. This opinion is founded on
the following facts. The doctor saws:
Jeanette drifted for two years in the ice
from Wrangel Land to the New Siberian
Islands. Three years after the ship had
gone down to the north of these there were
found d number of objects on the drift ice
near yUlianehaab, on the southwest coast of
Greenland, which, from unquestionable
marks. must have belonged 10 the sunken
vessel and been frozen in the ice.
Among these numerous objects which
Were first found by the Eskimo (see
'Danske Geografsk Tidsskrift, 1859 may
be specially named the following:
THE RELICS OF THE DISASTER.
"A list of stores with De Longs the COM
mander Of Jeanette, own signature. A
list in writing of the Jeanette boats. A
pair of oilskin breeches marked Louis
Noros, the name of one Of Jeannette's crew
who WIS saved The peak of a cap with
the name F. c. Nindemann, the name of
one Of the crew who was saved. Which
way. then, had the foe (on which these
were found) reached the west coast of
Greenland? Professor Mohn had already
i'm 1884, in a lecture given at a meeting of
the Christiania Eidenskabsselskab (Society
of Science) demonstrated the acceptabilitv
of the theory that it could not have come
otherwise than past the pole. Through
Smiths Sound il could not have come, as
the current thence runs down the west SIDE
Of Sattins Bay, and in such a case it would
be carried 10 Batiln's Land or Labrador and
not 10 the west coast Of Greenland.
-'AlOng the coast the current runs north
ward and is a continuance Of the Greenland
polar current which runs down (southward)
along the east coast OF Greenland, rounds
Cape Farewell and proceeds upward (north-
rard) along the vest coast. Only by such
81 current could this foe have arrived DR..
Eansen likewise pointed out according to
the known currents and the experiences of
the Tegethof' eXpedition) the impossi-
bility of its having dritted along
THE NORTH COAST OF SIBERIA,
south of Franz Joseph Land, and through
the sound between this and Spitzbergen DR..
Nansen then showed that the distance from
the New Siberian Islands to the S0th degree
Of latitude on the east cost of Greenland was
1850 geographical miles; from this spot to
.iulianehaab l, $40 together a distance of
1900 miles, The foe drifted this distance
in LOO days; therefore hsd an average speed
OF &c knots day.
DR.. Nansen pointed out, however, MANY
rent flows past the pole from Berng Sea
on the one side to the Atlantic on the other
some years ago DR.. Rink, then Governor
OF the Danish settlement, Godthaah, in
Greenland, procured from a native a casting
stick, with which the Eskimo are wont to
huIl their bird darts which he had found
among the driftwood. This was entirely
different from those employed by the Green
ianders, and was found to be similar to the
casting sticks used by the Eskimo in some
parts of Alaska, and this must be conveyed
by a current which is as vet unknown in its
entirety, but must be presumed to flow very
close TO the pole or TO point between it
and Franz Joseph Land.
THE COURSE OF DRIFrwooD.
Again, the driftwood which is found
along the east and west coast OF Greenland
Is OF Siberian character, consisting of the
Siberian larch, a species of northern red
pine (probably picca oboVata), a species of
elder (alnus incana), and species of poplar
(popUlus tremula), or common aspen, all of
which species are met with in Siberia, and |
such quantities of driftwood come ashore |
along the coasts of Greenland that it must |
be presumed that it is conveyed there |
by an unverying or steady current. That |
this likewise has been to the pole, or in its |
neighborhood, may be assumed from the |
fact that the Siberian wood has been met |
with north Of Spitzbergen in the south-go-
ing current against which Parry combated |
in vain
Taking everything into consideration,
one cannot but arrive at the conclusion that
a current flows past some point between the /
f.o1 a,h IL