New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-02-18
Our own Foundrics and Shops.

I offered every inducehent to secure an up
portunty 10 examine the relics, KNOWING tia,
l could tell In an instant every article on pTaru
the Jeanette and every inch OF WOOD III heI'
/ pointed out that such relics, or al leas'
portion Of them should come to America, where
they belonged. but l could get no satisfaction
In any direction. | was convinced that II any
such relics were found in Greenland they We're
taken there by the hand Of man. ana not oy
currents
None Of the systematic currents that Nam
sen relied upon to take him to the Pole exist.
according to Commodore Melvllle's experience.
AS drift expert Of De Longs expedition ne De-
came more familiar perhaps than any ilal
with the supposed currents. ION that expedl-
ton" he said. eve drifted twenty-five moh'hs
after entering the Ice near where Nansen en-.
tered and went only 1900 miles In March OF
our first winter we came almost 10 the polnt
where we put in the previous October, IN sign.
Of Wrangell Land-not thirty miles difference
in position in five months. Every mile we VEN
for nearly two years we dredged ana so' 80
berian River mud, and between sixteen ana
thirty fathoms. We never found a current III
that whole time. We were simply blown along
by the prevailing winds We zigZagged gen
orally toward the northwest. and the wind was
nearly always from the southeast Along the
edge OF the ice cap we found eighty Ia,ho me
of water and they called it Melvilles HOE, pc
cause / talked so much about 1t. EverywheTs,
else the water was shallow No currents couiu
have existed in it.
The great equatorial currents toward the Poie
run in water 1000 to 5000 fathoms deep. ana
when they reach the shadows they dissipate.
None ever enter the Arctic. one OF my duties
was to keep the drift charts. We had nan d
shipload of books to read, and all the olIicers
had orders from the captain to note ana report
all drift information in their reading 10 me. l
had over thousand notes turned ill., running
back 800 years. and they almost without eXcep-
ton showed the effect of the southeast wind
blowing the ice In summer toward the north-
west. Everything on our voyage pointed 10 a
circular ice cap around the Pole Goo miles In
diameter unaffected by tides and practically I'M
passable. Everything which went up from Ben
ring Strait got ground to pieces between that
ice cap and the hces driven by the southeast
wind. and there is no record that anything ever
escaped. The western shores of Nova Iembla
and Franz Joseph Land and SpitZbergen are
piled high with driftwoOd from the Siberian
rivers. and they are the only places to search
for Jeanette or Fran relics
Captain r. +. Herendeed captain of the watch
at the Smithsonian. has had over thirty years
experience as an Arctic whaer north Of Behring
Strait. having wntered half dozen times at
Point Barrow Among the numerous instances
OF vessels entering tn pack and disappearing
which came under Ms observation he says that
in 1876 twelve whales got caught. and portions
Of their crews. including one woman. escaped TO
the coast. The natives said that the next winter
of the ships was sighted with men evidently
alive aboard, as the sails were being handled.
None of the ships heard Of again.
Captain Herondeed says he has taken whales of
Point Barrow carrying harpoons with which
they had been struck in the Atlantic. All har-
poems have the names Of their vessels. as we'll
as the year on them. for the purpose OF identih-
cation. He was In San Francisco when the
Jeanette started. and says the whalers In rem
devious al told Captain De Long that he would
find an open streak of water from Behring Sea
or to the devil" no one ever having returned to
tell which.