The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-05-27
DANISH PARTY
WELL INTO NORTH
THE erickson EXPEDITION RE-
PORTS FROM GODHAVN.
Recent Word Indicates that the Ex-
plorers Have Overcome the Lack
of Provisions and Clothing, Which
Hampered Them Last Fall-Chil-
dren's Day in Copenhagen.

Information has reached Copenha-
gen that the Danish arctic expedition
under TIr. Erickson has reached
God havn, Greenland, after much
hardship and privation. All the menu
bers are alive and well, however.
Erickson reports having left Captain
Road Amundsen and party on board
the Gjoa at Dalrymple Rock, near
the entrance to Wostenholme sound,
in Baffins bay. All on board the
Gjoa were we'll.
The last reports from the Erickson
expedition, received last fall thru
Dundee Whalers, were anything but
reassuring. The party was then on
Saunders island and were in a pitt
full condition from lack Of provisions
and clothing. Count Moltke, the
artist of the expedition, was very i'll.
The explorers, it was added, in the
company of Eskimos, were living in
a tattered tent and their food was
almost exhausted, except a supply Of
eggs from the island. They had only
one gun, and had abandoned their
boat and one sledge at the northern
part of Melville bay. The Danes were
entirely dependent on the Eskimos.
The whalers left with them supplies
and materials to build new boat,
and they now seem to have made
good use Of it.
Few expeditions have attracted the
attention or have called forth the
unreserved admiration Of explorers as
has the daring Magnetic Pole expedi-
ton of Captain Roald Amundsen,
way, on Wednesday, June II, 1903.
AS will be remembered, Captain
Amundsen, in a little sloop of only
forty-six tons burden, will not only
attack the problem of the magnetic
POLE which at present is located on
the Peninsula of Boothia, part Of
the North American mainland, but
will also try to pass thru the intricate
frozen channels among the islands
north of the North American CONT
nent and reach Boring strait.
In other words, Captain Amundsen
intends to make the northwest pas
sage, to accomplish which was the
dream of the early navigators, and
| the attempt to realize which led to
| the tragedy Of the Sir John Franklin
| expedition.
Amundsen, like Nansen, however,
hopes to win for Norway the credit
of doing something that no other
arctic explorer has done. He has first
won the confidence of the scientific
world by his decision to spend the
| first two years in the arctic region,
| phenomena connected with the mag
netic pole. itself. This mysterious
point in latitude 70.5 north and lon
! gitude 96.47 west, has never been
studied since the days of it's discov-
erer, Sir James Ross. But, in addi-
ton to paying his respects to science
by spending two years at the magnetic
| pole, as it were, Amundsen will also
satisfy those who like to see explor-
ing, carried on, with, a certain dash
and a spice of danger, by attempting
in his cockleshell craft to make the
northwest passage.
If Amundsen, therefore, reaches
Bering strait in the summer of 1907
he will be the first to have completed
the northwest passage, which at one
time, before the age. of steam, was
! looked upon as of the greatest impor-
lance to commerce, but now has nc
interest except as it affords a back
| ground for the daring Of man in the
pursuit of knowledge at all hazards.