New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-08
4uryD8EE,s SHIP All RIGHT

All uncertainty about the fate Of Captain
Amundsen and the Gj0a is dispelled by direct
news from the explorer himself. The rumOr
which was set af1oat few weeks ago by Dundee
whaers, to the effect that his vessel had been
crushed by ice near Boothia Felix proves to
have been groundless, Captain Amundsen was
probably unaware that such Il story in cir
cuiation but he must have realized that his
friends would feel sOcitous about his welfare
in view of his inability to get as far west as
Behring Strait and come down to San Francisco
this fall. To alay apprehension, therefore, he
has made a Sledge journey from the shores of
the Arctic to the nearest telegraph station. This
was a government post in Alaska on the Yukon
River near the British boundary. In a bee line
it is hardly more than three hundred miles from
Hersche Island, from which he started; but in
asmuch as the trip seems to have consumed
about six weeks it must have been made in the
face of many difficulties.
King Point I'm the vicinity of which the Gjoa
is now in winter quarters. is situated about
fifty miles southeast of Herschel Island, near the
mouth of the Mackenzie River. Hence much the
hardest part of the voyage which Captain
Amundsen had in mind when he wrote the last
letters received from him has been accomplished.
The Gjoa for more than twenty months sta
toned in a harbOr on the south shore of King
William Land, in the neighborhood Of the mag
netic pole It Captain Amundsen's inten-
ton to leave that locality in June and force his
way out through the Northwest Passage. It is
evident now that he succeeded in emerging from
the Parry archipelago Between the attendant
delay in escaping and the premature cold which
imprisoned lot of San Francisco whalers in the
north he is obliged to remain in the Arctic re-
giOns another winter, but the fact should occa-
sion no anxiety His ship, the magnetic instru-
ments which he brought to America and, above
ALL the records of his observations are safe After
a short stay at Eagle City and q detour to Fort
Yukon, in Alaska. for mail. Captain Amundsen
will rejOin the Gjoa Consequently the infor-
nation to procure which was the chief purpose
of his expedition to the Arctic regions will not
be put at the disposal of magnetic experts for
several months.
Neither in his telegram to hansen nor in the
letters which Captain Amundsen has sent this
year to his cOmpatriot and other friends have
any details regarding his mission been supplied
He has merely announced his success in general
terms Since Sir James Ross located the north
magnetic pole half a century ago there has been
reason to believe that it has shifted. The world
wants to learn. however. just how much and in
what direction il has moved. and n determine
ton from actual observations on the spot is far
more trustworthy than the most elaborate caicu-
lation from magnetic changes elsewhere. EX-
neriments conducted a German warship a
few months ago hint Mt the possibility that the
navigator may some time find in the gyroscope a
better guide than the compass but the compass
assisted by astronomical observations, is to-day
his best reliance The revision of magnetic
charts for his benefit is not likely soon to be
abandoned. Captain Amundsen's work has not
been in vain.
How much credit should be accorded to Cap
tain Amundsen for achieving the Northwest Pas
sage is a question about which there will be
difference Of opinion. He is undoubtedly the first
pxDIOrer TO take q shin through the archiDeIago
lying north of the continent but in estimating
the significance Of the feat two facts must be
borne in mind. Not only has the supposed COM
mercial Importance of the route itself vanished
completely. but it is not apparent that the en-
terprising Swede discovered any part Of the path
he followed. Others had invaded the region be-
fore him from both sidAz ranaatedlg. and their