Morris tribune., 1905-12-16

the Arctic explorer at Christiania:
Fort Egbert, Eagle City, Alaska, Dec
5.-To Nansen, Christiania. Norway:
Gjoa is wintering at King point, SO de-
grees, As minutes west. All well.
Left here Aug. Is, at which time the
harbor was free from ice. On Aug.
&c sighted the first vessel, the schoon-
er Charles Hansen of San Francisco,
Captain McKenna twenty-five kilo-
meters south of Nelson Head, Barring
Land; passed two whalers east of
Cape Bathurst, and saw two whalers,
the Alexander and Draw Head of San
Francisco, Captains Tilton and Cook,
anchored at Cooper island. Passed
the schooner Banana of San Francis
American whalers overtaken here by
rapid progress of winter. Twelve win
tering here, five at Herschel island, six
to the east, and one wrecked on the
shore. Out of the twelve only three
intended wintering Land surveyed in
the spring of 1905 to Y degrees and 10
minutes north, magnetic. observation,
King William Land, finished June l..
Left Herschel Oct. "A with dog sled
and arrived here today. Will be at
Fort Yukon in six days, where mail
will reach me. Wire $500 as soon as
possible. How is the political situa-
ton? Road ,Amundsen.' Captain
Amundsen left Norway at midnight of
June L, 1908 and his first stop was at
Good Haven. Greenland, for dogs.
The first base station was established
in the vicinity Of North Somerset, in
Leopold harbor, where he made abso-
lutte magnetic observation and oper-
ated his seif-registering instruments
for time. This was in 1904. From
the base station Amundsen made
sledge trips for magnetic observations.
Carrying out his plans to a nicely,
Captain Amundsen located his base
station on King Williams island in the
summer of this year and eset up his
self-registering instruments. He also
located the true magnetic pole on King
Williams island, and is believed to
have found the monument erected by
Sir John Franklin's expedition. The
original intention of Amundsen was
to reach Herschel island, in Mackenzie
bay, north of Yukon territory, in the
summer of 1906, establish his base
there, and open communication with
Fort Mcpherson of the Hudson Bay
company, at the head of Mackenzie
bay Later his plans were altered and
he brought the Gjoa from Herschel to
King point to winter. King point is in
Mackenzie bay on the mainland, fifty
miles southeast of Herschel island.
Captain Amundsen left Herschel ISL
and on Oct. "a, and arrived overland
at Fort Egbert, near Eagle City, Alas
ka, on Dec. 5. His return trip will be
made by the way of Bering strait. and
he proposes to stop at Sitka and make
his final observations there at the
United States coast and geodetic sur
vey magnetic observatory for the de
termination of instrumental constants.
Says a recent census bulletin con-
corning illiteracy: international COM
parsons, restricted as far as possible
to corresponding classes of population
are on the whole favorable to this
country, ind eating that in most Euro
pean countries illiteracy is much more
prevalent then it is here, although the
United States is still far behind Ger
nany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and
Switzerland" Says the Skandinayen
Chicago in paragraph: 1T is the
prevailing opinion among large num-
Der of our native fellow citizens that
the United States outranks every 9th
er. country in the world in popular edu-
cation and everything else. They will
be surprised to learn from an official
document that we are far behind such
comparatively small countries as sWe-
den. Norway, Denmark and SWifzer
land. But the facts speak for them
selves. The percentage Of inability to /
write is one in fen in the United States,
IN the Scandinavian countries it is less