Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1912-08-20
IOWA EXPLOR
ERS HEADED
H0MEWARD
Anderson and Stefansson Returning
After Four Years in Arctic
Circle.
WERE IN VIRGIN TERRITORY
Travel Among Eskimo Tribes That
Had Never Seen White
Man.
WE'RE IN VIRGIN TERRITORY

5@ -
Des Moines, Aug. 17.-The Asso
ciated Press dispatch, which an
nounced the return of Rudolph M
Anderson and Hjalmar Stefanssol
from their four year travel through
the n~orthernmost limits of Norti
America, where they lived among
Eskimo tribes who never before has
beheld the face of a white man, ere
ated a stir among the many low;
people to whom these m are ia
miliar:
Mr.. Anderson was formerly cap
tain of the University of Iowa tract
team, with a record as a hurdler. HI
also was prominent in the Iowa Ma
tional guard. holding a commission
In the company at Iowa City, anc
was a constant participant in the
state shoots in Des Moines. His
craftsmanship sustained the two mer
in their four years wandering be.
yond the outposts of civilization.
Mr.. Stefansson is likewise a grad
uate of the University of Iowa. He
afterwards became known as a stu
dent of %ethnology at Harvard, and
his contributions to the study of the
Eskimo peoples and languages will
be awaited with interest by scien-
lists. Mr.. Anderson is a taxider-
mist. He has collected many speci-
mems in the north for the American
Museum of Natural History at New
York.
Meager information has been re-
ceived from them, but the occasion
! al word which has drifted to the
United States whaling vessels which
have pushed as far east as the mouth
of the Mackenzie river, has revealed
a life of hardship at times which has
not been exceeded by any other arc
tic explorers. For four years the
men have not been south of the arc
tic circle. They have penetrated re-
gions which no white man eve trod
before. They have found areas de-
void of food, where they were fore
ed to exist for weeks upon the flesh
of owls. and they discovered a re-
gion, south of the Franklin noun
tains, which is probably the richest
game preserve in America. Thous-
ands and thousands Of caribou NOV
ed in long lines across the snow be-
fore them, and in the mountains
were white sheep and other food an
imals. The caribou never even had
seen Eskimos, and were wholly I'M
afraid Of men or guns. The explor-
ers used dumdum bullets, finding
that steel bullets would not always
stop a deer. They carried a dozen
high-power rifles with them, throw
ing away each gun as its supply of
cartridges was exhausted.
Lack of provisions, the early
freezing up of boats and other de-
lays prevented the explorers from
crossing the Mackenzie river for two
years after they reached the north.
Few white men have ever crossed
into the plains east of this river,
and Stefansson and Anderson here
found Eskimo tribes who never had
seen white men, and who are un-
known to the rest of the world.
An idea Of their location and the
distances travelled may be found
from the fact that Point Barrow, the
most northwesterly part of Alaska,
is the farthest outpost of white civ
i~lization. HerschelI Island, $50
miles east of Point Barrow, in the
Arctic ocean, was the basis of their
operations. 1t occasionally is touch
ed by whalers, and is regularly oc-
cupied by Eskimos. H~ersehell Island
is only half way to the Mackenzie
river. The man who goes east of
Hersche!l Island must depend abso-
iutGts Uu hlS cNn iSsohiSSS. ohAs
at long intervals do whaling vessels
approach the mouth of the Macken-
zie.
The Iowa explorers carried the
Eskimo ~dome-shaped tent, reinforc-
ed with two thicknesses of cotton
drilling. With the thermometer 40
degrees below zero outside they were
able to produce a temperature of 100
degrees in fifteen minutes. They
wore, deer skin clothing altogether.
The two explorers frequently were
separated for four months at a time.
when one or the other was engaged
in a thousand mile sledge trip to
Point Barrow for provisions. They
frequently lived OF nothing but