Valdez daily prospector., 1913-06-09
NOW
 IN VICTORIA B. C.
Will Soon Leave for Arctic, Call ing at Nome--Five Year
 Trip.


 sOcalled blonde Eskimos, reached
 this city today and will soon de-
 part for the north on the karluk, with which he is to make the most
 deliberately equipped arctic expe-
 dition that has yet put north for scientific research and the quest of vast possible arctic continent of i,00O,000 square miles, in the existence of which arctic explor-
 CTS have time and again declared their belief, and which Admiral Peary thought he had at one time } seen.
 } The vessel will call at Nome on her way to the arctic, and Stef-
 ansson explained that while he would make every possible effort to find the vast hypothetic arctic
 continent which he believes to lie north of western Canada, north of Alaska, and northeast of Siberia, his chief object would be to gath CT comprehensive scientific data
 about the vast unexplored area . thereabout, whether he finds land
 or not. He expects to be gone
 until the fall of 1916.
 During his stay in the arctic he
 or his expedition will be for long
 time in touch by wireless tcle- Egraph with the two most valuable \ meteorological stations in the northern hemisphere at Iceland
 and on the Aleutian Islands, to
 which he hopes to furnish daily messages, thus providing, among other things, a means of predict } ing storms from the north, a mat ter of the utmost importance to navigation in the northern oceans and in the great lakes.
 According to the final plans outlined by Stefansson yesterday, it is not unlikely that his expedi- tion and that of Capt. Ronald Amundsen, discOverer of the south pole, who will set out year later with a similar object in view, may meet in the midst of the arctic night. StefanSSOn plans to sail north from the mouth of the Mackenzie as far as possible and establish base on any land that may be discovered. Failing to discover such land, the vessel will
 head east toward known islandS-- Banks island. or Prince Patrick
 island--and establish a winter base as far as possible to the north along their western coasts.
 In the following winter he plans !n explore the ice-covered ocean to ne west and northwest flor T study of ocean depths, ocean eur
 renIs and the like. in the spr!I:" thereafter he plans to carry on
 geological and geological and ar
 chronological work in the interior
 of those islands. X second base : is to be established, if possible,
 on the southwest of Victoria is
 land
 If this expedition is success
 ful,' said StefanSson yesterday, "it will close forever the geo. graphical chapter of discoveries on this earth, which was begun by olumbus. am, going to try to wipe vast area of 1,OOO,000 square miles off the face of the unexplored map.
 We shall sail north along the Hist meridian to find the hypo- thetical land. If we do not find it, we shall turn back. It may we'll be, however, that on return ing, if we miscalculate at all, we shall be caught in the ice, frozen in for the winter, and drift invol- untarily wherever that dense area of ice packed tightly about our ship happens to take us. Prob ably we shall drift northwest in
 a circle between Asia and the north pole, thus doing involun- tarily what Amundsen intends to do purposely year after we start. It may well be that in that drift |, ing in the northern ice, the men of his and our expedition will
 meet.
 If the world does not hear
 from us in all that time, it will mean that we have miscaulculat-
 ed in the manner have mention
 ed and are caught in the pac ice
 on our way back.
 i"r do not anticipate any great
 danger in, such case. It was in view of such contingency that l
 was anxious to get a man like slCapt. Bartlett to take command of