Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1913-07-03


III search of Crockerland, the unex-
pIored continent in the Polar Sea,
which Peary saw through powerful
field glasses and named in 1906.
BY means of the giant wireless,
members OF the expedition, which WA
spend three years exploring and map
ping the land which Peary observed
lar to the northwest of Canada, expect
to be able to report daily progress OF
the work to New York city-to be
able to talk" to the Museum of Nat
ural History, father of the quest. and
to their families and friends during
the long absence in the Arctic wastes.
The wireless calls sent out from ex-
petition headquarters in FlagIer Bay,
Eilesmere Land, will be picked up by
the big Canadian government station
at Wostenholme Island, 1,100 miles
will be relayed via Port Nelson and
other stations to New York.
In addition to the huge wireless
plant which will be established to con-
meet the Arctic with the United States,
sledges used by members of the ex
petition in exploring the Polar wastes
will be equipped with portable wire
less outfits that at any time can be
set up and communication established
with the main station at headquarters
on Flagler Bay. In this way, scouting
parties and the sledges that make
Hach hn
CrOckerland will always be within
talking" distance with the base Of
supplies.
Had Captain Scott, the Inflated Eng
fish Antarctic explorer, been equipped
with such portable wireless and big
receiving station at his base Of sup
plies, he could have sent for aid when
he and his heroic companions were
trapped in a blizzard on the great ice
barrier
In addition to the wireless, Mr.. Mac
MILAN, who gained distinction with
Admiral Peary on the successful quest
of the North Pole, has several other
innovations in Arctic work he will put
into operation on his Crockerland
search.
He hopes to grow fresh vegetables
in hOJhoUses by the aid Of burning
glasses which viii be brought to focus
on the sheltered plants during the
summer season when the sun is Wis
ible.
ScuTvy is one of the chief enemies
he expects to encounter, and he hopes
that, if he is successful in raising
fresh vegetables during the period
while the sun is up, he will be able to
hold at bay this grim-visaged specter
OF the deep Arctic silences.
Then, too, he may take with him a
Great South Bay scooter, the first
of her genus to invade the Arctic
Circle. The scooter is an amphibious
craft native of the Great South Bay
Of Long Island. She is built like a
boat, but equipped with runners on
the bottom, and goes as well on the
water as On ice. On smooth ice the
scooter sails at the speed of sixty
miles an hour, and in the water at
the speed Of a regulation sail boat.
The trip Macmillan and SIX com
rades will make is believed to be
one OF the most perilous that could
have been selected. The safety of the
expedition depends wholly upon the
consistency of the winter ice in the
Polar Sea, and those who have spent
| much Of their lives in the far north
have learned that Polar Sea ice is an
! uncertain quantity on which to pin
| life.
| Briefly, the plan of the expedition
| is to leave New York on July or 8,
to push north, with several stops for
the last supplies, until Cape York,
Greenland, is reached about August /.
From there the party will proceed to
! FIagler Bay, EIlesmere Land. where
the headquarters camp will be built.
The ship. probably Pearyis famous
vessel, the Roosevelt. which MY. Mac
| MILAN is now negotiating for. will
return to New York and the seven
members of the exploring party will
set about preparing for the long, dark
| winter
Some of the party will then push
north through the mountains Of Files
mere Land into Eureka Sound, and
through Nansen Strait to Cape
Thomas Hubbard. the point from
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