The Press., 1913-09-03
LOST EXPLORERS.
Pathos and Tragedy Fill the
 Pages of Their Diaries.
SOME FAMOUS LAST RECORDS

The Journals of Captain Scott, Dc
 Long, Livingstone, Franklin and oth-
 CTS Are Mute Testimonials of Their
 Heroic Sacrifices For Science.
 A peculiar and pathetic interest at- taches to the last records of lost ex- plorerS, dying alone and unaided amid icy wildernesses or in the steaming depths of tropical jungles.
 The diary kept by the gallant Cap tain Scott teens with tragic touches, but 1t also has its beautiful and its heroic side. No more splendid instance of magnificent self sacrifice has been recorded than the action of the dis abled Captain Oates in seeking vOlun- tary death in the blizzard so as not to be a burden on his surviving compan- ions.
 The world is richer in the possession of facts such as these, which is why the last diaries of men dying in similar circumstances have always been ar dently sought and carefully treasured. It was, for example in order to try to recover the papers belonging to the lost arctic explorer Mylius Erich sen that Captain Mikkelsen recently spent two awful years among the icy solitudes of northeast Greenland. He failed in his quest, and he and his their own lives.
 These journals of poor Erichsen, if they are ever found, will doubtless tell similarly stirring story to that left behind by Scott. Until then there Is only one record that closely parallels 1t, and that is the diary left by the American, De Long, who, with other survivors from the arctic exploring ship Jeannette, perished amid the fro zen wastes of northeastern Siberia in the winter of 1881.
 De Longs diary, which was recOv- cred and has been published, might almost be a duplicate in parts of that kept by poor Scott.
 Only in De Long's case the tragedy was even more appalling than in Scotts for his party consisted of no fewer than thirteen men, and these all died from starvation and exposure. The last entry reads as follows: "One hundred and fortieth day-Boyd and Gortz died during the night. MT. Col linS dying"
 The gallant De Long was then left with but one companion, pr. Amber, the medical officer to the expedition, for the deaths of the other men had been previously recorded, and doubt less the two last of the survivors died that day or the next. At all events, the journal ended abruptly at this point.
 By far the most dreadful tragedy of arctic exploration was the loss of the Franklin expedition, when the i'll fated officers and men of the two explOr- ing ships, Erebus and Terror, 13O in all, perished. CuriOusly enough, though many relics of the i'll fated commander Sir John Franklin were recovered by search parties and are now preserved in the museum attach ed to the Greenwich hospital, none of his diaries or personal papers were ever found.
 One single written record of the lost expedition remains to us. It Is in the form of a sheet torn from a small pocket diary, and these are the words 1t contains: April 25, 1848.-Terror and Erebus were abandoned. Sir John Franklin died on June II, 1847, and the total loss by deaths up to this date nine officers and fifteen men,
 This precious scrap of paper was dis covered in cairn on King Williams island in the year 1858. There was no signature, but the handwriting was afterward identified as that of Cap tain Fitzjames, one of Sir Johns of ficers.
 In the tragic history of exploration no briefer record than this exists of q disaster so appalling in its magnitude, although Burke and Wills, who first crossed Australia, left behind them only a few tattered leaves from an old pocketbook to tell the story of how they and their companions had lain down In the desert to die.
 Of all the many valuable and inter esting documents left behind by lost explorers, however, none can vie in importance with the last journals of David Livingstone, who died, worn out by hunger and privation, at Ilala, in central Africa, May 1, 1873. These were brought down to the coast, to- gether with his body. by his faithful black "bOys" and were published in December, 1874.
 They told of vast and farreaching discoveries and explorations undertak- en under almost incOnceivable cOndi- tions of hardship and privat1On. In fact, Livingstone literally laid down his life for his country since to his pio- neer enterprise is largely due the fact that so great part of Africa Is today colored red upon the map.-London An sWerS.
 To be able to have the things we want fhaf ia riches. huf tO he able to