Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-11-26
,cRocKER LAND A MYTH.

Peary Said He Sighted.
New York-Tne Crocker land expe-
dition. after its long trip Of 1900
miles from Etah to the point where
Rear Admiral Robert F.. Peary said he
sighted the great unexplored continent
supposed to exist in the ncrth polar re-
gions found that Crocker Land was not
there.
The expedition made it's final dash Of
125 miles over the ice from Cape
Thomas Hubbard only to find that
Crocker Land, If Peary located it
rightly, had either melted or moved
from the position it was supposed to
hold.
Crocker Land had always excited the
imagination Of explorers who had heard
the Eskimos' legend of the undiscov-
cred country in the north. The re-
quired scientific and financial back
land was obtained saftey Re;sr Admiral
gend. It was Peary who named the un-
discovered country Crocker Land.
The news that the land failed to
Thomas Hubbard, in longitude 100 west
and latitude SO north, where Peary
was said to have sighted it eight years
ago, was received today by the Ameri-
can Museum Of Natural History. This
information was relayed to Edmund
Otis Hovey, one Of the committee in
charge of the expedition. thru the
courtesy of Knud Rasmussen, the DAN
ish explorer. He made this statement:
Donald B. Macmillan, leader Of the
Crocker Land expedition. accompanied
by Ensign Fitzhugh Green, engineer
and physicist of the part, journeyed
125 miles northwest from Cape Thomas
Hubbard across the ice of the polar
sea in search for Crocker Land, whose
mountainous heights Admiral Peary
thought he deserted from an elevation
on Cape Thomas Hubbard in 1906 For
two days Messrs. Macmillan and
Green thought they saw land, but this
proved to be mirage and they finally
concluded that Crocker Land does not
exist, at least within the range orig
inally ascribed to it.
"The journey out and back from
Cape Thomas Hubbard occupied two
months and proved to be extremely
perilous. The party crossed thirty
eight leads on thin ice, lost most OF
their dogs on the journey, ond on the
day after they got back to Cape
Thomas Hubbard in the middle Of May
the ice on the polar sea broke up and
became hideous, grinding chaos of
broken ice, on which they would GER
tainly have perished had they not got
back when they did,
W The detailed account Of MacMillan's
attempt to reach the undiscovered con-
tinent was to have sent from his head
quarters in Etah, Greenland. by Knud
Rasmussen's motor boat to his sta
ton at Thule and thence via Copen-
hagen to New York, Rasmussens
motor boat. however, was prevented
from rounding the point below Etah
by severe storms, and so failed to see
Macmillan. 1t happened that w.
Elmer Ekblaw, geologist and botanist
of the Crocker Land expedition, also
was detained below this point. which
he had rounded in search of walrus for
food.
It was from this hunting party that
Rasmussen's men learned of the dis
appointment Of the expedition in find
ing that the goal towards which it had
been struggling for year and a half
was a phantom.
It will now be impossible for Mac
MILAN to send his report until his
men can drive a dog team and sled to
Upernivik, western Greenland-in other
words, not until midwinter. when the
sea is frozen over. I 1t will wait until
spring at Upernivik for the first Danish
boat to convey it to Copenhagen. The
report will then be cabled to New York
ffom Copenhagen, arriving probably in
April or May next year.
The only other word from the ex-
pedition is contained in a letter which
Mr.. Eckblaw had time hastily to COM
pose before the Rasmussen motorboat
had turned south, but 1t is enough to
assure the friends and relatives Of the
expedition party that the explorers are
safe.
These are abstracts from the letter:
II can't say, Of course. what we will
do. Mac has said that we must get back
next year. Are planning a strenuous
years work for the coming season.
Every thing has thus far been e1ninently
Observation-Disclosures. scientific work,
.etc