Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-08-10


scum of Natural History in batch o
letters from the leader OF the expior
| ing party and it's members.
| In the letters from Macmillan tn
trials of the expedition and their ulti
mate disappointment in finding tina
| Adm. Peary's vast unexplored contl
nent is a myth, are recounted. A brle
account Of the failure was printed II
The Tribune recently. An Esquimau
who accompanied DR.. Cook on hi
quest of the North Pole assured Mac
! MILAN that he had already passed thu
point discovered" by the Brooklyn
man.
The appearance Of comet whicf
may be an uncharted heavenly wan
derer is told of in a communication
. from w. Elmer Ekblaw. one OF thu
scientists on the expedition. DR.. II. )
Hunt, the surgeon of the party. write!
that he found two cases of typhu:
fever, as we'll as cancer and rheuma'
tism, among the Esquimaux. b
The letters were written in thu
northern part of Greenland anc
brought over the ice to the ssoutherr
on board a Danish ship and taken tc
Copenhagen. They arrived in New
York two days ago.
.MacMillan's letter to Henry Fair
field Osborn, president of the Museum
of Natural History, is as follows:
After undergoing SO many trials
and mishaps since the inception OF the
expedition, it was certainly due us to
win out at the finish. Although we
have failed in finding what we came
after, we have not failed in doing what
you expected us to do-to prove the
existence or non-existence of Croker
Land. Mingled with our disappoint-
ment, there is a consolation and GER
tain satisfaction of having triumphed
over obstacles and, in spite Of serious
handicaps, covered our whole distance
of about 1900 miles in seventy-two
days. Peary's explicit statement that
he had seen land from the heights OF
Cape Thomas Hubbard was undoubt-
edly influenced by the report Of DR..
Harris of Washington.
Temperature 60 Below.
Smith Sound. the dread of which
brought starvation upon nearly all of
the Greeley party was kind permitting
us to cross repeatedly in six hours,
twice by moonlight. Our new pass at
the head of Reistadt Fiord ia sunerior
70 that at the head of F7agler Bay. by
which Cook and Sverdup both crossed.
put TAR more dangerous. and may be
more uncomfortable. as an altitude of
400 feet with violent wind and a
temperature of 60 below has MANY
possibilities
i shall always think of Cape Thorn
as Hubbard as the Cape Horn of the
Far North, for which l have nothing
put the most complimentary terms.
IT was blow, blow. blow and howl and
drift. Every inch of the way up that
coast and around the point was con-
tested by the Arctic Demon. A forty
degree below wind in the face, a
smother of snow binding the trail,
and dugout in the snow bank at
right were served up to US day after
day, until l doubted that good weather
ever existed in that part of the earth
or the sun ever shone. But one morn
ing as we aWoke that ever present
whir of the driving snow over our
heads had given way to a deathlike
stiffness. and in through the entrance
was a shaft of yellow sunlight: we
realized that we were not forgotten.
IA perfect day, not cloud or par
ticle of mist on the horizon, enabled
us to see far out over the Polar Sea.
Not the slightest appearance of land
anywhere
AT ten miles out from the cape the
outlook from the top of a berg was
so discoura ging that my Esquimau al :
most refused to go on There was
open water. lead after lead as far as
we could see, which they considered
foolhardy and dangerous to cross so
late in the year. In fact. as / after
ward learned, they thought that we
would go only one march, as did DR..
Cook, see open water and turn back.
"Ee-took-a -shoo, one of my Esuui-
mauX, who was a compa Mon Of the
above, informed Us that we had al
ready passed DR.. Cooks North Pole.
There was nothing to do, but sit
highland wait for these leads to freeze.
After being held up twice by open
- NAOSSSN dii VII Tic Tul, over
rubber ice, with nothing more serious
than a breaking through of three of
the dogs, simply trusting that we
would have no strong offshore wind to
break them up. widen them, and leave
US hungry on the further side.
AT 10 miles from the land the top of
Cape Colgate could just be seen on
the horizon. In the morning Green
crawled out of the igloo and Was no
sooner out than he yelled: We've got
it.' -
There on the horizon, stretching
through about 120 degrees Of the horf-
zon, was. an immense land as plain as
a land could be. We both have been
to sea, from small boy and Green
for the last four or five years. and
know how easy it is for one to be de-
celved by mist, but this was land
without doubt. Even after Pee-ah-
wah-to gave us his opinion that it was
nothing but mist we could not believe
It, and Green refused to believe il for
hVe days. Every day it was there. but
we noticed that it varied in extent
and was constantly changing lin an
pearance, and although we were run
ming off 25 and 80 miles a day il was
as far away as ever.
Our last day was perfect, and the
view from the top Of pressure ridge
all that man could wish for. We