New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-27

great value in the war. He was DR..
Edmund Otis Hovey, curator of geol-
ogy in the American Museum of Nat
ural History, who left New York two
months after the Lusitanla was sunk,
in 1915, with the Croker Land relief
expedition.
Donald B. Macmillan, leader OF the
original expedition, was the discoyerer
of the mineral deposits. DR.. Hovey
merely dropped hint as to the value
which the war might give them.
IL understand" he said yesterday,
that certain valuable mineral deposits
located by Macmillan in the course Of
scientific work done By the party may
prove 10 be &C great economic value be-
cause of the war. They are such as
would always be of interest TO the
world"
Sixty-Day Trip Dangerous
Il was about the time that President
Wilson declared Germany was at war
with the United States that DR.. Hovey
decided to start back 10 New York.
With Esquimaus and dog sleds he trav-
elled more than LOO miles across a
frozen sea between Etah and Godhavn.
The trip took more than sixty days.
When he arrived at Godhavn, on May
20, he learned that the United States
was at war with Germany.
at was 4 hard trip" said DR.. Hovey.
"Much of the way we travelled over
black ice--ice so thin that IL showed
the black water beneath and dipped
and cracked beneath our weight. Twice
we broke through, but the quick action
of the Esquimaus and the strength and
alcrtness of the dogs saved our lives"
DR.. Hovey expected 70 be gone three
months when he departed in July,
1915. 1t was September before he
reached E.ah, where the Macmillan
party had its base. his ship, the George
B. Cluett, having been nipped by the
ice in North Star Bay. That winter
DR.. Hovey expected to spend in his
stcam-heated home at 1l5 West
Eighty-fourth Street he was immured
with Macmillan and two companions
at Etah, literally their only communi-
cation with the outside world being
by means Of a seismograph, which
registered an emphatic earthquake
Somewhere in the world" in March.
1916. During that winter the mineral
discoveries were made.
Discovered Valuable Minerals
1T was a pleasant winter" said Or.
Hovey, with enthusiasm. 1--WE discov-
cred coal and other mineral deposits.
made seismic observations and devoted
ourselves TO research work and hunt
ing"
Valuable mineral, chronological and
botanical discoveries had been made,
he said, which would be reported to
the American Museum of Natural His
tory. DR.. Hovey was surprised 20 learn
that Macmillan and other members of
the party were already on their way
back He himself was not in the best
of health when he started on the relief
expedition, but despite its misfortunes,
which led to his unprecedented stay
in the Arctic and his perilous trip TO
civilization. he returned in rugged
physical condition.
He reached Copenhagen on July 26
ano sailed from there 10 the United
States. His trip from Etah took five
months and two days. His companions
Macmillan. J. c. Small, George Conner
and Elmer Ekblaw the Amerl-
car continent on the same day he did.
Macmillan set out in July, 1918, TO
find the Croker Land which Peary
had sighted on the horizon. The peaks
hsd vanished and Macmillan estab-
lished the fact that they did not exist
~ that longitude and latitude. and that
Ptary probably had been deceived by
a mirage.
After the Hovey relief expedition
WIS wrecked two others were dis
patched One was stopped by the ice
in Melville Bay. The other, carried by
Tho Neptune, reached Macmillan and
returned in safety.