The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1918-09-03
STEFANSSONS BACK
FROM ARCTIC REGION
EXPLORER WHO FOUND NEW
LANDS is ON WAY UP YUKON
BACK TO CIVILIZATION.

JUNEAU, Alaska, Aug. 27.-Vilh-
ialmur Stefansson, Arctic explorer
and discoverer Of the Blond Eski-
mos" was at Circle City last night on
his way up the Yukon and to the
outside via Juneau and southeastern
Alaska, according to advices received
here today.
Stefansson has spent five years ex-
ploring and studying barren Arctic
wastes for the Canadian government.
He found a new continent or large
island on the trip just closed. The
new land is north of Prince Patrick
Island and was found in 1914.
Reports received from Stefansson
in 1917 said he hoped to make furth-
er explorations in 1918 and 1919 and
end his travels in 1920. Instead of
going northward, however, Stefans-
son spent most of the 1918 summer
in a hospital at Fort Yukon, Alaska,
lust inside the Arctic Circle, recov-
ering from an attack of typhoid,
which brought him inland from the
Arctic in March, 1918.
world when he sailed from Victoria,
B. c., June IT, 1918, at the head of
an expedition in search of new lands
which had been reported to have been
seen far to the north of any explored
area. He also intended to study the
topography and ocean currents of
the north and gather fora and fauna.
Bob" Bartlett in Party.
One of the original party was Cap
tain Robert Bartlett, who was Perry 5
Arctic sailing master. Another was
DR.. R. NJ. Anderson, with whom
Stefansson had studied at the Univer-
sity of Iowa About a score of the
men who left with Stefansson have
died of exposure and disease.
The expedition left aboard the
Karluk, an old steam whaler. On its
arrival at Nome, Alaska, Stefansson
bought other boats and sent Doctor
Anderson and a number of the party
to the Coronation Gulf country to
study the land and the natives. The
main expedition continued north IN
search of new shores.
After the Karluk, carrying Stefans-
son, rounded Point Barrow at the
corner of the continent" it was
gripped by the ice and apparently
frozen in for the winter. Stefansson
and four companions went ashore to
hunt. When they returned the Kar-
LUX had been carried away by a
storm.
Stefansson, believing the men
aboard, under Captain Bartlett, were
safe, dismissed the loss of the Karluk
as an incident and set out eastward
afoot. The Karluk, it was later learn
ed, was carried westward by the ice
and crushed by the foes east OF
Wrangell Island, which is north OF
western Siberia. The men took ia
the ice, and several never were seen
again.
Discovers New Lands.
Pressing eastward Stefansson spent
the 1894 winter with the Ander-
SON party and in the summer of 1914
discovered the new lands. The 1915
and 1915 summers were spent eXplor-
ing and mapping the country. Fol
almost two years nothing was heard
from Stefansson, and it was believ-
ed he was working his way eastward
Suddenly he appeared near Herschel
Island, off the Canadian Arctic coast
in 1918, and reported he had found
more new islands.
One of the secondary objects OF
Stsfanssons trip was to navigate the
northwest passage to the Atlantic and
end his trip with an ascent of the
ST. Lawrence river to Montreal II
1917 or 1918. In this he failed, fol-
reasons not clearly determined.
The war had not started wher
Stefansson left in 1918. He plans tC
enter war work, according to reports
and will tour the United States anC
Canada giving lectures for the bene
fit of the Red Gross.