The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-07-21
Try To Map
 Baffiin Land

An attempt to map Baffin Land, the vast Arctic island southwest of 1 Greenland, whose 1,500 miles of un- explored western coastline is as much a mystery today as when the English navigator, William Baffin. announc- | ed it's discovery in 1616, is the main objective of the Donald B. MacMil- | Ian expedition.
 The tiny 115-ton schooner Bow | dOin, which carries the party north was built at East Boothbay, Me. She was named for MacMillan's s alma mater, has auxiliary power and ] embodies all the essentials for resist | Ing terrific ice packs The crew | consists of six men. The vessel is | Of the Gloucester fisherman knocka- | bout type. sheathed with ironwood, | 87 feet long, with a draught of 1-2 feet. Crude oil engines capable of developing 6O-horsepower are inc1ud- | ed in her equipment, we'll as 2,0OO | gallons of fuel oil aud 500 gallons of kerosene The Bowdoin also to last her C<sN two years.
 The head of the expedition was Peary's chief lieutenant on the lat ter's successful dash to the North Pole in 1909. He has made eight voyages into the Arctic regions. Ac- cording to MacMillan's plans, he in tends to reach Baffin Land about August 15 and establish camp south Of the entrance to the dangerous
 
 ships of Captains Parry and Lyon seekers of the Northwest passage, were blocked a century ago. The location is 160 miles north of the Arctic circle and TOO miles south of Etah, Greenland. It is not far from the point where MacMillan's Crocke~ Land expedition passed the four win ters 191S-14-15-16. On that oc- ported lost and two relief expedi- tions were sent out for it but Mac Milan finally returned. He announced that Crocker Land was not Hand" as believed possible by Peary, but an ice mirage.
 During the winter of 1921-22, att | tempts will be made to explore the coast of Baffin Land and the fol- | lowing summer an effort will be made to penetrate the interior where, according to Eskimo tales, there ex- | ists one of the richest and most al- turing fields of research in the froz- | en north The island is said to have | great mineral deposits and to possess | high mountains and beauti1ul lakeS 1 which have never been seen by white | men.
 : The region is believed to be an inn mense breeding ground for water fowl, whose nesting habits Will pc Ine subject of study, while the program l of the scientists of the expedition also 1 calls for field work in zoology, oo> | tany. geology, meteorology and ter | reStrial magn etiSm. Speclal opSel l vatfons will be taken of the magnet | ic pole which was located first by | flames Ross in 1880 the further l side of the Boothia peninsula, not far from MacMillan's proposed win ter camp.
 An attempt will also be made to circumnavigate Baffin Land. In the
 event of a serious mishap to the Bowdoin. the party plans to retreat by dog s1edge to Fort Churchill, trading post at the foot of Hudson Bay, and thence return to civilization by way of northwestern Canada.
 MacMillan was born in Province town, Mass. Nov. 10, 1874, the son of a Cape Cod sea captain. He was graduated from Bowdoin. College in 1898 and took up postgraduate work | at Harvard in 1910-12. Before be- coming an explorer he was a teacher l and public school principal. In addi- ton to accompanying Peary on his
 last famous. trip north, he was a
 member of the Cabot Labrador expe- l dition in 1910 and as previously re- ferred to, the leader of the Crocker Land Expedition three years later. In 1911 and 1912 he made ethnological | studies of the Eskimos of Labrador. | He Is unmarried.