Seward daily gateway., 1924-06-26
ESKIMO FINDS
 TIDE TEST CASK ONE OF A NUMBER THAT WERE SET ADRIFT IN ARCTIC IN
 YEAR 1900
(The Alaska Weekly)

The recovery of the seventh of the thirty-four drift casks which were set afloat nearly twenty-five years ago in the Arctic Ocean, north of Alaska, was announced in a letter to the New York Times by Henry c. Bryant, the President of the Geographic Society of Philadelphia.
 The thirty-four casks were launch ed in the Arctic from 1899 to 1901 by the Philadelphia Society acting on the initiative of Rear Admiral George M Melville and Henry M. Bryant. The purpose was to test the Arctic cur rents.
 It was the belief of theose who plan ned the experiment that srong cur rent flowed westerly from Boring Strait across the polar area, entering the North Atlantic between Green land and Spitzenberg. Two of the casks floated from a point near the Alaskan coast and entered the Allan tic Ocean where they were recovered.
 News of the recovery of the seventh cask came in a letter from Inspector s. T. Wood of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, dated Herschel, Yu- kon Territory, March 8, 1924.
 'I beg" wrote Inspector Wood, ito enclose note found in cask picked up by Eskimo Papsok, on December 10, 1923, at Huskey Inlet, near the Eskimo Lakes, south of Capt Bathurst The drift cask had leaked and frozen, hence the condition of the note. From information in the not it would ap- pear that the drift cask was thrown overheard near Cape Lambton, Banks Land, in September, 1900, by Captain H. H. Bodfish, of the steam whaler "Belvidere of the Pacific Steam Whal- ing Company of San Francisco"
 ''I have been unable" wrote Presi- dent Bryant of the Philadelphia So- ciety, ito find on available maps the Husky Inlet referred to in this note as the locality where the message was found; but it's apparent proxim- ity to one of the Eskimo lakes, west of the Mackenzie River delta, would indicate that this cask was sidetrack- ed and failed to enter the main cur rent which sweeps in a northwesterly direction along the Siberian coast north of Franz Joseph Land, and evil dently reached the east coast of Green land Captain Raold Amundsen indi- cated his faith in the existence of this current by ordering his vessel, the Maud, thrust into the ice north of AL aska, and when last heard from she was drifting northward, thus support ing the trustworthiness of this theory
 Tt is some years since any reports have been received by the society and the recovery of this message after a period of twenty-three years indicates that reports may still be expected re- lating to this experiment for obtain ing data without endangering human life"
 The casks were long, spindle-shaped containers of oak, They were launch ed by the commander of the United States revenue cutter Bear and vari- ous captains of the whaling fleet.
 -Four of the casks" wrote Mr. Bryant, "were subject to local current and failed to make the long drift, but went ashore on the Alaska or siberian coasts. Two made remarkable jour- neys of over two thousand miles and tended to prove the contention of the promoters of the experiment that a strong, definite current flowed in a northwesterly direction from north of Boring Strait across the polar area and eventually debouched into the North Atlantic between Greenland and Spitzenberg.
 "Cask No. 26 Launched off Cape Bathurst British North America, by Captain R. J. Cuminsky of the steam whaler Norwhal, on July 1900, was recovered by fishermen on Soro Island near Hammerfest, Norway, on Nov. 3, 1908. Cask Number 6, made an even more interesting journey. Placed on the foe ice west-northwest of Point Barrow, Alaska, in latitude n degrees 53 minutes north, longitude 164 de- grees west, by Captain D. J. Hilton, was recovered one mile east of Cape Rauda Nupr, on the northern coast of Iceland on June ', 1905.