Year: 1879

Many reports hitherto received from
whalers in the region OF Behring Strait have
reported San open season" there and a
general concurrence of signs that seemed
to augur a favorable voyage for the Arctic
steamer Jeanette, and among these may
be mentioned the report of the captain
of tho Pauline Collins, which we publish
to-day. We notice, however, a recent re-
port of another tenor. The New Bedford
from L. L. Nye, of the bark Mount Wollas-
ton, written August 2, off Cape Lisburne,
in which it is stated ''there is more ice and
further south this year than usual" Some
ships, it is alleged, have been ''stoppei by
the ice in GO deg. 40 min., and it speci-
fically stated that tour or five ships
were so stopped on August thirty
five miles east of Cape Lisburne
Mr. Nye further says:-"Ihe season, or
rather the ice, does not look favorable to the
success of the American Arctic expedition,
for they cannot penetrate the pack with
that or any other steamer, as it is now
packed by the constant strong south winds,
but before October the whole ice pack may
be pushed north or east" There are two
important points involved in these several
statements first, the appearance OF an un-
usual quantity OF ice at an unusually low
latitude tor the season, and its presence III
such form as to make it likely that it will
interfere with tho movement OF the explor-
ing steamer toward the north. How does
it happen that the ice is there at this time?
That certainly cannot be due to an
exceptionally severe winter and bad
spring. On the contrary it is prob
ably due to an early break up
and uncommonly warm weather in the
region where the ice was made. Another
indication to the same purport is given in
another part of Mr.. Nye's letter, where he
says ssthe natives on Diomede Islands re-
port seeing large numbers of whales going
north in May and early June last east OF
the islands," At the time at which Mr..
Nye wrote gloomy apprehensions from the
middle of an ice Pack about Cape Lisburne
those whales were sporting in the open
water far to the north of him. But would
the presence of the ice at that point pre-
vent the steamer reaching the open water
and finding her way to Wrangel Land?
'They cannot penetrate the pack with that
or any other steamer" says the chronicler
This fact would be an unfortunate one for
the voyage Of the Jeanette if it is neces-
sary for her to penetrate the pack but per-
haps it is not. This ice thus packed
about the northwestern extremity OF the
Alaskan peninsula was gathered and kept
there by the action of north ern, western
and southern winds of great severity. We
have had the northern and western winds
previously reported from other writers.
They were the forces that lodged the loose
ice on that point, and the southern wind
that kept it there is chronicled by Mr.. Nye
himself. The Jeannettes course would not
lie near to Cape Lisburne, and we believe
that the presence of an ice pack at that
point is good news for her, since the wind
that lodged the ice there could only do it
by giving her clear water in the line Of her
intended journey. She would naturally
move nearer to the Siberian coast in order
to reach Wrangel Land, where she expects
to winter, and by that westward course
would probably entirely clear the ice thus
reported.