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SCIENTIFIC.
SCIENTIFIC.
Such extensive preparations are being made for the Greely relief expedition, and so much is being said lately about Arctic explorers that it may be interesting to give a short sketch of this unfortunate expedition. We are indebted for most of the following facts to the Scientific American. For the solution of certain meteorological problems, Lieut. Weyprecht, the Austrian explorer, now dead, proposed a scheme of simultaneous observation to be undertaken jointly in Arctic regions by the leading nations of the world. Final arrangements were made at the last conference held at St. Petersburg in 1881.
Two expeditions left the United States in 1881, the one for the northernmost point of Alaska, under Lieut. P. H. Ray, the other for Discovery Harbor, under Lieut. Greely. All the expeditions were successful except the one under Lieut. Greely, which was the most northerly and from whom nothing has been heard. The Dutch expedition, nowever, escaped with their lives.
The Greely party, numbering twenty-four in all, sailed from St. John's in August, and reached their destination easily; the Proteus, which conveyed them, had no trouble from the ice either going or returning. The colony was provided with a house, with boats, and with provisions and stores for two years. Near them was a bed of good coal, so that they were sure of a plentiful supply of fuel. It was agreed that a relief party should be sent them the following summer, to replenish their stores and bring away any that might be sick. If that should fail to reach them, an effort should be made to bring them all away the next summer, 1883. In the event that the second expedition should fail to appear, the colony were to abandon the station not later than the first of September, 1883, and make their way to Littleton Island, where supplies would be left them, in case they were not previously picked up.
The first relief expedition was stopped by ice long before it reached the neighborhood of the colonists. It made a deposit of provisions and stores at Cape Sabine, near the south extremity of Smith's Sound, 250 miles south of Discovery Harbor, and returned home. The attempt made last summer, in two vessels, to reach and succor the colonists failed disastrously; one of the vessels, the Proteus, was lost, and no stores were left for the retreating colonists when they should reach Littleton Island.
Greely not being relieved in his journey towards the south may have obtained the provisions left at Cape Sabine and then returned to Discovery harbor. There are numerous deposits of provision between Discovery harbor and and Cape Sabine, which together with the former, may be able to support him through the winter. If he should not return to Discovery Harbor but keep on his journey 300 miles farther south, he would be likely to find some Esquimaux settlements where they would receive a doubtful reception. But with all these speculations as to where he may be, it is more than likely that he and his party have died from fatigue, hunger or starvation during the three long winters that they have spent in these desolate regions.
The government has purchased two of the staunchest steam whalers that it could obtain, the Bear and the Thetis, and it intends to add still another to the fleet, which, with the steamer that the British government has donated for this purpose, will make one of the best equipped expeditions that ever visited these northern regions.
Chief Engineer Melville will have charge of this expedition.
A bill is now before the senate which proposes the offering a reward of $25,000 for rescuing Greely and his party, or the giving of evidence which will lead to his rescue. This one thing is certain, that the government will do everything in its power to rescue them.