ARCTIC EXPLORATION.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16540, 4 June 1919, Page 7

ARCTIC EXPLORATION.

A NEW ZEALANDER'S EXPERIENCES. (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) WELLINGTON, June 3. Dr. Diamond Jenness. of Wellington, i a native of New Zealand, who has just returned from Canada, had thrilling experiences with the Canadian Government's Arctic Expedition and the Stefansson Expedition. Dr. Jenness, after three years in the frozen wastes of the North, was a year with the Canadian troops in France. In the beginning of 1913 Dr. Jenness, vrlio was then in New Zealand, received a cable message from the Canadian Government asking him to join the Arctic expedition. He accepted, and the expedition left from Esquimaux in June. 1913, and proceeded via Nome, a mining centre on the Alaskan Coast. At Nome two gar-oleno scno ners and a vessel named the Karluk were purchased and equipped with Arctic paraphernalia. The'expedition had a two-fold purpose: to explore Beauford Sea in search of new land, and carry out a detailed scientific mapping of the coastline, also making a study of zoology, biology, etc., in the almost unknown regions of Coronation Gulf. The expedition was therefore divided into a northern party under Stefansson to explore Beauford Sea, and a southern party (of which Dr. Jenness was a mem her)., whose work was to make a special study of the Eskimos. Stefansson sailed north in the Ivarluk. leaving the schooners with the southern party for the time being. The Karluk, however, was fated not to return, for she was jammed in the ice. Of the six scientists with that party, three perished during the terrible journey over the ice. and two more succumbed to disease after the island had been gained. Of the crew of twenty-three, two men died—one on the ice and the other on the island. The Karluk being lost, Stefansson resolved to carry on his exploration by sledge. He therefore organised a new party and set off for Beauford Sea, where he remained for four years, to the west and north of Prince Patrick land. Meanwhile the remainder of the party were marooned on Wrangell Island. where thev experienced terrible hardships. The food supply, scant at i first, dwindled to practically nil. Captain Bartlett, one of the party, who had been Peary's captain when the American explorer reached the North Pole, set out across the ice to the shore, and then made his wav to an isolated Russian settlement with news of the terrible plight of the remainder of the pertv. # Nothing could be done till the following summer, when the ice fields broke up. Help was then despatched by sea, and the shipwrecked men on Wrangell. Island were rescued in the summer of 1914. The vessels went on their way to Coronation Bay, "where," says Dr. Jenness, "wo spent two fairly peaceable years—a little cold at times." There specimens of plants, animals, and insects were collected, and Dr. Jenness took tip the stud? of Eskimo life and customs. The geologist with that party discovered enormous deposits of copper, not copper ore, but 99 per cent. of pare copper, somewhat similar to the Great Lake Superior deposits. Dr. Jenness made a comprehensive collection of specimens in the Coronation Gulf region. taking back some eighty cases to Canada. No news was received that the wnv had commenced till November, 1916.