THE FROZEN NORTH

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXVII, Issue LXXVII, 6 June 1919, Page 3

THE FROZEN NORTH

0 THREE YEARS WITH STEFANSSON'S EXPEDITION. DR, JENNESS RETURNS 10 WELLINGTON. Since the cataclysm which burst upon the world in August, 1914, undreamt of adventure has fallen to the lot of thousands of New Zealand's young men, who but for the outbreak of war would" possibly have never set foot outside their home country; but be their experiences as varied and adventurous as they may they palo somewhat beside those of Dr. Diamond Jenness, a young New Zealander who arrived at Auckland by the Niagara on Friday last after spending ever three years in the frozen wastes of the north cf Canada, and, after a brief lespite, a. year with the Canadian troops in Northern France. Dr. Jenness was bom in 1886. and received his primary education at Lower Hutt, whither his parents moved when he was about five years of age. At the Lower Hutt school; he gained a. junior .scholarship, and later a junior University scholarship. His scholastic career at Victoria University was consistently brilliant. A. senior University scholarship was gained by him, and' later his M.A. degree with honors in classics and a special classical scholarship at Oxford University. Dr. Jenness entered the great English University in 1908, and studied there till 1911, carrying off the Oxford B A. with honors in litera-e humaniores (the classical school), and later his Oxford M.A. It was not, however, the classics that Dr. Jenness was to make his great success, but: in the study of anthropology, which he first took up at Oxford in addition to his classical studies. He gained a diploma in anthropology, and in 1912 was sent by the Oxford University to carry out a year's | field work among th© natives' of New | Guinea. The first report on that work is now in process of publication by the Clarendon Press, Oxford. From PaI tua Dr. Jenness returned to New Zealand in the beginning of 1913, and in ! February of that year received a cable from the Canadian Government asking him to join the Canadian Arctic and Stefansson Expedition. \ The invitation was accepted, and Dr. Jenness sailed with the expedition from Esquhr.ault on Juno 13th, 1913, in an old whaling steamer, the Karluk. At Nome, a mining centre on the Alaskan coast, the scene of a gold rush fshoitiy after the- great Klondyke rush, two gasoline schoolers were; purehasedj and the Karluk was equipped With sleds, provisions, and the parapiiernaha required for a long sojourn in the Aletie. The expedition had" a two-fold purpose, to explore tne Beaufoid iSea in sriarch ot new land and to carry out detailed scientific work, mapping the coastline and making a study of zoology, biology, etc., in the almost unknown regtons of Coionation Guif. The expedition thererore divided intnj a, northern party, under Stefansson, to explore Beaui'ord Sea, and a southern party, of which Dr. Jenness was a me inner, and whose work was to make a special study of the Eskimos. Stefanssou sailed north in the Karluk, leaving the schooners with the southern party for the time being. The Karluk, however, was fated not to return, for she v\'as jambed in the ic^, and after drifting about the whole winter 'till February she was crushed and lost about 80 miles distant from Wrangell Island, off the Siberian coast. The majority of those on board managed to reach tne island, but of the six scientists with that-party three perished during the terrible journey over the ice, and two more succumbed to disease after the ;s.and had boen gained. Of the crew of twenty-three two men died, one on the .cc t.nj the o-cher on the island. The Karluk being lost, Stefansson resolved to carry on ins exploration by sledge, and therefore organised a newparty, and set off for the Beauford Sea, where ho remained four years to the west and north of Prince Patrick Land. Thousands of miles were covered by this party, and three new islands were discovered far up in the north. No names have yet been assigned these islands, which are at present known as Ncs. 1, 2, and 3. An extensive survey was also made of a great stretch of' unknown coast line. Meanwhile, the remainder of the party marooned on Wrangell Island were experiencing terrible hardships, the food supply, secant at 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 way to an isolated Russian settlement w"Jth news of the terrible plight of the remainder of the party. Nothing could be done tall the following summer, when the ice fields broke up. Help was then despatched by sea, and the shipwrecked men on Wrangell Is-, land were rescued. For a year the two schooners carrying the southern party were held fast in the ice in Camden Bay, off the northern coast of Alaska, where the explorer Collinson wintered in 1851 while searching for Sir John Franklin, bxit in the summer of 1914 the vessels went on their way to Coronation Bay, where, said Dr. Jenness, "We spent two fairly peaceful years, a little cold at times. s'' There specimens of plants, animals, and insects were collected, and Dr. Jenness took up his study of Eskimo life and customs. The geologist with that party discovered enormous deposits of copper ore. but 99 per cent, pure 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 80 cases to Canada. The party worked on in blissful and complete, ignorance of the fact that the decision of the German war lords had set the world aflame till November, 1916, when one of the party returned to the depot after ' 'going for the mail to Herechel Island, a North-West Mounted Police post over 750 miles distant over barren Arctic wastes. Fifteen hundred miles for the mail!— Wellington Post.