ARCTIC EXPLORATION.

Northern Advocate, 4 October 1913, Page 3

ARCTIC EXPLORATION.

AN AMERICAN EXPEDITION

LONDON, Aug. 23

A wealthy American, Mr Borup, is financing 5 another exploring expedition, its mission being to explore land in a section of the Arctic wastes, where Commander Peary, on his final North Pole trip, claimed to have located a new territory, which he called Crockerland.

Mr Borup, jun., now dead, was one of Peary's party on his famous journey to the Pole. He was quite a young man, of great promise, and had planned the present expedition in conjunction with Dr. MacMillan, also one of Peary's party on that occasion. Unfortunately, Mr Borup was drowned while canoeing in Long Island Sound, near New York. His father has equipped the expedition, and is sending it out under Dr. Macmillan's charge, precisely as he had planned to do for his son. The ship chartered for the exploration is the Erik, which has now left Newfoundland for Flagler Bay, in Kane Basin, a section of the waterway that divides Greenland from the lands which are an extension of the Canadian part of the American continent, and the only navigable channel by which access can be had to the Polar Sea in that portion.

After the Erik reaches Kane Basin and lands her equipment, the party will proceed to erect a house which they have on board in sections, and then, having completed this operation, they will begin the work of establishing supply stations between Flagler Bay and Cape Hubbard, work they expect to complete in February, when, with a large base of supplies at Cape Hubbard, they will set out as soon as the sun appears above the horizon to cross the frozen ice to Crockerland, a hundred or more miles away—if Crockerland really exists, for as to this there is only the testimony of Commander Peary that he saw what seemed to be land lying west of his track as he went towards the Pole.

With the summer of 1914 will come the breaking up of the ice in the sea between Crockerland and Cape Hubbard. This means that in all probability the party will be compelled to remain in that barren region and wait for the winter to freeze the ice and afford a passageway to their base of supplies. It will be during these summer months that <tn element of danger will be introduced into the expedition.

The expedition was fitted out under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History and the American Geographical Society. Making up the party are Professor Macmillan, the leader, who accompanied Commander Peary as far as the 83 rd parallel in his dash for the Pole; Ensign Fitzhugh Greene, U.S.N., botanist; Mr Elmer Eblow, the geologist and geographer; Mr Harrison Hunt, the physician; and Mr J. L. Allen, the electrician and wireless expert.

The Erik is commanded by Captain Patrick Kehoe, an experienced Newfoundland navigator, thoroughly acquainted with conditions such as will have to be faced in the Far North, and the whole of the ship's company is likewise made up of men from this colony.