IN ARCTIC SEAS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6313, 13 September 1907, Page 5

IN ARCTIC SEAS

MIKKELSEN'S EXPEDITION MESSAGE FROM THE EXPLORER. A SLEDGE TRIP OF FIVE HUNDRED MILES. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyrlxkfc LONDON 4 , September 12. Captain Mikkelson has cabled from Leffingwcll to the Koyal Geographical Society, stating that he made a sledge trip covering fivo hundred miles, and crossed the edge of the Continental shelf twice. Soundings were taken fifty miles off che coast, and beyond 630 metres no bottom was sounded. Mikkelsen states that ho will resume his explorations in Beaufort Sea in 1908. The Anglo-American expedition, led byMr Einar Mikkelson, started on May 20th, 1906. for two or three years’ work in the Arctic, In the Duchess of Bedford. Adverse conditions hindered progress, tho vessel only reaching Port Barrow on August 15th. Letters were recently received from tho Arctic shores of Canada bringing news of the expedition down to the beginning of December. The captain’s despatches were couched in a hopeful strain, but the expedition was i not quite so happily fixed as Captain Mikkolscu would havo liked in the matter of food supplies. Rather too much reliance had been placed on the game to be found along the northern shores of Canada. With careful husbanding of hia resources, however. ho hoped to be able to carry to a successful issue his search for land in the hitherto unexplored area known as the Beaufort Sea. He had been strengthened in his expectation of finding new land by the persistence with which the Eskimos affirmed its existence, and in order to search as wide an area as possible he proposed at the time of writing to sbncl out two parties over tho ico with the return of spring. One party, which ho himself hoped to accompany, was to proceed in a true north-north-east direction from Flaxman Island. The other party was to start from Cape Halkctt, a considerable distance west of Flaxman Island, and, after proceeding in a north-north-easterly direction, turn eastwards before returning to tho North American mainland. A day or two ago it was reported that Mikkelscn’s ship had been lost, but that tho party was safe.