THREE YEARS EN ARCTIC LAND.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10957, 23 December 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

THREE YEARS EN ARCTIC LAND.

NEWS FROM STEFANSSON AND ANDERSON IS TO HAND. Word has just been received by the American Museum of Natural History from the Stefansson-Anderson Arctic expedition, which has been voyaging in the North for the last three years. Previous to the letters just received the last report from the expedition was written in January, 1911. The expedition was then at Dease River, Canada. Since then it has travelled from the Dease River regipn across the Dismal Lakes and down the Coppermine River to Coronation Gulf, a winding trip over frozen rivers and lakes of several hundred miles. Stefansson's letter is dated at Coronation Gulf, about 18 miles east of the mouth of CoppermineRiver.

In his report he speaks of the discovery of new Eskimo villages consisting of snow huts on the ice, and among the islands of Coronation Gulf most of the Eskimos in the villages' have never seen a white man. The Eskimos seemed very hospitable, but showed a disdain for white men's food, their preference being for rancid seal oil and ancient whales.

"Returning from our midwinter exploration and survey of Horton River," says Me Stefansson, "we found two Eskimos who had remained on guard at our winter camp on the barren ground of 'upper Dease River." The explorers found the camp rather destitute of food supplies and at once set out hunting for caribou, but without much success, and were soon reduced to living on hares and ptarmigan. They never got more than two hares a day, but sometimes they bagged from fifteen to twenty ptarmigans. This supply of food was not enough for the members of the expedition and their six dogs, so Dr Anderson and Mr Stefansson, accompanied by an Eskimo, set out on a twenty-mile trip south of Bear Lake woods in search of better hunting. In one day they bagged sixteen animals. They then proceeded to haul the meat to canrp, which proved slow work for the hunters. On their way to camp they encountered a herd of caribou and succeeded in capturing 32 more specimens. Dr Anderson has prepared nine caribou skins, three wolves, and two wolverines for the museum, which will form a part of this collection. By March all preparations had been completed for the proposed search of people in Coronation Gulf. A sledge was built of Bear Lake spruce wood and fully equipped for tlie trip. On Mjirch 22 the start was made northward on a 250-mile jaunt. The expedition consisted of Dr Anderson, Mr Stefansson and two Eskimos. They had two strong sledges and seven dogs. Their route lay up the Dease River Valley, the west end of Dismal Lake, and then above the lake to the east end, thence overland to the Coppermine and down it to Bloody Fall, whence they crossed overland to the sea near the mouth of Richardson River. On the Coppermine they found the ice rough and extremely difficult for sledging, and in many places almost impassable, huge blocks of ice being piled in ridges on the frozen sea.

After making its Tray through the icy ramparts tho expedition reached Coronation Gulf, which it found filled with islands, in reality three or four times as many islands-as the chart indicated. Specimens of the rock found on the islands and inland will be shipped to the museum. Driftwood for camp fires was also found on the islands, but very little on the mainland east or Coppermine. In their search for people the explorers followed the chain of islands east, spying the country with field glasses from vantage points for snow villages they hoped to iind. Their efforts were rewarded with success finally when they discovered two villages of Eskimo. These two villages lay near the middle of Coronation Gulf and north of the mouth of Tree River. The population of each village was about SO. With the exception of one man who had been to Dismal Lake no one in the village had ever seen a white man nor had their fathers, but the grandfathers of two of the natives had seen white men or Indians at one time on the Lower Coppermine.

From these Eskimos the members of the expedition learned to their surprise that a .ship had entered Coronation Gulf last fall. It proved to be the schooner Teddy Bear, in charge of Captain Joseph Bernard, from Nome, Alaska. The Teddy Bear is a schooner of twelve tons with gasolene auxiliary and is prospecting for trade in that region. Captain Bernard, of the Teddy . Bear, proved friendly, and, moreover, offered to transport some of the equipment of the expedition in his schooner to Baillies Island.

One day the expedition arrived at camp with 1001b of caribou meat. It all disappeared at one meal, and the leaders of the expedition were left destitute. Dr Anderson planned ts spend the summer collecting along the shores of Coronation Gulf and Victoria Land, and proposed to take his trophies on the schooner when she sailed in August. • Tt- was Stefansson's plan to start late in April from the Coppermine country with :x view to visiting all of the people living on the coast of Victoria Laud. Dr Anderson's letter is written under date of May 18th, 1911, at Dease River, North-west Territory, Canada. Hereports that the collections have safely reached Fort Normairon the Mackenzie, and that they will he shipped next summer when navigation opens.