THE ARCTIC.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 52, 16 October 1911, Page 4

THE ARCTIC.

Though the old earth has been pretty well ranged over, even in its remoter regions, that there are still mysteries for the explorer to look into is made evident by two recent reports from the Arctic. On August 25th it was reported by the New York correspondent of an English journal that the secretary of the Peary Arctic Club had received astonishing information from Villijmar Stefausson, the leader of the scientific expedition sent by the American Museum in 1908 to explore the Arctic coast of British Columbia. In a letter dated October 18th, 1910, the explorer stated that his party had discovered in a region supposedly uninhabited, a people who had never seen either an Indian or a white man, and did not even know that the strangers were not Eskimos. Further, they had discovered Eskimos in .speech and habit who were Scandinavians in appearance. Two of them had beards that might bo described as red, and the others of the forty members of the group were certainly not ordinary Eskimos. The writer suggests that the lind is the beginning of the solution of the problems: Wuat became of some of Franklin’s men, and what became of the three thousand Scandinavians who disappeared from Greenland in the ' fifteenth century ? or, if neither of those questions is to be answered, there is added a new scientific problem: Why do some people of Victoria Land differ ’markedly from tiie remainder of their race? Why are they so European in type? The second Arctic mystery dates further back, to the time in 1909 when the Commandant of the Royal North-west Mounted Police at Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, informed the Commissioner that from the Porcupine district there came repeated rumours of a wonderful “tropical” region in which Indians reported, having found the tracks oi great beasts like mastodons. Little attention was paid to the tales until in November of last year a Mr C. J. Mclntyre and two companions reported having reached this region. They travelled by dog-sledge, with the thermometer at forty below freezing point, when to their astonishment the temperature- began to rise so fast that within a space of two hours the snow was soft underfoot, Soon after they came upon the first of numberless hot springs, the snow disappeared entirely, and dense vegetation took the place of the stunted bush of the plains, ilie exploreres were not able to determine the extent of this wonderful oasis in the far northern wilderness, they found several good-sized livers flowing with warm water and teeming wibli fish, and the country was alive with bear, caribou, ducks, pheasants; wild geese, and other game, and gold was found in a number of creeks. Others will follow in their footsteps, ajul may open up a region that may rival Yellowstone Park.