ARCTIC EXPEDITION.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VI, Issue 1655, 4 June 1919, Page 3

ARCTIC EXPEDITION.

NEW ZEALANDER'S EXPERIENCES. Press Association. WELLINGTON, June .'!. Dr Diamond Jenness, of Wellington, a native 'of New Zealand, who has just returned from Canada, had thrilling experiences with the Canadian Government's Arctic Expedition and the Stefansson Expedition. Dr Jenness, after three years in the frozen wastes of the north, was a year with the Canadian troops in Frame; In the beginning of 1913 Dr Jenness, who was then iu New Zealand, received a cable message from the Canadian Government asking him to join the Arctic expedition. He accepted, ami the expedition left from Esquimau It in June, 191,1, and proceeded via Nome, a mining centre on the Alaskan coast. At Nome two gasolene schooners and a vessel named the Karluk were purchased and equipped with Arctic paraphernal'!. The expedition had a two-fold purpose—to explore Beauford Sea, in search of new land and carry out a detailed scientific mapping of tiie coastline, also making a study of zoology, biology, etc., in the almost unknown regions'of Coronation Gulf. The expedition was therefore divided into a northern party under Stefansson to explore Beauford Sea and

a southern party (of which Dr Jenness was a member), whose work was to make a special study of the Eskimos. Stefansson 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 was jammed iu the ice. Of the six scientists with that party, three perished during the terrible "journey over the ice, and two more succumbed to disease after the island had been gained. Of the crew of 23, two men died—one on the ice and the other on the. island. The Karluk being lost, Stefansson resolved to carry on his exploration by sledge. ire therefore organised a new party and set off for Beauford Sea, where he remained for four years, to the west and north of Prince Patrick Land.

| Meanwhile the remainder of the I party jyere marooned on Wrangell j Island, Tvhere they experienced terrible i hardships. The food supply, scant at | first, dwindled to practically nil. Capj tain Bartlett, one of the party, who j had been Peary's captain when tho I American explorer reached the North j Pole, set. out across the ice to the j shore, and then made his way to an j isolated Russian settlement with news of the terrible plight of the remainder j of the party. Nothing could be, done i till the following slimmer, when the | ice fields broke up. Help was then dispatched by sea, and the shipwrecked men on Wrangell Island were rescued

in the summer of 1914. The vessels 'went on their way to Coronation Bay, |"where," says Dr Jenness, "we spent i two fairly peaceable years—a little eold at times." There specimens of plants, animals, and insects wero collected, and Dr Jenness took up the study of Eskimo life and customs. The geologist with that party discovered enormous deposits of copper, not copper ore, but 99 per cent, of 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. No iuews was received that the war had commenced till November, 1916.