Vilhjalmur Stefansson, whose ((blond Es kimos expedition brought him into the front rank of Arctic explorers, left Victoria, Brit ish Columbia, in June 1913 in command of the first official Canadian Arctic expedi tion, more complete in personnel and equip ment than almost any entering the North for half a century. The Karluk, in command of Capt. Robert A. Bartlett, with two auxiliaries, which passed through Strait and on 24 September, while Stefansson with two or three companions was on shore, drifted in fog to sea with the pack; the South ern scientific party, in command of Dr. Ander son, working upon the land, had, however, fortunately been landed before this untoward event. In the following May, Captain Bartlett, accompanied by a single Eskimo, arrived at Saint Michael's, Alaska, reporting that after three months' drift the Karluk finally sank 27 Jan. 1914 and that the greater part of the ship's party had reached Wrangel Island, from which he, with his comrade, had made a sledgejourney over the ice, along the ice floe to Emma Harbor, Siberia. The entire scientific staff, leaving the ship before her final loss, had perished in a vain attempt to reach safety. Late in the winter the Wrangel Island company were rescued, except three who died from exposure and illness, and were ultimately returned to their homes. Stefansson, however, wintering at Captain Martin and the nearby Eskimo villages, ignorant of the fate of the Karluk, left the land, late in March, upon a due north course, seeking the unknown land mass which years before with his leader, Capt. Ejnar Mikkelsen of Denmark, he had sought in his Duchess of Bedford expedition. Nothing was heard from Stefansson during the whole of 1914. Not until 1915 did Stefansson, having in the meantime by many of his friends and com petent explorers been given for lost, re turn to announce that having wintered safely on Banks Island he had, in 1915, resumed the reconnaissance and in May of that year dis covered in approximately 73.43 N. and 115.43 W. land which human eye had never before seen; traversing a coast line northeast and southwest, apparently 100 miles, but with out penetrating the interior. Stefansson, as the season was drawing toward the close, re traced his steps, crossed the ice-free Banks Land after a short stay at his base, where he learned of the loss of the Karluk, char tered immediately the Polar Bear, determined to push her in the farthest north winter quarters, whence in the spring of 1916 he would endeavor further to develop the outline and to map the land which belongs to him by right of discovery. Late in 1917 Stefansson returned
to his land base and at Herschel Island fell seriously ill of typhoid. In the early spring of 1918 he made a difficult overlandjourney by dog sledge to Fort Yukon, whence after months in a hospital he returned to New York and Ottawa. Discussion of his data and collections will occupy several years, prior to publication by the Canadian government.
Two expeditions, depending on the drift of marine currents, were undertaken in 1918, Roald Amundsen from Christiania in a specially con structed ship, thence to a point on the Siberian Coast, whence he proposed to enter the ice and drift four or five years, possibly to open water or land on the Western Hemisphere, and Storkersen's and Andersen's, Stefansson's vet erans, whose attempt to drift with the ice west ward from a point due north of Alaska, to the Siberian Coast, was frustrated by unfavorable conditions, leaving them to make the best of their way back to land, subsisting meanwhile on the food resources of the Arctic Ocean.
Among Antarctic explorations, those of Sir E. Shackleton during 1908-09, stand pre Starting from Erebus Land, South Victoria Land, in the spring of 1908, four im portant land journeys were made by Shackle ton's expedition.
The first culminated in the ascent of the Erebus volcano—an altitude of 13,379 feet— on 10 March 1908. The second journey was for the South Pole. It was begun on 29 Oct. 1908 and lasted five weeks. Traveling over the Great Ice Barrier, the: party par passed Scott's farthest south, to find the coast of the Ant arctic Continent directly to their right. Push in g ahead, it found itself within 111 statute miles of the South Pole on 9 Jan. 1909, when farther progress was rendered physically im possible through lack of food. On 1 March this party returned to winter quarters. Even while this expedition was still in progress an other was under way to the northwest. This party passed across the interior ice cap and reached the South Magnetic Pole-72° 25' S. lat., 155° 16' E long.—on 1 Jan. 1909. A fourth party traveled far inland up the Ferrar lacier. The entire expedition returned home in the spring of 1909.
See ANTARCTIC REGIONS, — Exploration.
Hrasear L BREDGMAN, Secretary Peary Arctic Club.