Page:Proposed Expedition to Explore Ellesmere Land - 1894.djvu/10

11 Land, but the ice prevented his landing in the limited time at his disposal. No further news having been received, the party, if alive, is almost certainly. on Ellesmere Land. Thus the proposed expedition, landing there at the earliest practicable date, will bring the only possible chance of relief. It will make the search for the lost party its first duty, to which everything else will be subordinated. In order to be fully equal to the requirement's of the case, the party ought to receive a reinforcement of at least six men, to follow the east shore to Cape Faraday and beyond, while the south shore is examined by the party previously described.

As previously stated, the party will make its way southward to Cape Warrender, on the north shore of Lancaster Sound, in September, 1895, to be taken on board a whaler and conveyed home.While this arrangement, without further provision, is quite safe, yet there would be a great gain in comfort and ease of traveling if a small house and depot of provisions were established at Cape Warrender in the summer of 1894, a part}' of, say, four men being conveyed to that point by the whaler after the main party has been landed on Ellesmere Land. By that means, almost constant communication might be maintained with the whalers.

Up to January 9, 1894, 60 young men had offered their services. Of this number, 4 are physicians, 4 civil engineers, 2 mining engineers, 3 surveyors, 3 machinists, 1 chemist and physicist, 2 geologists, 1 taxidermist, 2 artists, 2 professional photographers (several others being amateur taxidemists, artists, and photographers), 1 mining prospector, 1 anthropologist; 3 have served three years in the German army, and many have traveled extensively in the western Territories and in Alaska. Only 3 have been definitively accepted, but at least 30 are regarded as suitable.

A previous prospectus was accompanied by a supplement describing a plan of continuous exploration to be initiated by next