There is little likelihood that human inhabitants on Crocker Land- if there should prove to be such- will be different from those of Grant Land and neighboring regions to the south. The fauna and flora also of the new land will no doubt prove identical with that of Grant Land

A third work, which if the expedition has time will be of the greatest interest and importance, both to geographers and oceanographers, will be the running of deep-sea soundings northward beyond the edge of the continental shelf from various points on the coasts of Greenland and Grant

Land, extending from Cape Morris K. Jesup on the east to Cape Thomas Hubbard on the west (some seventy degrees of longitude). These soundings will determine the limits of the continental shelf and the proximity of oceanic depths to the land. I should suggest a series of such soundings running north from Cape Thomas Hubbard, Cape Colgate, Cape Richards, Cape Joseph Henry, Cape Bryant, Cape Washington and Cape Bridgman, supplementing those made. by the last expedition of the Peary Arctic Club from Cape Columbia and Cape Morris K. Jesup.

The American Museum is to be congratulated upon its initiative in making it possible for this expedition to go into the field, and it is to be

Copyright by Frederick A. Stokes Company Scanning the horizon in the vast Arctic wilderness

doubly congratulated that it is intrusting the expedition to my two tried men, George Borup and Donald B. MacMillan, both of whom are ideally fitted for the thorough accomplishment of the work.

The Crocker Land expedition calls forth the enthusiasm of the Arctic explorer. With its objects the accomplishment of the still remaining large items of work in the Arctic regions; with its personnel one that is in possession of the inestimable advantage of thorough experience and training. in details and methods, together with knowledge of the region in which the work is to be prosecuted; with its backing that of one of the most influential of American institutions; with a sufficient proportion of the necessary funds already in hand, to insure securing the entire amount - the Crocker Land expedition under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History and the American Geographical Society, seems to be one of the most enviable of recent exploring ventures.

Copyright by Doubleday. Page and Company Last view of the sun in the country where for four months of the twelve exploration work must proceed in darkness

QUOTATIONS FROM AN ADDRESS BY HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN WHO AS PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY AND MEMBER OF THE HONORARY COMMITTEE OF THE CROCKER LAND EXPEDITION, PRESIDED AT THE POLAR CELEBRATION OF APRIL 5, THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH POLE. THE ADDRESS WAS DELIVERED BEFORE MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL, PHILADELPHIA AND AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETIES, OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, AND REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NORWEGIAN AND DANISH GOVERNMENTS

T

HE Crocker Land expedition will be the seventh expedition leaving the harbor of New York for north polar seas. The second Grinnell expedition, in search of Sir John Franklin, which was commanded by Elisha Kent Kane, sailed from New York, May 30, 1853. Charles Francis Hall left New York in the "Polaris" July 3, 1871, in command of an expedition to the North Pole. He died in the Arctics in November, 1871. George Washington de Long was born in New York City and was in command of the "Jeannette" expedition in 1879 which was financed by James Gordon Bennett. Lieutenant de Long died in Siberia in October, 1881. His body and those of his companions were discovered by Chief Engineer George W. Melville. The Greely relief expedition in 1884 sailed

GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATION AND THE MUSEUM 165

from New York under the command of Captain Winfield Scott Schley. The Peary expedition of 1905 and the Peary expedition of 1908 both sailed from New York.

Of these seven expeditions the Museum is identified more or less directly with three. An honorable part of the history of the institution however, is formed by the geographical work it has accomplished through expeditions other than polar. In the years 1865 to 1868 Professor Albert S. Bickmore visited the South Sea Islands and China, and was probably the first American to cross Siberia. In 1900 to 1902 Messrs. Bogoras and Jochelson on the Jesup North Pacific expedition, in connection with their investigations of the tribes in eastern Siberia explored the regions visited. In 1898 to 1899 Mr. Andrew J. Stone secured important information about the general character of the country east of the mouth of the Mackenzie and corrected gross errors in the current maps of the region. Captain George Comer spent many winters in the Hudson Bay region and has recently published in the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society a corrected map of Southampton Island.

There have also been many American Museum expeditions of a semigeographical character. Dr. E. O. Hovey visited the West Indies and the Chihuahua district of Mexico to study volcanoes. Professor Henry E. Crampton has conducted three expeditions to Tahiti and the South Sea Islands, and a recent expedition to British Guiana and Mount Roraima. Mr. Frank M. Chapman has covered more than 65,000 miles in collecting materials for the Museum bird groups, and more recently has visited the United States of Colombia. Many of the expeditions of the department of vertebrate palæontology have yielded more or less important geographical facts.

In addition the Museum's Arctic expedition in the field the past two years under the leadership of Messrs. Stefánsson and Anderson has traversed the unexplored area between Cape Parry and the Coppermine River; and during the same years, the Congo expedition in charge of Messrs. Lang and Chapin has been working through little-known jungles of Africa.

Every time a man extends our knowledge of the unknown, his example raises the whole human race a little higher than it was before and places all the present generation and all future generations in his debt. The members of the American Museum and of the American Geographical Society give their warm support to the young men who are planning to start out on the Crocker Land expedition. We believe in the great objects of their journey to the north polar sea; we have the utmost faith in them, in their courage, their high purpose and their intelligence; and we shall do our best to supply them with the sinews of exploration—namely, funds sufficient to care for them, their Eskimo and their dogs, as well as to enable