uman foresight and a genius for detail could make them. Greely was to
proceed to some point on Lady Franklin Bay, which enters the mainland of
North America at about 81 deg. 44' north latitude, build his station, and
prepare for a two-years' stay. Provisions for three years were supplied
him. At the end of one year it was promised, a relief ship should be sent
him, which failing for any cause to reach the station, would cache
supplies and dispatches at specified points. A year later a second relief
ship would be sent to bring the party home, and if for any reason this
ship should fail to make the station, then Greely was to break camp and
sledge to the southward, following the east coast of the mainland, until
he met the vessel, or reached the point at which fresh supplies were to be
cached. No plan could have been better devised--none ever failed more
utterly.

Arctic travel is an enigma, and it is an enigma never to be solved twice
in the same way. Whalers, with the experience of a lifetime in the frozen
waters, agree that the lessons of one voyage seldom prove infallible
guides for the conduct of the next. Lieutenant Schwatka, a veteran Arctic
explorer, said in an official document that the teachings of experience
were often worse than useless in polar work. And so, though the Washington
authorities planned for the safety of Greely according to the best
guidance that the past could give them, their plans failed completely. The
first relief ship did, indeed, land some stores--never, as the issue
showed, to be reached by Greely--but the second expedition, composed of
two ships, the "Proteus" and the "Yantic," accomplished nothing. The
station was not reached, practically no supplies were landed, the
"Proteus" was nipped by the ice and sunk, and the remnant of the
expedition came supinely home, reporting utter failure. It is impossible
to acquit the commanders of the two ships engaged in this abortive relief
expedition of a lack of determination, a paucity of courage, complete
incompetence. They simply left Greely to his fate while time still
remained for his rescue, or at least for the convenient deposit of the
vast store of provisions they brought home, leaving the abandoned
explorers to starve.

The history of the Greely expedition and its achievements may well be
sketched hastily, before the story of the catastrophe which overwhelmed it
is told. As it was the most tragic of expeditions save one, Sir John
Franklin's