so abundant in the land. The care of the United States at the Yellowstone and Yosemite Parks has, however, been set at naught by lawless poaching in spite of their military police. The buffalo and elk herds there will soon be annihilated, and it has been recommended that the buffaloes especially shall be distributed among the private parks, where they can be more effectively guarded. So, after all, it will be to private enterprise in gamepreserving that valuable results will be due in the augmentation of the finer types of wild animals; and that enterprise has been very encouraging within the last decade especially, though something had been done previously. Deer parks had been by no means uncommon on the country estates of the wealthy in all times of our history, but the first well-planned attempt at game-preserving seems to have been made about forty years ago by the late Judge J. D. Caton at Ottawa, Ill. An enthusiastic naturalist and sportsman, he brought together in one park nearly all the varieties of our native game except the moose and caribou, which only thrive under conditions of a wooded country and an extended range. This experiment was imitated in a small way, but it was not till the magnificent results of the late Austin Corbin's enterprise in the establishment of the Blue Mountain Forest at Newport, N. H., were made evident that there was a noticeable movement in this direction.

Blue Mountain Forest is not surpassed in extent by any preserve in the United States. In the number and variety of its game, the care with which all the rightful conditions of habitat are reproduced, and the vigilant interest which watches every detail of the wild life harboring there, it ranks, though only eight years old, among the foremost game preserves of the world. It lies near Newport, N. H., and consists of 36,000 acres inclosed by a wovenwire fence 8 feet high. The tract, oblong, about 12 miles by 5, is nearly bisected by a mountain range which rises to an altitude of 3,000 feet. The densely wooded slopes and the second-growth forests of the lowlands furnish an admirable covert for the more timid game, while in the extensive meadows graze the buffalo and elk herds under happy conditions. The environment is so natural and extensive that all the animals live as in their native wilds, unconscious of captivity, and the range is such that many of them probably never have looked on the face of man. This may be specially said of the moose, which is one of the shyest of all wild animals and secludes itself on the mountain acclivities amidst the most obscure thickets. The inhabitants of the park get their own living as in a state of aboriginal Nature, the buffalo only excepted. The moose and elk feed on grass, leaves, and twigs in summer, while in winter they eke out subsistence by devouring bark and moss. On the other hand, the buffalo (properly the bison) is fed during the extreme cold season with hay and green cornstalks from the silo. Shelter, too, is provided for the buffalo alone, but the well-grown animal disdains the winter shed, preferring ing to stand all the fury of the elements. The deer herds, including the red deer or stag and the roe and fallow deer of Europe, as well as the white-tailed or Virginian variety, find no difficulty in securing their own food in winter. The same may also be said of the wild swine, which were originally imported from the German Black Forest. It has been the fundamental idea of the management of this great preserve to give its denizens the most favorable advantages of a wild life and protection against the violence of man; otherwise to leave them absolutely to themselves. The wisdom of this treatment has been shown in the immense increase of the wild stock in all its kinds. The forest was inclosed in

1889, and the original progenitors put in it consisted of 25 buffalo, 60 elk, 12 moose, 70 deer of 4 varieties, 18 wild hogs, 6 caribous, and 6 antelopes. The latest report (1896) shows buffalo, 75, with an expectation of 100 at the spring colony; elk, about 1,200; deer, 1,200; moose, about 150; and wild swine, 1,000. The antelopes and caribous died, though there appeared to be no reason for their failure to thrive. But on the whole the increase has been so extraordinary as to justify the belief that we can multiply all the types of our native fauna ad libitum. The Corbin buffalo herd alone has shown itself so healthy and prolific that it would be able gradually to spare breeding stock for all the other parks asking for them. During the winter of 1896 indeed it contributed 20 of these animals to Van Cortlandt Park, New York city. Aside from the breeding of indigenous varieties, the fruitful adaptation of some that belong to the Old World, such as the stag or red deer and the German wild boar, a type of swine markedly different from our domestic pig, promises interesting results in animal stirpiculture and increase in the kinds of our large game.

Other Preserves. Shortly after the declared success of the Austin Corbin experiment at Blue Mountain Forest, similar enterprises were begun on a goodly scale and in different sections of the country, undoubtedly inspired by that noble project. Among these a few may be mentioned. Litchfield Park (named for its owner, Mr. E. H. Litchfield) is an inclosure of 9,000 acres near Tupper Lake, in the Adirondacks, established in 1893. This picturesque tract is diversified by 5 small lakes and the preserve is mostly devoted to the cervine tribes, 2 varieties of the smaller American deer and the wapiti or elk. There are at present somewhat more than 200 animals in the park, so far as can be estimated, and the number is rapidly increasing. Dr. W. Seward Webb has also a game preserve of 9,000 acres in the Adirondacks known as He-ha-sa-ne Park, founded about five years ago, which has a present showing of 16 moose, 35 elk, and 275 deer, all varieties breeding well. Besides the many club preserves in the Adirondacks, there is a noble park of 30,000 acres belonging to the Adirondack Timber and Mineral Company, which since its inclosure a year ago has increased its stock by 500 through purely natural laws. The presence of a fenced animal park seems at once to attract to it the wild inhabitants of the woods for many miles about.

In the Catskills, New York, Mr. George J. Gould's preserve of 600 acres at Furlough Lodge confines about 70 elk and as many deer, and the herds are swiftly and healthily increasing. Mr. Rutherford J. Stuyvesant's game park at Allamuchy, N. J., includes 4,000 acres under fence, and is stocked with 40 elk and 200 Virginian and black-tailed deer, which are propagating their numbers rapidly, while the same story can be told of his interesting colony of beavers. Another notable New Jersey preserve is that of Mr. C. C. Worthington, who has 3.500 acres in a ring fence near Delaware Water Gap, which has within its bounds more than 600 deer, besides a small colony of elk. Among other enterprises that may be cited is that recently inaugurated by M. Menier, of chocolate fame, at Anticosti island, off the eastern coast of Maine. A tract has been fenced off 40 miles by 35 miles, and this is now stocking with moose, elk, caribou, deer, and buffalo. In other parts of the United States parks specially worth notice are those of the Page Fence Company at Adrian, Mich., where a small buffalo herd is steadily growing in numbers, and of the St. Louis Park and Agricultural Company at Springfield, Mo., an enterprise of very recent inauguration. This preserve of 5,000 acres already makes a splendid showing of elk, deer of 4 varieties, including the European stag, the fallow deer, and Angora goats, with a few buffalo.

In most, if not all, of these animal preserves as much attention has been given to the introduction of game birds as to that of quadrupeds. The English pheasant, the Mongolian pheasant, the black cock, and that giant of the grouse order, the capercailzie, have been in some cases successfully bred, though the work has been discouraging on account of the destruction wrought by owls, foxes, pine martens, and fishers among the young of the newly introduced species. An even more interesting experiment than that of establishing prosperous colonies of these foreign birds is the attempt to reintroduce in the Northern and Eastern States the wild turkey and the pinnated grouse or prairie chicken. Both these noble game birds were once indigenous to the whole Atlantic coast section, and there seems to be no reason why with patient and intelligent effort the regions once stocked by Nature should not be again stocked by art. Enough has been achieved in this line to give certainty to the future, and we may look forward to the time when the forests of the Northern and Eastern States will furnish a much richer variety of fine game birds through the efforts of wealthy owners of game preserves. No private preserve can ever save more than a moiety of the birds for the proprietor, unless all their wings are clipped.

The game parks which have been specially mentioned are only a few amid a great number of smaller ones. Long Island, northern New York, the mountainous part of New Jersey, and northern Pennsylvania have scores of parks from 200 to 2,000 acres where the art of game preserving and propagation is pursued with science and patience. The revelation of possibilities given by the Corbin preserve in New Hampshire has been of great value in awakening public and private interest and in spurring rivalry. It is now beyond question that the ravages of wasteful shooting which a score of years ago threatened to depopulate the country of some of its noblest game fauna will be obviated. Experience has shown what can be done in restoring affluence of animal life, and to do it has become an enthusiastic fad among rich men. What can be easily effected has been shown in Vermont. Ten years ago there were no deer in the State. A few were imported from the Adirondacks and from Maine, and a law was passed forbidding their shooting till 1900. Now the deer swarm so thickly in the mountain sections that they herd with the cows, destroy the crops, and compel the farmers to clamor for an immediate repeal of the "close" law.

GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. The Arctic Regions. The great event of the year was the successful termination of Dr. Fridtjof Nansen's arctic expedition, begun in 1893 (see "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1893, page 335). His theory of arctic currents and the course that should be taken to carry a ship directly across the pole, founded in part on the finding of the muchtalked-of "Jeannette" relics on the western coast of Greenland as well as on the peculiar construction of his ship, are explained in the "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1890, page 361.

It was announced in February that Dr. Nansen had discovered the north pole and was on his way back to Europe. The news came from Siberia and was understood to have been sent by Peter Kouchnareff, who lives near the mouth of the Lena river and had charge of the dog supplies for the expedition. The correctness of the information was doubted, though some of the explorers who were interviewed saw nothing improbable in the story; but there had been other reports (one published in

Paris in April, 1895) that Dr. Nansen had found the north pole, that it was situated on a chain of mountains, and that he had planted the Norwegian flag there. Another, received in September, 1895, in London, from the trading station of Angmagsa

Jacquesen

FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

lik, on the east coast of Greenland, said that a ship, supposed to be Dr. Nansen's " Fram," had been sighted at the end of July, stuck fast in an ice drift.

A conjecture that gained some credence was that the explorer seen by the New Siberian islanders and supposed to be Dr. Nansen might be John M. Verhoeff, who was lost in Greenland from the Peary party in 1892, and was believed by some of the party to have been alive when they left Greenland and to have had the design of living among the Eskimos and making independent explorations.

But the most serious doubt arose from a story that was published in regard to the supposed relics of the "Jeannette," the finding of which at Julianehaab, on the western coast of Greenland, led Dr. Nansen to believe that they had been carried from the ocean north of Siberia across the pole; that therefore there must be a current taking that course, and that a ship constructed so that it could not be wedged in the ice might enter the current and be carried over the same course that the relics had traveled. After the report of his return it was made public that the genuineness of these relics was open to question. The story was as follows:

In 1883, the year before the discovery of the relics by the Danish governor of Julianehaab, the United States steamer "Yantic" went to Greenland as part of the unfortunate Greely relief expedition of that year. The "Yantic" went as far north as Littleton island, near which her consort, the "Proteus," was crushed in the ice at the mouth of Smith Sound. Under rigid examination by officers of the Smithsonian Institution, her sailors united in the statement that some of the younger officers of the ship, the midshipmen or ensigns, had made up a lot of alleged relics and put them on an ice floe near the ship to fool some of their superior officers. It was simply intended as a naval-academy prank, a boyish joke. The floe drifted off, the "Yantic's" officers did not find the relics, but, as subsequently appeared, they fell into the hands of the Eskimos, and passed thence to the Danish governor. After the joke had miscarried, its seriousness became apparent to the perpetrators, and for their own safety and to avoid probable court-martial they pledged to secrecy all the sailors who knew about the affair. Josef Land, where we felt certain to find a ship. We had 28 dogs, 2 sledges, and 2 kayaks for possible open water. The dog food was calculated for thirty days and our provisions for one hundred days.

The Smithsonian communicated these facts to the Danish Government, and this may account for the disappearance of the relics after their exhibition at Amsterdam, but it seems the knowledge never reached Dr. Nansen. It is certain that these relics were the main support of his theory of a current. He refused to entertain doubts of the verity of these relics, and declared "that there should be any mistake or deceit is certainly much more improbable than the drift of a floe from Siberia to Greenland, which is certainly not at all improbable, seeing that a great many objects known must have drifted and constantly do drift the same way." The above-mentioned facts seem to speak for themselves and need no further testimony.

The story did not receive credence everywhere, and the Geographical Society of San Francisco appointed a committee to examine into the matter. As the relics had been destroyed and no photographs or detailed descriptions of them were to be found, it was impossible to reach absolute certainty; but the report of the committee, signed by Prof. George Davidson and Henry Lund and published in June, was in favor of the genuineness of the relics, and expressed the belief that Nansen would

return successful.

beneath, being above the freezing point at a depth exceeding 100 fathoms. Dr. Nansen reached a point nearly 3 degrees nearer the pole than has been attained by any other explorer, Lockwood and Brainerd having reached 83° 24'.

His account of his journey, as published in the London "Chronicle," follows:

"The 'Fram' left Jugor strait Aug. 4, 1893. We had to force our way through much ice along the Siberian coast. We discovered an island in the Kara Sea, and a great number of islands along the coast to Cape Cheljuskin. In several places we found evidence of a glacial epoch, during which northern Siberia must have been covered by inland ice to a great extent.

"On Sept. 15 we were off the mouth of the Olenek river, but we thought it was too late to go in there to fetch our dogs, as we would not risk losing a year. We passed the New Siberian islands Sept. 22. We made fast to a floe in latitude 78° 50′ north, and in longitude 133° 37' east. We then allowed the ship to be closed in by the ice.

"As anticipated, we were gradually drifted north and northwestward during the autumn and winter from the constantly exposed and violent ice pressures, but the 'Fram' surpassed our expectations, being superior to any strain. The temperature fell rapidly, and was constantly low, with little variation, for the whole winter. During weeks the mercury was frozen. The lowest temperature was 62° below zero. Every man on board was in perfect health during the whole voyage. The electric light, generated by a windmill, fulfilled our expectations. The most friendly feeling existed, and the time passed pleasantly. Every one made pleasure his duty, and a better lot of men could hardly be found.

"The sea was up to 90 fathoms deep south of 79° north, where the depth suddenly increased, and was from 1,600 to 1,900 fathoms north of that latitude. This will necessarily upset all previous theories based on a shallow polar basin. The sea bottom was remarkably devoid of organic matter. During the whole drift I had good opportunity to take a series of scientific observations, meteorological, magnetic, astronomical and biological, soundings, deep-sea temperatures, extra means for the salinity of the sea water, etc.

"Under the stratum of cold ice water covering the surface of the polar basin I soon discovered warmer and more saline water, due to the Gulf Stream, with temperatures from 31° to 33°. We saw no land and no open water, except narrow cracks, in any direction. As anticipated, our drift northwestward was more rapid during the winter and spring, while the northerly winds stopped or drifted us backward. On June 18, 1894, we were on 81° 52′ north, but we drifted southward only. On Oct. 21 we passed 82° north. On Christmas Eve, 1894, latitude 83° north was reached, and a few days later 83° 24', the farthest north latitude previously reached.

"On Jan. 4 and 5 the 'Fram' was exposed to the most violent ice pressure we experienced. She was then firmly frozen in ice of more than 30 feet of measured thickness. This floe was overriden by great ice masses, which pressed against the port side with irresistible force and threatened to bury, if not to crush her. The necessary provisions, with the canvas kayaks and other equipments, had been placed in safety upon the yacht. Every man was ready to leave the ship if necessary, and was prepared to continue with the drift, living on the floe. But the 'Fram' proved even stronger than our faith in her. The ice was piled up high above the bulwarks, she was broken loose and slowly lifted out of her bed in which she had been frozen, but not

"We found the ice in the beginning tolerably good traveling, and so made good distances, and the ice did not appear to be drifting much. On March 22 we were at 85° 10' north. Although the dogs were less enduring than we hoped, still they were tolerably good. The ice now became rougher and the drift contrary. On March 25 we had only reached 85° 19' north, and on March 29, 85° 30′.

"We were now evidently drifting fast toward the south. Our progress was very slow. It was fatiguing to work our way and carry our sledges over the high hummocks constantly being built up by the floes grinding against each other. The ice was in strong inovement, and the ice pressure was hard in all directions. On April 3 we were at 85° 50′ north, constantly hoping to meet smoother ice.

"On April 4 we reached 86° 3′ north, but the ice became rougher until on April 7 it got so bad that I considered it unwise to continue our march in a northerly direction. We were then at 86° 14' north. We then made an excursion on skis farther northward in order to examine as to the possibility of a further advance. But we could see nothing but ice of the same description, hummock beyond hummock, to the horizon, looking like a sea of frozen breakers. We had had low temperature, and during the early three weeks it was in the neighborhood of 40° below zero. On April 1 it rose to 8o below zero, but soon sank to 38°. When a wind was blowing in this temperature, we did not feel comfortable in our too thin woolen clothing. To save weight, we had left our fur suits aboard ship. The minimum temperature in March was - 49° and the maximum was-24°. In April the minimum was 38° and the maximum 20°. We saw no signs of land in any direction. In fact, the floe of ice seemed to move so freely before the wind that there could not have been anything in the way of land to stop it for a long distance off. We were now drifting rapidly northward.

"On April 8 we began our march toward Franz Josef Land. On April 12 our watches ran down, owing to the unusual length of the day's march. After that date we were uncertain as to our longitude, but hoped that our dead reckoning was fairly correct. As we came south we met many cracks, which greatly retarded our progress. The provisions were rapidly decreasing. The dogs were killed one after the other to feed the rest.

"In June the cracks became very bad, and the snow began falling rapidly. The dogs and sledge runners broke through the superficial crust and sank deep in the wet snow. Only a few dogs were now left and progress was next to impossible. But, unfortunately, we had no line of retreat. The dogs' rations, as well as our own, were reduced to a minimum, and we made the best way we could ahead. We expected daily to find land in sight, but we looked in vain. On May 31 we were in 82

21' north, and on June 4 in 82° 18' north, but on June 15 we had been drifted to the northwest to 82° 26' north. No land was to be seen, although, according to Payer's map, we had expected to meet with Petermann Land at 83° north. These discrepancies became more and more puzzling.

"On June 22 we had a last shot at a bearded seal, and as the snow became constantly worse I determined to wait. We now had a supply of seal meat until it melted away. We also shot 3 bears. We had only 2 dogs left, which were now well fed upon meat. On July 22 we continued our journey over tolerably good snow. On July 24, when about 82° north, we sighted unknown land at last, but the

ice was everywhere broken into small floes, the water between being filled with crushed ice in which the use of the kayaks was impossible. We therefore had to make our way by balancing from one ice piece to another, and we did not reach land until Aug. 6, at 81° 38′ north and about 63° east longitude.

"This proved to be entirely ice-capped islands. In kayaks we made our way westward in open water along these islands, and on Aug. 12 we discovered land extending from the southeast to the northwest. I still could find no agreement with Payer's map. I thought we were in longitude east of Austria Sound, but if this was correct, we were now traveling straight across Wilczek Land and Dover glacier without seeing any land near us.

"On Aug. 2 we reached a spot in 81° 13' north and 56° east, evidently well suited to wintering, and as it was now too late for the voyage to Spitzbergen I considered it wisest to stop and prepare for winter. We shot bears and walruses and built a hut of stones, earth, and moss, making the roof of walrus hide, tied down with rope and covered with snow. We used the blubber for cooking, light, and heat. The bear meat and the blubber were our only food for ten months. The bear skins formed our beds and sleeping bags. The winter, however, passed well, and we were both in perfect health. Spring came with sunshine and with much open water to the southwest. We hoped to have an easy voyage to Spitzbergen over the floe of ice and the open water. We were obliged to manufacture new clothes from blankets and a new sleeping bag of bear skin. Our provisions were raw bear meat and blubber.

"On May 19 we were at last ready to start. We came to open water on May 23 in 81° 5' north, but were retarded by storms until June 3. A little south of 81° we found land extending westward and open water, which reached to the northwest, along the north coast. But we preferred to travel outward over the ice through a broad sound.

"We came, on June 12, to the south side of the island and found much open water trending westward. We sailed and paddled in this direction in order to cross to Spitzbergen from the most westward cape, but Payer's map was misleading."

Explorer Jackson thus describes the meeting with Nansen: "On June 17 I met Dr. Nansen 3 miles out on a floe, south-southeast of Cape Flora, and under most extraordinary circumstances. He had wintered in a rough hut within a mile or two of our northern limit in 1895, and this spring we unwittingly came within a few miles of his winter quarters."

The "Fram" reached Tromsoë Aug. 20, having drifted from a point 85-95° north. It reached open water Aug. 13. and the next day called at Danes island, where Prof. Andrée had been waiting for a favorable wind before attempting his proposed balloon trip across the arctic regions. The "Fram" still had provisions sufficient for three years. The

deepest sounding taken was 2,185 fathoms. In the highest latitude reached birds were seen, but no other organic life was visible. The lowest temperature was 62° below zero.

In regard to the results of Nansen's expedition, Dr. Supan says, in "Petermann's Mitteilungen": "Nansen himself calls it successful, and such it was in the highest degree. That the mathematical pole was not reached matters little; the task of bringing to light a part of the arctic region hitherto wholly unknown was fully performed. It has rectified the notion heretofore entertained that the polar sea was a shallow basin filled with islands. A few islands were discovered in the southern part near the coast; other parts appeared to be landless.