until you know that your depot of provisions is actually established. (Commodore G. W. Melville, U. S. Navy.)
An expedition ought to provide for a successful retreat. This you have done by placing your supply depot in the line of the Scotch whaling vessels. There can be no question but that the region which you propose to explore is rich in animal life. In 1872 and 1873, at Lifeboat Cove, Eskimos told me that west of the mountains there were large quantities of deer and musk oxen. (R. W. D. Bryan, astronomer to Hall's Polaris expedition.)
I consider the exploration of the west cost of Ellesmere Land by the mode suggested in your paper not only entirely practicable but certain to obtain most valuable results with the minimum expenditure of money. (Colonel H. W. Feilden, naturalist to the Nares expedition.)
Stein is evidently on the right track. (Admiral Sir George S. Nares, commander of the British expedition of 1875-'76.)
I hail with delight your plan of systematic exploration of the arctic lands. Since it looks forward to an indefinite future, you can wait quietly till the work grows of itself, not only areally, but also in minuteness. (Dr. A. Supan, editor Petermann's Mitteilungen.)
I congratulate you on your selection of Jones Sound as the route of advance, since that is a far less dangerous avenue than many others. (Elisée Reclus, author of Nouvelle Géographie Universelle)
The most important idea in your plan, and one which will mark a new epoch in arctic exploration, is the idea of a permanent camp at the entrance of Jones Sound, where it will be in constant communication with the outer world through the whalers. The wonder is that so simple and inexpensive a measure was not thought of long ago. Had it been adopted, say fifty years ago, it is entirely probable that arctic history since then would have remained unclouded by a single disaster. (Lieutenant D. L. Brainard, U. S. Army, of the Greely party, who, with Lockwood, reached the highest north ever attained, 83°24"5'.)
Your project is in every way well conceived, and will no doubt yield the best results. Attempts to reach the pole have not met with results commensurate to the efforts made. Far more fruitful to science is the methodical exploration of an arctic land. The American archipelago is as yet unknown to the west of Ellesmere Land. To American naturalists belongs the task of revealing to science this terra incognita, and your project seems to me to be the most rational method. (Charles Rabot, explorer of Lapland, Spitzbergen, Iceland, and Greenland.)
You have hit upon one of the best routes for further discovery, and I am pleased to see that you are impressed with the necessity for a safe depot. (Clements R. Markham, C. B., President Royal Geographical Society of London.)
Mr. Koldewey, Councilor to the Admiralty, is of opinion that your project, which is well worked out in all its details, deserves to be received with interest by all friends of polar research. (Geographic Society of Hamburg.) (Captain Koldewey commanded the two German arctic expeditions of 1868 and 1869.)
