Schwatka's Search
Sledging in the Arctic in Quest of the Franklin Records

Published in 1882, with maps and engravings, this work recounts the discovery of evidence of the lost Franklin expedition.

William Henry Gilder (Author)

9781108074902, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 April 2014

342 pages, 33 b/w illus. 3 maps
21.6 x 14 x 1.9 cm, 0.44 kg

A cavalry officer in the US Army, with training in law and medicine, Frederick Schwatka (1849–92) became interested in the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin following the search attempts led by the American explorer Charles Francis Hall. Supported by the American Geographical Society, Schwatka sailed in 1878 with five others in search of written records, believed to be deposited in cairns. A soldier turned journalist, William Henry Gilder (1838–1900) accompanied Schwatka and published this illustrated account in 1882. Their sledge journey with a party of twelve Inuit was at that time the longest on record. No documents were found, but the expedition did discover artefacts and graves of Franklin's men. Schwatka concluded that no scientific results from Franklin existed. In his adoption of Inuit techniques for safe travel in the Arctic, he preceded Vilhjalmur Stefansson by many decades.

Introduction
1. Northward
2. The winter camp
3. Our dogs
4. In the sledges
5. Native witnesses
6. The midnight sun
7. Relics
8. Irving's grave
9. Arctic costumes
10. Over melting snows
11. Amateur Esquimaux
12. Walrus diet
13. The return
14. Famine
15. Esquimau home-life
16. Homeward
17. The graves of the explorers
Index
Appendix.

Subject Areas: Historical geography [HBTP]