668	JEANNETTE INQUIRY.
Q. Never mind. These expeditions that you have spoken of, together with the Albert and the Polaris, took place before the Jeannette, did they not ?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. And Collinson returned in safety, did he not ?—A. Yes ; Collinson returned.
Q. Beachy returned in safety, did he not ?—A. Beachy returned, and McClure had to abandon his vessel.	'
Q. Yes ; but the men returned in safety ?—A. There were some losses of life, of course.
Q. But as a body they returned, I mean ?—A. Yes, they were all taken aboard one of the vessels of the English and came out through Davis Straits.
Q. Those that were lost were lost by the incidental changes of the climate and exposure and disease ?—A. Yes, sir; partly by disease and partly by other causes.
Q. Now, the experience of the Albert and the Polaris and all these other expeditions that have gone before was well known at the time of the sailing of the Jeannette, was it not ?—A. Oh, yes.
Q. Now, you said something about the unshipping of yards. I may have misunderstood you. Did you mean to say the yards were unshipped for the purpose of getting out of the ice ?—A. Of getting through the ice. The ice was overhanging.
Q. You are not a practical navigator, are you ?—A. I think I know something about navigation.
Q. You are quite sure the yards were unshipped ?—A. They may have been swung.
Q. Which were they'—A. Oh, I do not like to lecture. I am not an encyclopedia of Arctic matters. You might send over to Mr. Spofford and he will produce all the books we want with the greatest pleasure, and then we can compare notes and look it up together.
Q. Who was this man that wanted to go to the Pole in a thermometer ?—A. Oh, he did not want to go in a thermometer.
Q. With a thermometer ?—A. Yes.
Q. Who was he ?—A. Silas Bent. He used to belong to the United States Navy, and if I am not mistaken he was a graduate of Annapolis.
Q. In point of fact, so far as the real route to the Pole is concerned, you are now as much in the dark as ever ?—A. It depends entirely upon which route you want to take. You can reach a higher latitude at any time on the west coast of Spitzbergen than you can in Behring Sea, but Behring Sea had to be tried because we did not know anything about it, and it will probably be tried again before long.
Q. In your judgment which is the best route to go to the North Pole ?—A. I think I would take Franz Joseph Land.
Q. Do you think it is possible to get there ?—A. At least you would be apt to reach a pretty high latitude in following the coast of Franz Joseph Land, and it would be perfectly reasonable to run the risk al-though you would be probably apt to have to break through a barrier of ice not less than two degrees of latitude wide.
Q. What was this you said about the equatorial current ?—A. That it is a current moving from west to south.
Q. Whose theory is that?—A. That is nobody's theory. God made it, I suppose.
Q. That is God's theory ?—A. I don't know. We will hold him responsible for it, anyway.