Out Of The Arctic. The Most Northerly Coal Mine in the World. The Corwin in a Gale-Effects of the Northern Current. The Diomedes-Dangers to Navigation in Behring Strait. The Point Barrow Signal Service Expedition-What It Expects to Do. (Special Correspondence of the Bulletin.) Steamer Corwin (Plover Bay, Siberia), August 25, 1881.

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1881
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; pamphlets; journal articles; speeches; writing; annotation; Arctic; North Pole; Plover Bay; Point Barrow; Siberia
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/181; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmb/article/1180/viewcontent/130.pdf

Written., Aug. 25, 1881 Pub. Oct. 25 'Corwin'* The Most Northerly Goal Sine m the World. 'iTlie Corwin In a dale—Effects of the Northern Current. "Tie JDioaioeies—Stuoceaw to Navigation in Be&uriag Strait. IBe Poiat Barrow Signal Service Hzpedi- tioa—What It EspecSs to Do. [SPECIAL COERESr-ONDENCE OF THE BULLETIN.] Stsames Corwin (Plover Bay, Siberia),.) August 25,1881. ) We left icy, gloomy Point Barrow on the afternoon of the 18th, with fine Arctic weather, which held out good hopes that we would be able to lie two days at the mine twenty miles cast of Cape Lisburne, and take out and get on hoard a sufficient quantity of coal to last the Corwin the remainder of the season in the Arctic,.cruising about the shores of Wrangel Land. But by the time we got down the coast near the mine the weather was rough, with a heavy sea sending stormy breakers against the exposed coal bluff, rendering it impossible to land aad work. And as there is no shelter whatever for a vessel anywhere in the vicinity, and 310 likelihood from any indications that—appeared that the weather would improve, it was decided that we should proceed at once to Plover Bay, our nest nearest coa'ing point. an abctic coal mine. This Arctic mine, the nearest to the North Pole, as far as 1 know, of any yet discovered on the American Continent, produces coal of excellent quality in great abundance and easily worked. There are fire principal veins, from two to ten feet thick, fully exposed on the face of a bluff about two hundred feet high, excepting some of the lower sections that are covered with icy snow banks, derived from drift that comes from the wind-swept hills, and does not melt till late in the summer or not at all. The lower exposed portions of all the veins are beaten and worn by the sea waves. There can scarcely be any doubt, from what 1 have seen of the formation in which it occurs, that this is a true carboniferous coal, and superior to the great bulk of the tertiary and cretaceous coals found on this side the Contineutfarther south. The ...