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[POLAR EXPLORATION]. Report of The Cruise of the U. S. Revenue Cutter Bear and the Overland Expedition for the Relief of the Whalers in the Arctic Ocean, from November 27, 1897, to September 13, 1898. Washington, D. C.: GPO, 1899. 8vo. Illustrated with portraits of William McKinley and Lyman J. Gage, numerous other photographic plates, and folding map at rear. 144 pp. Publisher's full blue cloth, boards ruled in blind, spine lettered in gilt (spine and board edges toned, some wear to spine edges and corners, hinges just starting, some gutters overopened, a few short tears to map). Very good. FIRST EDITION. “Following the direct intervention of President McKinley, the Bear was equipped, and in November 1897 set out to rescue eight whaling ships [including the Belvedere] which had become trapped in the ice near Point Barrow. Despite the difficulties involved in a winter mission to Arctic waters, the Bear and her crew managed to reach Seattle ten months later with four of the whaling crews, with no loss to its own complement of men." This work documents the account of the cruise of the USS Bear in 1897-98 to Cape Vancouver, West Alaska, landing a party under the command of Lt. David H. Jarvis to go overland to Point Barrow, the northernmost point of Alaska, to rescue four whaling crews stranded in a sudden early Arctic freeze. The Jarvis party ultimately sledged to Seward Peninsula, purchased several hundred reindeer, then herded the reindeer across Kotzebue Sound, by the Kivalina and Meade Rivers to Point Barrow to feed and rescue the whalers - covering roughly 1500 miles and enduring temperatures as low as -45 degrees Fahrenheit during the Alaskan winter. The work includes texts of orders and letters, descriptions of traveling conditions and regions traversed, the Inuit peoples encountered, the purchase, care and dispensing of relief, including the reindeer. The three-man expedition consisted of Lt. D. H. Jarvis, 2nd Lt. E.P. Bertholf and Surgeon S.J. Call - all of whom received Congressional Gold Medals in 1902 for their heroic efforts. Lt. Bertholf later went on to become the first commandant of the United States Coast Guard. Arctic Bibliography 18402. Ricks, p. 241. Wickersham 7604.