SEARCHING

For several weeks now, we've read with sadness the daily accounts of  two current searches: one in the Indian Ocean, the other in Washington state.  And we are reminded of books in this collection about searches conducted in the past.

One of these books, The Cruise of the Corwin by John Muir, describes the Arctic expedition of 1881 in search of Captain G. W. DeLong and his ship Jeannette, which had set out from San Francisco two years earlier bound for the North Pole. Unfortunately the ship was never found, but John Muir wrote a vivid description of the Arctic that is well worth our time to read. This book was published in 1917 and has plates and a map that supplement the reader's understanding. By the way, the author is the same John Muir who founded the Sierra Club, discovered Glacier Bay, and is considered the father of the national park system.  With our growing concern over the future of our environment, John Muir is a good author for us to read--and reread.

Another book in the collection pertaining to searching is Elisha Kent Kane's Arctic Explorations: The Second Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, '54, '55, which was published in 1856.  Elisha Kane was also an American explorer and a member of two Arctic expeditions to rescue the explorer Sir  John Franklin. The searchers did discover Franklin's first winter camp, but never found out what had happened to the fatal expedition. Yet, in spite of the lack of success of the expedition, this is still interesting reading.

Again, we extend an invitation to you to stop by and spend some time with these two books or some of the many others on the Bullis Room shelves.  We'd love to see you.