the slums of Chicago are accommodated for two weeks at a time. The change from the hot, heavy air of the city and the stifling atmosphere of the small crowded rooms where so many live and sleep that no one can get even a fair share of oxygen, to the fresh open spaces of the country with clear, blue skies, green grass and plenty of sunshine, is almost overwhelming at first to these poor jaded mothers and lethargic children. It is all so new and strange that expression fails them for the first day or two. But the new conditions soon produce a marked effect for the better.

New York City's fresh-air work is done through numerous agencies, but is almost entirely confined to summer homes, the tent camp not being used there to any extent. The scope of this article therefore prevents reference in detail. The New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor substitutes for the outing camp, buildings on Coney Island, called Sea Breeze, to which last year it sent from May 17 to September 30, 3,887 women and children for a stay of ten

days each. The need for it is evidenced in the fact that 301 persons were cared for in buildings intended for 250. But one mother responded to the objection by say ing:

"Crowded, is it? It's like hivin. Shure I've thirteen to provide for every blissid night at home, and only wan bed and a matthress on the flure."

Convalescents and those worn out and in failing health are the ones to whom a stay at Sea Breeze is given, others being sent there only for a day's outing. A seaside tent camp for children suffering from tuberculosis of the bones and glands is located near Sea Breeze.

The Fresh Air Mission of Buffalo has a forty-acre farm on the shore of the lake, at Angola, to which it sends 175 children between the ages of five and twelve, for a two weeks' stay. About eight hundred receive the benefit each year. It is named Cradle Beach and the work done there is the same as in the outing camps.

Washington, D. C., has also its "Camp Good Will" to which 380 children were sent for two weeks' outing during the

summer of 1905. It is located in Rock Creek Park. It has been so fortunate as to receive valuable gifts other than money and provisions, for its possessions include a cow, horse, wagon, carriage, and a donkey with cart and harness, all of which contribute much to the pleasure and benefit of the campers. Expense has also been saved by the loan of ten army tents. The outlay for the ten weeks' season of 1905 was $2,723.04. The value set by physicians upon these summer outings for the poor may be inferred from the fact that no less than seventy-five of them subscribed to the funds for this camp.

Cleveland, like New York City, does not use the tent camp. It has an organization bearing the name, "The Children's Fresh Air Camp," which owns a large tract of land beyond the end of the city car lines, where poor children are taken for summer outings. Hiram House Settlement has its camp in fifty-two acres of woodland twelve miles from the city, where in a cottage accommodating forty children, boys and girls may go for two weeks at an expense

to them of ninety cents. Goodrich House Settlement has a farm on the lake shore where some 322 persons had outings of two weeks in length last summer.

The only tent camp for well people connected with Indianapolis is that managed by the Indianapolis News at Bethany Park, fifty miles from the city. Many children and old ladies are sent there for two weeks' rest and recreation. The work is kept up by public subscription. There is a Summer Mission for sick children, but this is located in ten cottages on a bluff above the river and near it is a summer tent camp for tubercular patients.

Often a woman hesitates about accepting an invitation to one of these summer camps because if she is away her "man won't bring his envelope home and the rent is due, rent is due," or she may lose her "places to wash." One mother, a Bohemian Catholic, who had five children, gave this as a reason why she could not go, but a truly generous helpfulness was shown in the contribution by a Bohemian Jew of onehalf the amount needed for the rent, and

the other half by a Bohemian Protestant. Such women feel as one expressed it: "It is like heaven to be here. If I never have another vacation I shall always remember this one. Why I haven't done a thing since I came up here, except mind my own children and wash out a few little things for them and myself." The speaker in this instance was a woman who somehow managed to provide for four children, although only able to wash and iron two days of every week because of a weak back. Another said: "I've always believed that rich people cared nothing for poor

ones. I've found them willing enough to cut me down to the last penny about my washing. But here are these women just seeming to be happy in looking after us. I am never going to think so hard of rich people again, even if they do like to save money." The cause of her changed opinion was a long ride behind two handsome horses.

Far more than a mere temporary rest and physical benefit are given to these women and children by this summer tent camp work. It is worthy of larger sustenance than it receives.

ON May 22 last an expedition set sail from Victoria, British Columbia, that is the first of its kind to start from a Pacific coast port, and is unique in equipment and method.

The expedition is in joint command of Captain Ejnar Mikkelsen* and Mr. E. De Koven Leffingwell, two young men who will find themselves famous if they successfully accomplish what they have set out to do. Upon Captain Mikkelsen devolved the selection of a vessel, choice of a crew and the collecting of supplies. The expedition's little ship, the Duchess of Bedford, was originally a sealing schooner, and was chosen by Captain Mikkelsen on account of her small size and unusual stoutness of build. Her tonnage is light *For portrait, see frontispiece of this issue.

compared with other Arctic expedition ships, being but sixty-six tons register.

The chief aim of the expedition is to determine whether or not land exists in the vast unexplored section of the Arctic Ocean lying above Alaska and north of Banks Land. The region comprises some one hundred and fifty thousand square miles, and has been always described as a sea of ice. Indications, however, go to show that a big body of land exists in this region. The Esquimaux of Prince Albert land and northern Alaskan points state this to be the case, while the direction of the prevailing ocean currents gives rise to the opinion that some body lies in their path. It is also a well established fact that flocks of migratory birds travel poleward from the Siberian, Alaskan and northern mainlands annually, and the natural inference is that they are not making for ice-fields, but for land. Everything, there

fore, tends to the theory that a large body of land exists in this great unexplored Arctic Ocean, and if scientific theories are borne out, a new and more accessible route to the pole will have been established. If such land be discovered its ownership will be defined by the 142d meridian, which settles the British and American claim.

Besides the two commanders the party consists of Ejnar Ditlevsen, a zoologist and noted European painter of animals; V. Stefaussen, ethnologist, and Dr. George Howe, M.D., physician and scientist; Captain Mikkelsen and Mr. Leffingwell will devote themselves to surveys and geological work. A sailing master, three seamen and a cook make up the total number of the vessel's company, ten in all. The

Alaskan coast will be hugged, with a possible call at Point Barrow, Mackenzie and Bathurst. Some provisions will be taken on board at Park's Inlet, and the schooner will then sail to Minto's Inlet and make her winter quarters there. It is the intention to make the winter a busy one, the explorers and scientists leaving the vessel in charge of the crew and striking out over land and ice through Prince Albert land, Banks Land, Banks Straits, Patrick's Land and out over the ice as far as practicable. Surveys will be made and the Esquimaux of the regions will be studied. The party will then return to their ship to take advantage of the short summer and get the vessel to Cape Prince Albert, from which point Captain Mikkelsen and