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Captain Robert A. Bartlett, in charge of the schooner Morrissey on the Putnam expedition to the Arctic last summer will relate some of his adventures in northern Greenland at the Union tomorrow night. Captain Bartlett is among those who figure largely in the books written about the expedition by David Bruney Putnam, aged 14.
Once the whaleboat under his direction was attacked by a herd of infuriated walruses. Two arrows had been shot into the leading bull by a member of the crew who hunted with Indian weapons. At the last moment Bartlett leaped to the bow and plunged and Eskino lance into the beast. The bull gave a great gasp and rolled over. The rest of the herd seemed to lost heart. With vengeful snorts they turned about and retreated.
But it was a case of "out of the frying pan, into the fire," for the tusks of the walrus had pierced the boat. Just as the water came over the edge, the boat reached the schooner, saving the men from a dangerous fall among the walrus.
The object of the Putnam Arctic Expedition was twofold; to investigate life among the Esquimos, now fast disappearing of North Greenland, and to secure specimens of all the sea mammals and fish of the region, these to be placed in the American Museum of Natural History.
President Coolidge selected Bartlett as a member of the famous board to investigate the northern flight in the "Shenandoah". In the World War he was Lieutenant Commander in the American Navy, helping carry the soldiers through the perilous zone of the North Atlantic.
Moving pictures and slides were taken of all the important happenings of the trip. These will be used in his lecture.
On the trip was Robert Peary, Jr., son of the North Pole discoverer, on whose trips Bartlett learned the ways of the Arctic Wastes.
Stops were male along the bleak coast line at the tiny settlements in the sheltered bays. Altogether there were only 35 families, 200 people in all, which scrape up a bare existence in this barren land.
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