"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all"

Dear New England explorers, friends, family, and guests:

You are invited to a very special event, an evening of presentations by various members of The Explorers Club and our New England Chapter. Each will give a freewheeling description, through word/dramatizatization/illustration, of the exploration and research projects they are to be carrying out in the not-too-distant future. There will be the opportunity to engage them in conversation, to ask questions and gather information, as well as to offer tips and suggestions.

Confirmed presenters include the following:

Rex Passion, who plans to soon find himself at three large Chaco archaeological sites in New Mexico. Rex is investigating how the remote yet extensive ruins illustrate the climatic change and subsequent drought that may have spelled the end of the Chacoan empire and forced the region's inhabitants to build increasingly secure villages as desperation and violence began to sweep the area.

Ned Shenton, who will discuss the adventures of Sir George Hubert Wilkins and his attempt to conduct an under-ice trip to the North Pole by submarine in 1931. Wilkins's vessel, an outdated surplus WWI submarine re-named "Nautilus," had a distinguished crew of scientists and engineers, and meant to make the first oceanographic measurements of the deep arctic. Ned will discuss ongoing research and speculation concerning whether this Nautilus--that now rests off of Bregen, Norway in 1,138 feet of water--was actually sabotaged by crew members.

Bob Wallace, who will talk about his work with the Submarine Museum and Library in Groton, Connecticut, as well as his replica of Shackleton's vessel, the James Caird. Originally built by Bob to support the IMAX and PBS films about Shackleton's Endurance Expedition, Bob will be aboard the James Caird--which is currently in the Falklands--for her journey southeast to South Georgia Island in November, during the southern spring. He will then see his vessel hauled overland, up the beach, as in the olden days, to be installed and rigged in a new enclosure for display at the South Georgia Museum.

Lindy T. Elkins-Tanton, who will be co-leader in July of a joint scientific team from MIT and Moscow, will inform us of that project, which will see her group rafting down the Kotuy River in Arctic Siberia and taking geological samples as part of a five year study of the Siberian flood basalts and their relation to the massive end-Permian extinction. After two weeks Lindy's team will be dropped by helicopter at the Guli volcanic province--a desert described by her Russian colleagues as "a grevious place"--for further sampling at this, the largest continental flood basalt in the entire geological record.

Anna Wexler one of our more peripatetic Chapter members, who will tell us about her coming traverse of Greenland.

Lawrence Millman , who will talk about his forthcoming expedition to Pingualuit, a remote impact crater in the Nunavik region of northern Quebec. Traveling with Canadian scientists and Inuit guides, he will be documenting archaeological sites as well as inventorying fungi in the vicinity of the crater, which contains a lake with possibly the clearest water of any lake in the world.

Gregory Deyermenjian, involved in an ongoing investigation into the destination of an unmapped Incan road of stone that leads one along the easternmost range of the Andes in southeast Peru, and into the ceja de la selva, the dense cloud-forest, will tell of his expedition planned for September.

(Invited but not yet confirmed: Sir Richard Francis Burton, Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett, Sven Hedin.)

***Please be aware that although this meeting will be held in the Doubletree Guest Suites Hotel, as usual, and our Social Hour will occur at same hotel bar--the Terrace Lounge--as always, the actual meeting/presentations will take place in a different room than usual. After 8 p.m. we will be in the Elliot Room on the second floor just to the left at the top of the escalator.***

Thank you!

Yours in exploration,

Greg