Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1896 — NANSEN'S TRIP NORTH [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NANSEN'S TRIP NORTH

EXPLORER SAYS HE NEARLY REACHED THE POLE. Claims to Have Reached a Point Within gOO Miles of the Coveted Object— Went Four Degress Further than Any Former £xplorer. Arctic Adventures. The story of Dr. Nansen's attempt to reach the North Pole is interesting, like the accounts of previous explorations of •he same kind, in the sense that the world always lines to read about personal adventures in remote aud mysterious regions. There .is a certain charm iu records of courage aud endurance.even when the results are not of any material importance; and the results of these successive Antic joxrneys can hardly be said to have justified the expense and privation, the suffering uu<j fatality that they have iuvclvrd. Dr. Nansen elaiins to have pro-

ceeded foirt- degrees further than any former explorer, and 1o have reached a point within about ”00 miles of the coveted object. Looking northward from there, he says, there was nothing to be seen but a wonder of ice, “humgnock nnd hummock to the horizon, like a •Sea of frozen breakers.” The sight was a grand one, no doubt, but it was also a profitless ondparnctically speuking.

Dr. Nansen says that the Fram drifted with the ice in a westerly direction to 84 degrees anti lie expects the vessel will eventually arrive at Spitsbergen. He adds that wherever they penetrated they lound the ice broken. Large patches of water \vero_also found. 3,800 meters deep. Below the depth of IDO meters the water was appreciably warmer, probably owing to the Gulf stream. Rocky sears, of which the explorers had no previous knowledge, prevented entrance into the Olenek River for days. In consequence ot the scarcity of dogs with the expedition, Dr. Nansen was compelled to turn back at 8(5.15. He adds that if lie had been provided with a sufficient nuniber of dogs end canoes the pole would have boon reached. The laud voyage was most arduous, hut extremely available scientific results were obtained. In 1895 Dr. Nansen reached the north coast of Franz Joseph Laud nnd built n stone house in which he lived the whole winter. The JaeksonTlnrms worth expedition arrived at Franz Joseph Laud the following spring.

There was the usual amount of hardship and peril in the journey which led 1o this recent inconclusive result. On several occasions there were narrow escapes from death while navigating among the huge blocks of, ice. There was much wandering through snow and in .intense, cold on sledges drawn by dogs. One winter was spent in a lmt built of stones, earth and moss, and having a roof of wuluis hide, tied down with ropes nnd covered with snow; and for a period of ten months boar meat and blubber were the only food. During weeks tlie mercury was frozen, the lowest temperature being <l2 degrees below zero; and at one time the vessel of the party, the Fram. was firmly frozen in ice of more than thirty feet of measured thickness. These incidents show in a gynoYal way what difficulties were i ne&.ntejred, and what bravery and fortitude were required to overcome them. It does not appear that there was any weakening on the part of any of the adventurers because of these severe trials.

1-ut it remains, nevertheless, for Dr. Nansen to explain why he left the Fram and all of his companions lmt one and made Iqs way back to civilization. We are assured that Dr. N’ahsen brings back with him several maps and ninny to increase o.ur knowledge ol the region. that he visited. He was gone, three years, and there is no reason to believe. that is to say. that he accomplished anything of substantial importance. The fact 'hat he got nearer to the pole than any previous explorer counts only iu a • omparativc way, and not as a decisive triumph. It cau be said, perhaps, that lie lias added something to the possibility of ultimate success iu the case, and this will encourage other adventurous spirits to make other attempts of that sort, and >n the course of time the pole may be reached. The appeal of the British Government against the acquittal of ('apt. Lothairo, the Belgian otiioer who caused the English trader Stoke 3 to he hanged in the Congo region for selling arms and ammunition to the natives, was opened in Brussels before the superior court of the Cou*o State.

THE FRAM.

DR. NANSEN IN HIS STUDY.