Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1901 — ii Current Topics 1 '♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦■ ► [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ii Current Topics 1 '♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦■ ►

OTTO SVERDRUP. Explorer Who May Have round the North Pole. A rumor has sprung up in Christiania that Captain Otto Sverdrup, the Arctic explorer who won his reputation as an assistant of Nailsen, whom he accompanied In 1888 on his famous expedition across Greenland and on Nansen’s still more famous voyage on the Fram, has reached the north pole and is now returning home. There is no confirmation of this report - , nor is anything known of its origin, but even the rumor has aroused'the keenest interest.

Captain Sverdrup sailed on his expedition to the arctics on June 14, 1898. The ostensible purpose of the expedition was to explore Smith’s sound and the Robeson channel, discover the northern limits of Greenland, study the origin of the palaeocryptic ice, and to note jthe tides and temperatures; but there was no doubt at the time the expedition sailed on the Fram from Christiania that the bold Sverdrup and at least one or two of his companions would push on and try to reach the pole.

The outfit of the expedition consisted of ski, sledges, canoes, snowshoes, and everything necessary for transportation. Clothing and sleeping bags were taken along, while the food supplies were large and varied. The draft animals on the Frain numbered ten splendid elk dogs, a large variety of the Finn dog, wolfish in appearance. To these we:e added eighty Eskimo dogs, secured in Greenland; Of the sixteen members of the expedition five were executive officers and five were scientists. ' ' - The last heard of Sverdrup was during the summer of 1899, when he was on the noithwest coast of Greenland.

Lincoln’s Sea, to the northwest of that point, was ice free the following summer, according to the American explorer, Lieutenant Peary, and Scandinavian scientists declare there is a strong probability that Sverdrup seized the opportunity and reached the pole.

CAPT. OTTO SVERDRUP.