The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-11-12 00:00:00

PROPOSED VISIT OF OtTENVAYO TO

ENGLAND

The Daily News learns from South Africa that Lord
Kimberley, in giving permission to Cetewayo, ex
King of Zululand, to visit England, has suggested
that the month of April would in point of climate be
the most suitable period of the year for him to make
the voyage. Cetewayo himself is said to be anxious
to undertake the journey with as little delay as pos-
sible.
KILLED ON THE RAILWAY.

In London, on Monday evening, Dr. Danford
Thomas held an ikquiry at St. Pancras. Coroner's
Court, as to the Math of Price Phcenix, aged 43,
a guard on the London and North-Western-Railway,
was killed on the line on Friday morning, in last
week. The evidence showed that the deceased, who
who was an old and respected servant of the company,
was the guard of the Carlisle train, arriving regularly
at the Euston Terminus at midnight. After
arrival it was deceased's practice, in order to save
walking to his home, to ride back to Camden on the
engine which assisted the 12.5 a.m. express train.
from Euston to the north up the Chalk Farm
incline. On Friday the Carlisle train coming in
a little late, he missed his usual engine, and as
it saved a considerable distance he walked along
thelline towards his home. He had gone some dis-
tance when he heard a down train approaching, and
being very misty at the time he stepped into the four-
foot way of the up line, being unaware that the
engine by which he was usually carried up the incline
was returning until it was close upon him, and before
he could get out of the way he was knocked down and
run over. The jury, in returning a verdict of Acci-
dental death," added a rider, "That having heard
that the rules prohibiting servants when off duty from
walking along the lines had not been strictly observed
of late, they desired to call the attention of the com-
pany to the matter with the view to carrying out the
same in the most stringent manner possible."

THE AMERICAN POLAR EXPEDITION.
The Times of Wednesday published the following telegram,
dated San Francisco, Nov. 7
The particulars brought by the vessel which arrived
here: from the Arctic regions on the 6th inst. show
that small boats belonging to the steamer Rodgers cir-
cumnavigated WEangel Land, and not that vessel
herself. The party in the boats all surveyed different
parts of the island. The views from the top of the
mountain on Wrangel Land disclosed sea all round
it. The season had been most favourable for the put.-
poszs of exploration, owing to the openness of the
navigation.
The Rodgers would probably take up her winter
quarters at St. Lawrence Bay, whence she expected
to sail in June next and proceed as far north as pos-
sible.

In commenting upon the above, The Times says:—
We publish a telegram to day from San Francisco
stating that the boats of the steamer Rodgers, which
had been despatched in relief of the Jeannette, have
circumnavigated Wrangel Land, and that search
parties had been landed.
This land, which has now for the first time been
visited by the crew of the Rodgers, was first reported
to exist in 1822 by Baron Wrangel, who heard from
the natives on the Siberian coast that in clear weather
land was to be seen from Cape Yakan ; but Adtniral
Kellett was the first white man to see the land, in
1849. In 1867 Captain Long, in the Nile, got within
18 miles of it, and saw from the decks of his ship
mountain ranges extending in a northerly direction.
When, two years ago, the Jeannette started on her
Arctic exploration voyage, it was thought that the
best chances she had of reaching a high latitude would
be by followin,,,. the shores of Wrangel Land, and by
sending out sledging parties along its coast. Now;
h,,wever, that"Wraiwel Land'has been proved to be an
island, the value of b the Behring's Strait route as a
means of reaching the Pole has been greatly reduced,
for it is an accepted canon among Arctic explorers
titat it is impossible to travel for any great distance in
sledges over the open ice, and that it is only by fol-
lowing a coast line running in a northerly direction
h at the highest latitudes can be reached.
Some years ago it was held that there were three
routes by which it might be possible to reach the Pole.
One was that taken by Sir George Nares through
Smith's Sound and Grant's Land, and which he
proved to be impracticable; another, that which was
followed by the Jeannette throuvh Behring's Strait and
Wrangel Land and which the Rodgers has shown to
be anything but hopeful; and a third that by Francis
Joseph Land, which was attempted by the Austrian
Expedition in 1874, and which is now being in :esti-
gated by. Mr. Leigh Smith in the Eira. With what
success his efforts nave bv,c.tvuld h2l b' f,
wait until next spring to learn, for though when he
left he intended to have returned before the winter,
his not having as yet been heard of points to his having
been compelled to spend the winter in the Arctic
region.
The Dutch Arctic Expedition, in the William
.Barents, reached Amsterdam in safety on the 26th
ult. Having failed to penetrate far north on the
Spitzbergen meridan on account of the ice, which ex-
tended this year further south than it was ever known
by the Norwegian fishermen to have done before, they
proceeded towards Nova Zembla. They met with
the Polar pack off the north-east coast of that island
in lat. 78 N, and long. 56 E. They reached the Orange
Islands, and there erected a memorial stone.
Some little time ago a report reached England that
two white corpses and a barrel of whisky had been
found at the mouth of the Yenisei, and it was be-
lieved by some that these men were two of the crew
of the Jeannette. The firm of provisioners who sup-
plied the Jeannette with her stores state that she had
not on board any whisky in barrels. It is suggested
that the two white men who have thus been found
dead belonged to the crew of some trading vessel
engaged in bartering arms and liquor for furs with the
natives in those parts.