Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1890-08-16
A New Expedition to the North Pol.

A New Expedition to the North Pole
The London Times gives some de-
tails of the new expedition 10 the
north pole, for which the Norwegian
National Assembly voted 100000 kro-
ner on June 80, and which will be un-
der the charge I'm. Nansen. llither-
to, with one possible exception, all at
tempts to reach the north pole have
been made IN defiance of the obstacles
OF nature. 1t has been an open CAM
paign between the endurance Of man
and the icy barrier Of the Arctic seas,
in which nature has always been iri-
umphant. On this occasion a sysle-
matte and well organized attempt will
be mBde TO ascertain if nature herself
has rot supplied means OF solving
the difficulty, and il there is not, after
all, q possibility Of reaching the north
pole by utilizing certain natural facil-
tiles in these frozen seas of which all
earlier explorers were ignorant. The
circumstances on which these new
hopes are founded may be thus sum-
married.. The Jeanette EXPEDITION of
l679.Sl and the loss of that vessel
seemed tC sound the knell of ali expe-
ditions to reach the pole by Behring
straits; but in the end the results Of
that effort are shown to have been
more satisfactory and suspicious than
any Of the officers of the Jeanette
could have hoped for when, with ex-
treme difficulty, they succeeded in
reaching Siberia across the ice from
their wrecked vessel. In June, 1884,
exactly three years after the Jeanette
sank, there were found near Julian
shaab, in Greenland, several articles
which had belonged to the Jeanette
and had been abandoned at the time
of its wreck by the crew, and which
had been carried to the coast of Green
land, from the opposite side of the Pc.
lar sea, OH piece of ice. This fact at
once aroused curiosity as to how it ac-
complished the journey across the Arc
tic ocean, and as to what unknown
current had borne the message from
Behring straits to Greenland. How
ever these objects reached Julianshaab,
they could not have come in an eastern
direction, through Smiths sound, for
the only current which reaches Julian
shaab is that from the eastern coast of
Greenland via cape Farewell and the
north. Norris there much probability
that they were borne in a western di-
rection from the place where the jean
nette sank, for all the currents around
Nova Zembls, Franz Josef Land, and
Spitzbergen are known, and it seems
for the ice bearing the rel
les Of the unfortunate Jeanette to
have traversed the intervening dis
lance in the space of three years, even
# 1t were possible at all. There re-
mains only the alternative that there
Is comparatively short and direct
route across the Arctic ocean by way of
The north pole, and that nature herself |
has supplied ameans of communica-
ion, however uncertain, across 1t.
Increased significance 10 the discovery |
If the Jeanette relics in 1884 was Civ
~ by the Identification in 1856 of
lows found Oh the coast of Greenland
With those by the Eskimo in the vicin-
ty Of Behring straits, at Port Clarence,
Norton sound, and the mouth of the
Yukon river. NJ. Nansens expedition
will endeavor TO realize these hopes of
direct route across the
WAFER apex of the Arctic ocean. A
QUEEN specially constructed boat
SOAP: ] of ITO tons will be built,
nd provisions and fuel taken for five
ears, although 1t is hoped that two
cars will suffice. The expedition
viii consist of ten or twelve men, aud
4. Nansen proposes to leave Norway
n February, 1892.