Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-18

they should reach open waters on this side
of the Pole within two years after the start
from the Siberian side He could not, how
ever expect that the course would be one
straight line forward during all this timei
but when they took provisions for hve or
six years they had an ample margin. Thls
might, perhaps, seem to many to be long
time, but there was great advantage IN
this route-that when the expedition was
once well begun there would not be much
help in looking backwards; their nope
would then lie on the other side of the Pole,
and such knowledge was q good help to
get fran, or forward.
Light From a Windmill.
Dealing with equipment, DR.. Nansen
said they would take dogs, sledges, SKI
and sno1shoes, besides means for sledge
travelling, while their scientific equipment
would be chosen with the greatest care 10
live healthy life in all respects was natur
ally very important. Two of the principal
conditions to keep ones health were heat
and light. In order to produce the neces-
sary heat they would live together In q
small room during the coolest season, and
they would have good warm clothes. Inc
difficulty as to light, where the darkness
lasted SIX months, he believed they would
be able to overcome by the help OF the pow
erful electric light. They would have
dynamo for producing electricity worked
by the wings Of windmill
But even when there was no wind at all
they would be able to produce power. The
expedition would number II men, strong
and well picked, aud when walkmill was
arranged on deck they would be able to do
work similar to that which horse did In
its horsemill on land. In this walkmill
four men would take their turn at time,
thus they would obtain good and regular
exercise-somewhst monotonous perhaps
and would at the same time be useful by
producing electricity, so that they could
have an electric arc lamp burning eight to
ten hours day. Everybody would under
stand what blessing that must be when
one was surrounded by constant darkness.
Tragic Story of Jan Mayen.
The French expedition sent out last sum-
mer on the little steamer Manche to collect
specimens of natural history in Jan Mayen
and Spitzbergen has recalled story not
told in well-known books of Arctic travel,
but now found in the record kept by the
victims OF the tragedy and preserved at The
Hague. 1t has been translated into French
by the latest visitors to the island, but, as
far as the writer knows, it has never been
published in English. -..y.
The bleak and barren island, 35 miles
long, is about 300 miles north OF the Arctic
Circle, and nearly midway between Ice and
and Spitzbergen. 1t was lifted above the
sea in past age by some tremendous vol
canie eruption. 1t is very mountainous,
and Mount Beeren, its highest summit, rises
5000 feet above the sea Always covered
with ice and snow, there are no shrubs or
other vegetation, or any living thing to
gladden. the eye except in few sheltered
valleys; and it was in these valleys that
the Manche, in July last, made her slender
harvest of Jan Maven collections
A House Untouched for Ten Years.
Nearly ten years had elapsed since a
human being had landed on the little island.