Arizona republican., 1893-12-05
FROM THE FAR NORTH.
A Letter Written by Dr. Nansen,
 the Arctic Explorer.
Progress of One of the Latest Expeditions Organized for the Purpose of Loca- ting the North Pole and Explor-
 ing the Extreme North.

Dr. Nansen, the Arctic explorer, has written letter to the London Times, which will probably be the last he will have an opportunity to send to Europe before he is caught in the ice which he hopes will drift him across the polar regions. The letter is dated at Yugor strait, which separates the European mainland from Waigatch island at the south of Novaya Zemlin. He wrote August ?. He says of his little vessel, the Tram, which he built specially to withstand ice pressure:
 ''The Fran is splendid ship for ice navigation. She is as easy to handle and steer between the foes as boat. She has already given me many glad moment when have seen from the crows nest how well she behaves and how strong she is. With feeling of safeness I let her quietly run with full speed in between the big, heavy foes; she breaks them under her with almost no shaking, no sound in the vessel her self"
 Months before Nansen sailed he sent man hundreds of miles into western Siberia to get thirty of their best sledge dogs that were to be found and to deliver them at Yugor strait in July. Dogs are an important feature of Nan sens plans and it was regarded as matter of so much consequence that the man succeed in his mission that King Oscar had gold medal struck to give to him if he fulfilled the duty con- fided to him. He was on the ground with thirty-five dogs when Nansen ar rived. Nansen wrote:
 My man Trontheim went to the Ostiaks on the river Soswa, where the best sledge dogs in western Siberia are to be had. There he bought forty dogs, as he thought some of them might be lost on the way, and he was certainly right, as five have died by various ac- cidents. From the Soswa river he travelled over the Siberian tundra, then through the Ural mountains, then over the vast plains again until he came here with the dogs, travelling at last with the sledges over the bare ground, over grass and stones, as is the custom here, where they travel with sledge and reindeers in the summer as well as in the winter. Trontheim has car ried out his task very well and as re- ward he will get the golden medal of King Oscar, which have brought with me for him. Now it only rests with us to make good use of the dogs. They are nice-loOking animals, white, black and gray, and with pointed nose and standing ears, good tempered, and easy to manage. But against strange dogs they are furious; they almost killed Samoyed dog which they got hold of the other day; it would have been torn to pieces had I not saved the poor creature"
 When Nansen wrote his coal tender, a sailing vessel that was to replenish his stock of coal, had not arrived, and he was in much anxiety because unless she came soon he would be compelled to start with the coal he had in order to get through the Kara sea and pass along the coast of Asia before the new ice should form.
 In his steam launch he made a short reconnaissance in the Kara sea, and everything seemed favorable for an easy passage. He said of his further plans:
 My present intention is to steer eastward along the Siberian coast un- til we reach the mouth of the Olenek of bn Tono 1a1ta ho keep as near as possible to the coast wherever there is much ice, as there is generally more open water along the coast than in the ice. If there is time and good opportunity should offer itself I shall go into the mouth of the Olenek, as some twenty-six other dogs are waiting for us there. As the sledge dogs from eastern Siberia are generally known to be better than the western Siberia ones Baron Toll, the Siberian traveller, who is now in Si- beria, proposed to me to let some dogs wait for us there too, so that if 1 should happen top pass may take them.
 "A small expedition has also been sent to the island of Kotelny, the most western of the New Siberian islands. On this island two depots of provisions will be left, one on the northwest coast and one on the southwest coast. It is on Baron Tolls proposal that these stores and provisions are ar ranged there. As he says, they can do no harm, but it is not probable that we shall want them. Nobody knows, however. what might happen, and had De Long of the Jeannette expedition had some such stores of provisionson the New Siberian islands the expedition would not have had such a sad fate, and think Toll is right.
 After having passed the Olenek river we shall go northward along the west coast of the New Siberian islands as far as we can in open water. I hope to be there by the beginning of Sep tember. It may be that we shall meet with unknown land or islands to the northwest of Kotelny, and possibly there may be open water along the coasts there. If so 1 shall of course use it as best can. But when we get no further there is nothing left except to let the Tram get beset in the ice and be carried along horthward or north westward by the current, which, ac cording to my opinion, must run in tha direction in those regions