The herald., 1896-02-16
ADVCES CONF|RMATORY
OF Nansen's Discovery of the
North Pole
THE DOCTORS LOST LETTER
Written Before the Ice Floes Closed
Around Him
Indicated His Belief In an Arctic Current
Which Would Bear Him to
tho North Pole

Associated Press Special Wire.
LONDON, Feb. 15.-The B ritish consul at
Archangel, the capital of the Russian gov
ernment of that name, telegraphs con-
firming the report that Nansen is safe and
returning from the north pole.
Later advices say the first news of Nam
sens safety was sent by kandaroH, local
Russian official in the Yakutsch region,
who was member of the Siberian koff's
expedition.
DR.. Nordenskjold, who is in Christiana,
Is inclined to believe the news of Nansen's
safety; at any rate, that he succeeded in
discovering the north pole.
According to the opinion of Arctic eX-
perts here, when the Fran left the Kara
sea in 1898 she may have found sea
northward free of ice and pushed on until
locked in. She may then have been allowed
to drift until the expedition came to the
land around this pole, and Nansen and
party may have returned in sledges to the
Siberian islands.
The last letter DR.. Nansen had an oppor-
tunity to send to Europe before his ship
was caught in the ice, which he hoped
would drift him across the Polar regions,
was dated at Yugor Strait, which separates
the European mainland from Waigateh
island at south end of Nova Xembia. He
wrote on August =, 1898, to the London
Times, saying of his little vessel, the
Fran:
"The Fran is splendid ship for ice nav
igation. She is as easy to handle and steer
between the foes as a boat. She has
already given me many a glad moment,
when ! have seen from the crows nest how
tUpII cha hobayaa and bnu, or CHI 10,
With feeling of safety / let her quietly
run with full speed between the big, heavy
floes. She breaks them under her with
almost no shaking, no sound in the vessel
herself.
My present intention is to steer eastward
along the Siberian coast until we reach the
mouth of the Olenek river, west of the
Lena delta. shall keep as near as possi-
bic to the coast whenever 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 afford itself
l shall go into the mouth of the Olenek, as
some twenty-sx dogs are waiting for us
there. AS the sledge dogs from Eastern
Siberia are generally known to be better
than the Western Siberian ones, Baron
Toll, the Siberian traveller, who is now in
Siberia, proposed to let some dogs wait for
us there, too, so that if l should happen to
pass may take them.
"After having: passed the Olenel1 river
we shall go northward along the west coast
of the New Siberian islands as far as we
the beginning of September. It may be
that we shall meet with unknown land or
islands to the northwest of Koteiny, and
possibly there may be open water
along the coast there. If 50, I shall,
of course, use it as best can. But when
we can get no farther there is nothing
left except to let the Fran get beset in the
ice and be carried along northward by the
current, which, according to my opinion,
must run in that direction in those regions.
'Tben there will probably pass long
time before we are drifted across the un-
known polar region and into open water
again or to some coast from which we can
return home. In this time there will be
nothing heard from us. But when years
have passed 1 hope you will some day get
the news that we are all safely returned,
and that the knowledge of man has ad-
vanced another step northward."
GREELY STILL DOUBTS
WASHINGTON, Feb. 15.-The reported
confirmation from Archangel of the re-
turn of Nansen, the seeker after the north
pole, does not really amount to a confirma-
ton in the opinion of General Greedy and
of Lieutenant Scheutze. The latter said: !:
This confirmation from Archangel is as
If we had a telegram from Portland, Me-,
confirming story from Sandy Hook.n
Gen. Greedy took similar view. With
the aid of chart, he indicated the vast
distance between Archangel and Irku.sk,
the latter point being that where the first
report of DR.. Nanser S return started. He
shows if it were really true that news of
DIR. Nansen's movements had reached the
mouth of the Lena and had so worked up
the river to 1rkutsk, then it was improbable
that the same information could have
reached Archangel. From Irkutsk to
Hakutsk, which is the most northeriy Rus
sian post of any significance, is
distance of about 1000 miles
and communication is had only by sleds or
in summer by RATS down the river Lena.
From Yakutsk to Ustyansk, at the mouth
of the Lena, where the Russian trader is
said to have heard from Nansen, is dist
tance of 1900 miles through an unbroken
wilderness. and the means of communica-
ton are reindeer or dogs. The only travel
between 1akutsk and Ustyansk is con-
fined to a few halfbreed traders, who go
up to the latter point early in the winter
and stay through till the next spring. Many
months are required for the trip and so
any news coming from Ustyansk or Nam
sen would be very old.
AN ExPLoRER's DEATH
New YORK, Feb. 15.-The death, near
Christiana, Norway, of Eivind Astrup, a
member of one of lieutenant Peary's
Arctic expeditions, is announced in letter
IeCcNOu ny oCASOh d DFOtIer, WHO
lives in Brooklyn.
Elvind As,rup started to walk from Jer-
kin to a farm near Dake Alva, December
I'd. His lifeless body was found January
2lst only forty-five miles walk from Jer-
kin. He had fallen, striking his head
against rock. He had tied handker-
chief about his head to stop the flow of
blood, but without effect Weak from loss
of blood. he evidently seated himself in the
shelter of a large rock, where his body was
found by friends who went in search of
him.
Astrup was the only companion of Peary
in his march TO Independence bay in the
expedition of 1898.
LOOKS FAVORABLE
NEW YORK, Feb. 15.-Judge Charles =.
Daley, president of the American Geolog
ical society, when shown the Associated
Press dispatch from London today regard
ing DR.. Nansen's return from the north
pole. said:
"Ths is rather better than the first
account we had. 1t is remarkable cir
cumstance that the news should come from
these two places, but coming from points
50 widely separated as Archangel and
lrkutsk is rather in favor Of tho news being