The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-02-17
DR.. hansen AND THE POLE
Reports of His Discoveries Have Nov
Been Confirmed.
NEWS FROM ST. PETERSBURG
Greedy aud Pcary Arc Still Skeptical on
the Subject = Nansen's Associate
Believes That There Is Land
nt the North Pole.

London. Feb. 16.-A dispatch from
the British consul at Archangcl, in
which the report that DR.. Nansen, the
Arctic explorer has discovered the
North Pole and is now on his return
from his successful voyage is confirmed
has been received at the foreign Office
The correspondent of the st. James
Gazette at st. Petersburg telegraph
that the report of DR.. Nansen having
discovered the North Pole Is confirmed
Washington. Feb. 16-The reported
confirmation from Archangel of the re-
port of the return of DR.. Nansen does
not really amount to a confirmation in
the opinion Of General Greeley and of
Lieutenant Scheutze. The latter is,
with the possible exception of Commo-
dore Melville. who is temporarily alb
sent from Washington. better posted
than any other official in Washington
ON the characteristics of the North ST.
berian coast, which he has visited on Il
government mission, being charged
with the distribution of rewards to the
natives who aided the survivors of the
unfortunate Jeanette expedition. He
said: This confirmation of the Irkutsk
story from Archaneel Is as if we had II
telegram from Portland, Ne, confirm
ing story from Sandy Hook.
General Greeley took a similar view
and held that it was conceivable that
the story could cmanate from two
places so remote from each other as are
Irkutsk and Archangel. He knew OF
no way in which news Of Dr. Nansen's
approach to the northern mouth of the
Lena Delta should also reach Arch
angel. With the aid of a chart, General
Greedy indicated the vast distances be-
tween Archangel and lrkutSk. the lat
ter point being that where the first re-
port of Nansen's return started. He
showedthat If 1t was really true that
news of DR.. Nansen's movements had
reached the mouth of the Lena, and had
so worked up the river to lrkutsk, then
it was improbable that the same infOr-
nation could have reached Archangel.
Grcei,'s Disbelief I'nshaken.
General Greedy called attention to
another point. which was that, If Nam
sen has really emerged from the Polar
regions anywhere off the Siberian
coast, then lie has himself disproved
the correctness of the theory on which
his expedition was embarked 1t would
show. he said, that instead of there eX-
isting a current across the pole, there
was a current that swept him up from
the neighborhood of Bennett Island to
the pole and then turned back and re-
I'd him to his starting point. Gem
eral Greedy thought this state of affairs
was hardly possible.
Lieutenant ScheutZe made the point
that has apparently escaped observa-
tion, that If the first story from lrkutsk
was true then NanSen was sighted or
heard from off the Lena River Delta
away back last summer. Lieutenant
ScheutZe is thoroughly familiar with
that country. He says that from lrk-
utsk to Yakutsk. which is the most
northerly Russian post of any signifl-
cance is a distance of about 1000 miles
and communication is had only by
sleds, or, in summer by rafts down the
river Lena. From iakutsk to list
Yansk, at the mouth of the Lena.
where the Russian trader is said tn
have heard from Nansen. is "a distance
of 800 miles through an unbroken will
derness. and the means of comnunica-
ton are reindeer or dogs. The only
travel between Yakutsk and tst
Yansk is confined to few half breed
traders, who go up to the latter point
early in the winter and stay until the
next spring. Many months are required
for the trip, and so any news of Nam
sen coming from tst Hansk must be
very old.
Lieutenant Scheutze referred to diff
ficulties that might be encountered III
the attempt to trace such rulnor as
that in question. He said that the ma
tives who might have sighted an Arctic
explorer would not conceive the nature
af his undertaking, and owing to their
dense ignorance it would hardly be pos
sible for them to transmit an intel
ligible account through many such ma
tives, and after that through half
breeds, who knew little more, to civil
ization In illustration he cited the eX-
perience of NOrdenskjold. who passed
out of the Siberian islands i'm a fog
while a hunting party of natives was
on 1t. The natives could not see the
steamer Vega owing to the fog. but
hearing the churning of the screw they
were stricken with terror, put out their
camp-iires and hid themselves in the
ice. and not till months afterward was
it finally wormed out of them by q
half-b breed, who had been fortunate
enough to have once seen steam ves-
sci, that the explorer had actually
passed in the neighborhood.
Nanscn's Courage aud Resource.
Leonhard Stejneger. a former asso-
ciate of DR.. NanSen when the doctor
was curator of a museum in Norway,
and who is now one of the curators OF
the United States National museum.
thinks there is nothing intrinsically
improbable in the story. and bears
high tribute to DR.. Nansen's indomit-
able courage and fertility of resources.
If" said he. DIR. Nansen found land
north of the New Siberian islands. it
would be a comparatively easy matter
for him to proceed nOrthward, for the
distance is not 50 great: the extreme
difficulties experienced in travelling
over the frozen sea make the task one
of greater hardship and immeasurably
increases the apparent distance. We
know that there is land further north
than anyone has yet been. for the rea =
son that birds fly north of the limit of