The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-29
ANOTHER CANDIDATE FOR DE-
 sTRUCTION,

times. The search of Jason for the Golden Fleece. of Ponce de Leon fol the Fountain of Youth. or of almost any other adventure in history or fable can hardly vie in the matter of inex- cusable voyaging with the setting out of man to reach the North Pole in an air-ship. Those who go in search of that imaginary object by land and water have some conception before hand of the difficulties they must ex- pect to encounter and conquer if they hope to succeed. Though no one has yet been there and returned to point out the way and to give warning Of the obstacles and dangers that must be overcome, enough has been-seen and learned to make 1t plain to all who would undertake it that thew have a perilous and doubtful job before them. They can prepare, themselves for what is known, and, as far as human pre- vision can aid them, they can prepare to guard against what is reasonably to be expected. % .,,,--. <G;. -
 But with Andree it was mostly euess-work. Traversing the view less fields of air even above known and temperate regions is a dangerous and uncertain business. but. he pro. posed to venture over regions where foot of man never trod. so far as we can tell, and to encounter elements oi which human intelligence has no Knowledge. Of what might be around and above those mighty regions of ice and snow he could have no means of knowing. He could not anticipate what might be in the air or what he might encounter if he should reach his actual destination. He could have no means of knowing what would be his chances of landing or of getting away. It was an adventure begun in the dark and with little hope-in the minds of others-that success was even possi- ble.
 The fate of the adventurous aeronaut is one of the many mysteries that are continually setting at naught all hu- man knowledge. That somewhere in the polar regions he found a habitable land, and that he is still there, is just within the bounds of possibility, for certainly 1t is not probable That he and his companions are somewhere frozen in the solid ice. amid all the silence and solemnity of an unknown region, there to remain until earth and sea give up their dead. is likely. They may be frozen into a, field or mountain of ice which will some day float into the regions of humanity and be found after many years. And 1t may be that hereafter some adventurous explorer will find them, as Franklin was found. It was more than twelve years after Sir John was lost to all human knowledge before his fate was fully, aseertained. His ships were last seen in Bafln's 8 Bay on the 26thk of July, 1S45, and though, nine or ten years afterwards, some accounts and relics were obtain ed from, the Eskimo, it was not till 1859 that the route and fate of the ex- petition was definitely settled. Some day 1t maybe that explorers in now unknown regions may chance upon all that is left of the adventurous aero naut. Would it not be wonderful if he and his companions should be discov- tired alive in some unexpected place?
 We have been led to these reflections by the announcement that French man named Marcilliac, Is now prepar- ing to repeat Andree's experiment. At least, he is getting an air-ship ready for a trial at the Pole, and, of course, he is hopeful of success. He argues that so many Improvements have been made in aerial navigation within the past few years that success may now be reasonably hoped for. and he thinks he will land the prize beyond doubt.
 It is not to be denied that very con- siderable improvements have been made in this method of travel but what do they amount to- after all? All who have kept themselves informed on the subject know that there has not yet been an air r-ship tried that has proven what might fairly be called success. Some of them have made limited trips without mishap, but we are continu- ally reading accounts of failures on the part of the best machines that can be devised whether they dive into the water, as Langleys did, or take a header and come to the ground, or be- come manageable because of adverse winds, or fail to succeed for some other reason, we all know that successful aerial navigation has not yet been as- sured .-:-
 If success has not been attained in the short trips here at home. where climate and temperature are known. and where the experinaenter can choose his own time and locality, 1t is hard to understand how any man can hope to make successful voyage of hundreds of miles over unknown regions and through atmospheric conditions of which practically nothing is known. In addition to the uncertainties we find this item in The New York Sun:
 When Peary made his journeys on the inland ice of Greenland, mile above the sea, he noticed that in the mornings his tent poles and the stakes to which his dogs were tied were GOV cred on the windward side with frost an inch thick. The humidity in the air was congealed and the tiny ice par ticles found Judgement on anything in their path An airship spreads a large expanse of cloth, and no means have vet been found to prevent excessive weight due to the accumulation of ice or frost on this surface.