The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-02-08
AIRSHIP TRIP To POLE
Expert Sees Value In Walter
Wellman's Voyage.
WILL CROSS VAST UNMAPPED AREA

poets Important Geographical Re-
suits From the Expedition - Mil.
waukee Weather Official Thinks
Journalist VIII Reach North Pole
Ernest de Koven Leffingwell. who
with a former comrade on 1le first
BaldwinZiegler expedition will head a
geographical exploration journey tC
UNEMPLOYED polar seas north of Alaska
next summer, predicted that Walter
Wellman's flight in an airship toward
the pole would be of great value to
the science of geography, says the Chi
cago Record-Herald. He believes, how.
ever, that a weeks sailing through
the northern air currents will not be
long enough to give any comprehensive
meteorological results and says that
practically no geological, geological
and pendulum observations of the kind
ordinarily taken by the scientific In
vestigators on polar expeditions can be
taken from an airship.
Mr.. Leffingwell, who as a research
worker in the department of geology
at the University Of Chicago will go up
for his doctors degree with a thesis
on 1.-The Glaciation of Lake Chelan
Washington" next spring, was in
charge of the scientific work in the
first Baldwin-Ziegler expedition and
spent the year 19O1-O2 in Franz Josef
Land
On the scientific possibilities of Mr..
Wellman's expedition he said:
Even if Mr.. Wellman does not reach
the pole, he will traverse a large I'm
explored area. That in itself will make
the expedition worth all the eXpendi-
ture and risk required. Millions are
spent for telescopes with which to
make maps Of Mars, and there are
endless regions of our own sphere
which are not mapped. One cannot
imagine a better way to make geo.
graphical Investigations than from an
airship car. Those on the Wellman ex-
petition will be able to get birds eye
view of the area traversed. Their view
will not be INSTRUCTED by piles Of snow
and ice, as is that Of men in sledges.
The geographical results alone ought to
be enuogh to make the Wellman expe-
dition truly great.
1T is proposed to take a meteorolog-
ical observer along. l doubt if meteor
illogical results Of any value can be OBJ
tanned in weeks stay in the polar
regions. Observations of wind and
no RI hn
siderable period to be of such value as
to cover a regions condition scientific
ally"
AS to the method Of transportation
to be adopted by Mr.. WeIlman. Mr..
Letfingwell compared the adventure to
starting across the ocean in the first
steamboat constructed.
IF Santos-Dumont first demonstrates
In the temperate zone that he can rav-
ell 700 miles to definite point by
means of dirigible balloon, then Mr..
Wellman will not be taking large
chances" said Mr.. Leftingwell Il am
not an expert in aeronautics, but 1 am
certain that unless they first demon
strate ability to travel a long distance
they will be taking desperate chances.
But If they can do this, then they will
have the very best possible method Of
polar travel. If they once get an air.
ship to the pole there will be no ques-
ton about the return trip. The wind
will blow them back to civilization"
On his expedition Mr.. Leffingwell
will share a joint leadership with a
Dane, Captain Ejnar Mikkelsen. The
expense will amount to $4,000. Rev.
G. w. Leffingwell of ST. Marys school,
Knoxville, ILL.,, father of the scientific
explorer. has provided half the sum,
and Captain Mikkelsen has raised the
other $1,000. The Royal Geographical
society Of London has indorsed the
Observation-Disclosures plans and offer
ed the use Of equipment from the out
lit of the antarctic expedition made in
the Discovery. The expedition will
start in the early summer.
I'VE will explore In the Beaufort
sea, north Of Alaska, aha will go look
ing for land, which it seems certain is
there. but which has never been ex-
plored by geographers," said Mr.. LET
fngwell when interviewed on his plans.
Vague reports that there is land in
the Beaufort sea have been brought
by whalers and Eskimos. and the tidal
conditions on the shore Of Alaska give
evidence of such land. but it has never
been seen by those making geograph-
ical study. We shall start to look for
1t by the middle Of May. There will
be four men in the party, all Of whom
have had arctic experience. We NAV
go down the Mackenzie river. sending
out freight by whalers, but it is more
likely that we will have our own boat"
MIR. Letfingwell is thirty-one years
old, strong in physique, having been
prominent in athletics at Trinity and
Chicago and having served as sea-
man on the battleship Oregon in the
Spanish-American war. He has spent |
three summers making geological in
veStigations in the mountains of wv
oming. Colorado and Washington. Part
Of his graduate study was in physics.
Major II. B. Hersey, who succeeds
DR.. Wilson in charge Of the weather
bureau at Milwaukee. believes the
Wellman-Chicago Record Herald expe-
ultlon. of which he is to be a member.
will raaoI, tho mouth ,,oro ,