Imperial Valley press., 1914-06-20
POLAR MYSTERY
STILL UNSOLVED

Nearly twenty years ago three men
set out in balloon on voyage that
was to take them over the top of the
world and down the other side. Men
saw them start, saw them soar high
in the air and disappear off into the
north, and, SO far as we know, no man
ever saw>them again. What happened
to these explorers no one for years
has known, for the arctic hides it's
secrets well. Their fate has remained
mystery in spite of occasional rum
ors of the finding of their balloon.
The ether day attention was again
called to Andree by the report that
shreds and fragments of large bal
loon were discovered in a forest of
eastern Siberia. Even now the north
mocks those who ~ould know more.
Those bits of silk and hempen rope
may mark the end of Andree's polar
explorations, but even SO they tell
us little. How that end came, after
what perils and privations had been
endured, whether or not the goal of
the explorers had been attained-we
will doubtless never know. To such
a trip as Andree and his companions
planned there must be inevitably one
of two endings, either success and
eternal fame or annihilation and obli-
teraticn. They must have known be-
fore they started how greatly the
chances for failure overbalanced those
for success; and yet they started
forth, facing that unknown, immeasur-
able fate that is always more ter
rifying than the known. Commenting
in this vein, the Savannah News says
of the Andree expedition:
Men who live humlrum lives will
hardly appreciate the spirit that ami
mates the explorer and sends him to
face cheerfully unknown terrors, pri-
vations, and hardships, and even
causes him to risk his life. Announce
ments that the balloon in which An
dree sailed has been found serves to
call attention anew ito the consid-
cradle body of men who in recent
years have risked everything merely
to reach unattained sections of the
earth. Peary in the arctic, Shackleton,
Amundsen, and Scott in the antarc-
tic, and more recently Roosevelt in
Brazil, have set records that will be
remembered long after every corner
of the earth is accurately mapped.
Glamour surrounds their feats of ex-
ploration, but the attempted air jour-
ney of Andree and his two compan-
ions appeals even more strongly to the
imagination. For years there has been
no doubt that he is dead, but how
he died and where and when have
been unsolved mysteries. For an ex-
plorer to strike into uninhabited, froz-
en- country leaving depots of sup
plies in his path and making every
necessary arrangement for his safe
return does not indicate that he is
not a brave man or is unworthy of
high praise, but his brand of courage
is tinged with caution. Andree took
q long chance. He believed there was
possibility of his floating through
the air clear over the top of the
world, but his belief was shared by
very few persons, and there was no
surprize when month after month
passed with no tidings of him and
his little party.
A few slight traces of the flight
were found at first. The Seattle Post
Intell;gencer mentions these in ap.
probation of the party's heroism:
The plan to reach the pole by bal
loon perhaps was the most daring Of
any of the attempts to attain that