Evening star., 1925-04-26
EARLY SPRING IN ARCTIC GIVES
AMUNDSEN FAVORABLE CHANCE
Reports ShOW Season
Much More AdUanced
Than Is Usual.
Spitzbergen Vas Base of
T,Uo Other Efforts to
Reach Pole by Air.

capt FetT Rosenberg tells Of
the conditions that lCiH face the
Norwegian. Aero Club ia its air
plane dash for the North Pole nert
month in tlCo articles tCritten er-
cluSirelY for The star and the
! North american Newspaper Ali
dHce.
capt. RicsFnberO irds the ndri-
gator on Walter Welmdn's air
ship America in the first attempt
10 reach the North Pole By dirigibie
balloon.
BY CAPT. FEIIX RIESENBERG
BY Cable to The star and North American
Newspaper Alliance.
NEW YORK, April 25.-Radio re-
ports stating that the Norwegian
Aero Club steamers Farm and Hobby
have reached Kings Bay indicate an
exceptionally open season in the
SpitZbergen sector of the Arctic. Here,
due to the warming influence of the
Gulf Stream, ships are able to pene-
trate we'll above so degrees of north
latitude. or to within 500 miles of the
North Pole. But this sector is not
generally navigable until the latter
part of May at the very earliest.
The two previous serious attempts
to reach the North Pole by air started
from Spitzbergen. taking off for the
pole from Danes Island. Andree tried
TO reach the pole Try free balloon,
ascending July II, 1897, from Virgo
Haven. Danes Island. Andree and his
two companions, Strindberg and
F'raenkel, Swedish explorers and
scientists, never returned, and their
fate remains a mystery.
Driven Back BY Storm.
The second attempt, coming 10
years later, was that of the American
journalist, traveller and explorer, Wal
ter Wellman, who left the same point
at Danes Island on September >, 1907,
in the dirigible balloon America, going
as far north as the island of Cloven
Cliff, and being driven back by an
unexpected storm which wrecked the
balloon. A second attempt by Well
man, in 1909, also met with disaster,
but no lives were lost.
The Andree expedition did not
reach Danes Island until June %.
1895. and in 1897 it reached the same
base on June /. The Wellman eX
pedition did not get to Danes Island
until June Z, 1907.
Location of Kings Bay.
Kings Bay is we'll to the north
ward, north of the island called
Prince Charles Foreland. and lies in
about 70 degrees north latitude.
Danes Island lies so miles farther
north, at the extreme northwest point
of Spitzbergen, being sheltered on
the northwest by a high island
called Amsterdam Island. The east
ern end OF Amsterdam Island breaks
down fat and presents a plain, with
ample maneuvering space for air
craft. especially when coated with the
blanket of Winter snow. This plain
of land one of the few places of it's
kind in SpitZbergen. is just north of
the old Andree and Wellman balloon
camps.
The fact that the Farm has reached
such a high altitude so early in the
years speaks well for the open nature
of the season. The fact that the
other ship, the Hobby, met with
rough weather also accords with the
early Spring weather of those seas.
Frequent and violent storms sweep
over SpitZbergen during the Arctic
Winter and in the early Spring.
These are soon followed by the settled
Summer weather and in June, July
and August it is the most equable
climate in the world, the temperature
holding in the neighborhood of 32
Fahrenheit.
House on Island.
If Ellsworth and Amundsen sue
ceed in reaching Danes Island by the
early part of May, they will have
made a very favorable start. At
Danes Island is the famous Pike
House, a log house built by an Eng
lish sportsman named Pike, who
wintered there in 1889 for the pur-
pose of hunting polar bear. The
house was very substantially built
and has been used by many expedi-
tions to those regions. II will afford
ample shelter.
The Spitzbergen Archipelago was
discovered by Cornelius Barents in
May, 1896. Henry Hudson sailed to
the northward. passed Amsterdam
Island and named it's northernmost
cape Hackluyts Head. This is close
to the base from which the Norwegian
Aero Clubs airplanes will start. He
reached this point on June %, 1907.
The first of the worlds great woma n
explorers, Nine. D'Aunet, sailed to
those waters in the French ship La
Recherche, commanded by Fabvre.
They reached Magdalena Bay, be-
Observation-Disclosures