Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-01

Given erclusipelv to the Associated
about the. discovery Of the Andree erpe-
! dition's last camp on White Island,
Frtdtjot Nansen Land.
ABOARD MOTOR SHIP BRA
TVAAG, Skjaer Island, Norway,
September / (by wireless to the
Associated Press The Norwegian
expedition to Franz Josef's Land
(now Fridtjof hansen Land, in
the Summer of 1880 was made
with the motor sealer Bratvaag of
Aalesund. The skipper was Peder
Eliasen.
1t was planned that the vessel
should at the same time hunt
whales, seals and ice bears.
We sailed from Aalesund on July %
and in marvellous weather we went
northward along the coast to Tromsoe,
where we arrived on the 30th Of July
in the morning. That evening we con-
tinued our voyage, and by the next
morning we were well out at sea, past
Soroya Island.
We made our course for Hopen, our
first stopping place. We arrived there
August 3. From there we proceeded to
King Karl's Land (Spitzbergen) and
arrived on August at Sable Island
which is the northwesterly part Of King
Karl's Land.
Ice Conditions Favorable.
Because Of reports from hunting
expedition that had been north earlier
this year, we knew that ice conditions
were unusually favorable, and up to
now we had not seen one floating Tee
berg.
Therefore, we decided that en- route
to Franz josef Land we could visit the
islands between Spitzbergen and Franz
Josef Land, which usually are hard to
reach.
These are Stor Island, White Island
and Victoria Island.
So we continued, and early on the
morning Of August 5 we glimpsed a
great islands white peak through the
fog. We discovered that the map for
this region is incorrect. as this island
lays about IL miles farther to the west
than on the British admiralty map, and
that the mapping done by the Worsley-
Algarsson expedition in 1925 is quite
correct.
We first landed on the southeast side
of the island, where the coast Is quite
bare. After that we were on the north
east side, where there is a great ex-
panse of bare fat land.
Just on the beach there is a pole
that marks the spot where a depot was
established by the Italians in 1928 for
Mobile and Roald Amundsen. Beside
II mn
had with us.
Hut Good for Refuge.
It is good to have hut on this God
forsaken place in case some Inflated
expedition should seek refuge there.
At 5 o'clock we weighed anchor and
sailed eastward in ice-free waters. At
the outset we were followed by our old
friend, fog, but it soon disappeared, and
then we caught sight of the big white
peak on White Island.
This island-Giles Land, as it is also
calied--is known to be one of the most
unapproachable islands in the whole OF
the Spitzbergen region, and here we
were going full speed toward it in ice
free waters
We certainly were lucky, and our 10Y
was great over the possibility Ct being
able to land so easily at this rarely
visited place. Little did we imagine
then that our visit would lead to the
final explanation of one OF the most
tragic and mysterious happenings in the
history OF polar exploration.
We came up under a bare fiat lanc
on the southwest side of the island
White Islands position also is incor.
rectly marked on the maps, too far east
Dangers Are Detected.
1t was quite still and. there was 9
burning sun as we came to land VerJ
carefully Skipper Eliasen maneuverec
his vessel in through innumerable pro-
jections of land. Fortunately som,
stranded icebergs showed us wher,
most OF the dangerous projections were
located.
The skipper dropped anchor ant
members of the expedition went ashore
These were the botanist. Olaf Hansen
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