THE ALLEGED DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH POLE.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9385, 8 April 1896, Page 4

THE ALLEGED DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH POLE.

Notwithstanding the somewhat confident cable message which reached this colony about six weeks ago, reporting that Dr. Nansen had discovered land at the North Pole, and was returning to Europe, it appears that there is a doubt about the matter which' will not be entirely cleared up until we have some direct intelligence from Dr. Nansen himself. The present report was forwarded by a Siberian trader named Kuchnareff, who had acted as Dr. Nansen's agent, and he in turn derived the news from M. Kandakoff, of Kolimsk, a councillor to the Provincial Government of Yakutsk, and himself an Arctic explorer of experience. Where this gentleman got the information from is not stated, and until we know his authority it is impossible to decide what weight is to be attached to the report. On the one hand we have the fact that Dr. Nansen, before he started, made arrangements by which his first message was k> besent to the Royal Geographical Society, and that so far the Society have had no tidings from him. Then/again, Dr. Nansen's relatives at Christiania were among the first to discredit the news from Kolimsk. On the other hand, it is stated that M. Kandakoff is an official of good reputation, that M. Kuchnabeff is a merchant of very wide commercial connections in Siberia, and it is quite possible that any news of Dr. Nansen would come quicker through his intermediary than news sent by Dr. Nansen himself.

It is now nearly three years since the great explorer left Norway on his memorable voyage in search of the North Pole. He had previously made known through the English Press the programme he intended to follow. He proposed to sail direct to Novaya Zemlya, stopping there to revictual and examine the state of the ice. So soon as the latter permitted, the party intended to leave for the Kara Sea. Skirting the Siberian coast the plan was next to call at the mouth of the river Lena for dogs, and thence to sail in a northerly direction past the New Siberiangroupof islands, until the pack ice rendered further navigation impossible. Having jammed his vessel into the ice, it was Dr. Nansen's belief that he would be able to drift in thisposition rightacross the polar region down into the East Greenland Sea between Spitsbergen and Greenland, having in this way reached and passed the Pole. He took with him provisions for five years, but always

said he. had. jqq knowledge of the date of his return. " I may be away only two years," he sajd to an English interviewer, " but of tbis I feel certain —that I shall be baqk at the end of five years." ,, ' How fair Dr. Nansen has been able to carry qijt tbj_s programme we have as yet no certain knowledge. The last really authentic news, which we have of him was in 1893, when the Fram was reported from the Kara Sea. The original intention to call at the Lena River was never carried out. The summer of 1893 was particularly favourable for Arctic work, and it is inferred by experts that Dr. Nansen, finding the sea so unusually free from ice, determined not to waste time by calling at the Lena or the New Siberian Islands, but to push on to the North as rapidly as possible. In this way he may have got much nearer to the Pole before being ice-locked than he originally expected. But "if the present news of him be true, he must have abandoned his project of drifting across the Polar regions. Kolimsk, where M. Kandakoff is stationed, is on the Arctic seaboard, east of the New Siberian Islands. Captain Wiggins—who arrived at St. Petersburg early in February last from a successful voyage through the Kara Sea —points out that, if the news is true, it is strange that Dr. Nansen should have returned so far eastward after having started from somewhere about the same spot with the current which was to drift him north-west-ward. Still, he adds, it 13 not impossible. A theory put forward by Admiral Richards and other authorities, which would help to explain the mystery, is that Nansen, finding land at the Pole, may have gone across it until he had accomplished the great object of his expedition. Then, finding it unnecessary or impracticable to re-enter the ice and go on until he came out at Spitzbergen or Greenland, he may have made his way back either to the Siberian Islands or to the north coast of Siberia. In either of these two alternatives it is estimated that it will be next June or July at the earliest before we can receive from the explorer himself an account of what he has done. Till then we must possess our souls in patience. Whether Dr. Nansen has actually reached the Pole or not, the story of his adventures will be awaited by the public with an interest which nothing in the way of exploration has called forth since Stanley wrote "In Darkest Africa." The competition among the publishers for the inevitable book of travels should be very keen. Possibly some people will be sorry if it should turn out that Dr. Nansen has been successful in the object of his expedition. There will be one mystery the less to add to the romance of life if the secret of the North Pole has in reality been at length unlocked. But we. still have the Antarctic circle left to us to give reins to the imagination and work for the explorer. Perhaps Dr. Nansen, however, will not even leave us the Autarctic, but will try for the " double event." To conquer the frost and ice of both Poles should be enough for the ambition of any man.