THE ANDREE EXPEDITION.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10270, 13 February 1899, Page 5

THE ANDREE EXPEDITION.

• REPORTED DISCOVERY OF THE BALLOON. THE EXPLORERS DEAD. United Press Association—By Elaetrio Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, February 11. 1 News is to hand taat a tribe of the Tunguses has discovered, in the Yeniseisk province, in Eastern Siberia, part of a balloon, i three bodies, and a number of instruments. The bodies are supposed to be those of Dr. Andree and his two companions, Herr Fraenckel and Dr. Strindbcrg. Dr. Andree ascended in a small balloon on July 11th, 1897, from Danes Island, on the . north-west coast of Spitzbergen, in the hope that kindly breezes would waft him across t the icy wastes of the Arctic to some friendly Krt in Siberia or North America. The lloon when last seen seemed to be rapidly travelling to the N.N.E. Two days afterwards a message was received by a homing pigeon to the effect that the voyagers were all well. According to this message the progress made in two days only amounted to 130 miles. Since then to news has lieen received until the present time of the fate of Andree and his companions. A relief expedition which left Tromso on November 4th, 1897, returned without any news of the ! explorer. The relief expedition under Herr > Stadling was equally unsuccessful. In October last year it was stated that the expedition of Walter Wellman, the American explorer, bad found traces of Andree in Franz Josef Land. Assuming that the ; bodies now discovered in the Yeniseisk pro-A-rnce are those cf Andree and his two friends, it Avill be seen that the balloon - instead of being wafted across the Pole i- must have been carried away from it in a I south-easterly direction to far below TOdeg 1 latitude. The Tunguses referred to above are a nomad race of Mongolian extraction, who live about the mountains of Eastern Siberia , and the Amur region.