GRAF ZEPPELIN.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19734, 26 September 1929, Page 8

GRAF ZEPPELIN.

—,+, „.,, NORTH POLE FLIGHT.

DR. NANSEN'S EXPEDITION.

(CIfITBD **■•* AISOCtATIOIf—»* CUOTBtO TIUBOa*»B COPTBttHIT.)

(Received September 25th, 10.55 p.m.) LONDON, September S3.

"I look upon the expedition *• the moat important in my career,'• said Dr. Hansen, Who leads the Graf Zeppelin, lent to him by the German Govern' ment, to the North Pole la mid-April. The crew, he said, would be the same as* that which accompanied the airship on its round-the-world tour, with Captain Lehmann ae navigator. They would have full Are tic equipment, including twenty dogs and sledges. would ttart from Tromso and flv westward over Spitsbergen and North Greenland to the mouth of the Mackenzie river, thence to Fairbanks the journey occupying from four to five daya. After refuelling, the airship would make a four or are days' round cruise of the Aretie regions, returning to Fairbanks, and thence homeward via Northern Siberia.

Dr.. Nansen hopes to determine the distribution of land and water In the Arctic circle, and also to map any new land sighted. It is known that the North Pole is situated in the ocean, but the depth of that oeean hat not yet been properly measured.

Dr. Nansen explained that sea depths are measured by an ingenious apparatus lowered from the airship into the ice cracks and waterlanes.

He describes the expedition as more or less a pioneer trip, probably leading to the establishment of a chain of permanent and semi-permanent wirelesslyequipped meteorological posts all round the Aretie circle, thos incalculably assisting the forecasting of weather in Northern Europe, and the British Isles. Service.

[Dr. Nansen, the Norwegian explorer, first travelled across Greenland in 1888-89. In 1893-96 he made Ms memorable North Pole expedition, during whieh he reached the.highest latitude Until then attained. He is 68 years old.]