THE POLAR BALLOONISTS.

Evening Post, Volume LIV, Issue 43, 19 August 1897, Page 5

THE POLAR BALLOONISTS.

_ * A PIGEON MESSAGE FROM HERR ANDREE. EVIDENTLY DESPATCHED SOON AFTER HE STARTED. [PEESS ASSOCIATION.] London, 17th August. A pigeon, bearing a message from Herr Andree, the Swedish aeronaut, who last month left Spitzbergen on a balloon voyage to the North Pole, has been shot by the captain of the sealing vessel Alken, between the North Cape, Norway, and the Seven Islands off the coast of Lapland, near the entrance to the White Sea. The message states that at the time of its despatch the balloon had passed the 82nd degree of latitude, and was making good speed northwards. It bears Andree's signature, but the date is illegible. No recent atlas that we can find shows any Seven Islands off the coast of Lapland. On the other hand, there is a North Cape of Spitzbergen a little more than 100 miles from Davies Island, from whioh Herr Andree was to make his ascent, and within 20 miles of this again is a group known as The Seven Islands. This suggests the probability that a mistake has been made in the interpretation of the message in Sydney, and t/iat it is near the Spitzbergen North Cape instead of the Norwegian North Cape that the bird was shot. The Seven Islands are situated nearly 81deg of North latitude, or within less than 100 miles of the point from which the message is evidently despatched.