A TRIP TO THE NORTH POLE.

Evening Star, Issue 11455, 24 January 1901, Page 1

A TRIP TO THE NORTH POLE.

An entirely new departure in Arctic exploration will be made next summer. Russia will send north her wonderful ice ship, the Ycrnak. with instructions to try to cut her way through to the Pole. The performance of this vessel in cutting- and tearing her way at three or four miles an. hour through the immense ice fields of thp Baltic Sea'and other Russian waters has excited amazement among all who have witnessed it. She is now being equipped and improved for the greatest of all tasks. The Armstrongs at Elswick just completed a new bow which is especially designed to encounter the field of ice in the Arctic Sea, which is heavier and thicker than any which the Ycrnak has yet attacked. The original bow was easily capable of dealing with any of the enormous ice fields which Russia produces. She went to a high latitude on an experimental trip hist summer, and accomplished all that could be expected of her in her assault upon the external ice which she then encountered. The alterations now being made were suggested by this experience. Admiral Makaroff, who i.r superintending the changes, has the greatest confidence that his ship will cut her way without delay straight to the Pole, and ’will return safely in the same season. Every piecaution has been taken to fit her out’for a long stay in case of accident or blockade.

A chnrch dignitary, who was formerly an officer in Her Majesty’s service, tells an anecdote of his father’s, which, though it may not represent the feeling of the army to-day, is one of those stories which explain the title “ Cheesemongers," as applied to one of Her Majesty’s regiments. “Second. Lieutenant F. to Second Lieutenant S.: ‘I say,. S., is it true that your father was only a shopkeeper?* S.: ‘Quite true. What of it?’ F.: ‘Oh, nothing; only it was a great pity, I think, that he didn’t make you one!’ S.; ‘ You think so? Well, opinions differ. But, let me ask you, what was your father?’ P.: ‘My father! Why, my father, of course, was a gentleman.’ S.: ‘ Ah, end what a pity he did not-make you one!’” '