Dr. Nansen's Return.

Hastings Standard, Issue 97, 18 August 1896, Page 4

Dr. Nansen's Return.

(N.Z. Times.) The great question of the discovery of the North is settled at last. The intrepid Norwegian has not discovered the North Pole, and the discovery still remains a dream. Three rival expeditions were out at the same time, Nansen's, .Jackson's and Andree's all racing for the Pole. The first was going by water, the second by land, the third by the air. A report came in the other day that Andree had been obliged, owing to some accident to his balloon, to give up ; but that requires confirmation. If it is confirmed, then the air party must be pronounced to have failed. The news we published recently shows that the water party has failed. There will now remain in the field then only the land party. What a very important light Nanseii's voyage has thrown on the prosptctsof the land party is evident at the first glance t0 anyone who lias followed the accounts of these expeditions. Now, Naiisen started from the Siberian coast, not far from the New Siberian Islands, and his journey has taKvn him partlv m the Fram and \ i tl\ 1 11 ') S[ it. bt lgeii. 1 ) lof 3 1 iT lie has, therein inull 1i n J el Land, which he has dt uiuii-ti it* d n, be an island, having pr.d b> v.un it and the Pole in the lirst pare of bis voyage at sea, in the second by the northern and western coast.■» of Franz -Josef Land. Now. ?\fe--r- -T.icL-.tn and Harniswortl d l I f i their success on the ho-, e l i lit Jo->f Land might prove -) 1 i 1' hr continent. Their plan i t (til l h depots of stores by degrees nearer and nearer to the Pole on lit vt hi i oast, which has a nari'i i - »i p of le W! s . "oyage has demonstrate 1 pi-it \ih is that Franz Josef Land l- ui i iml u;d that the necessary land trending northward is not in front of Jackson and his depots, that Jackson will have to take to the rl i t f ! i l i] -an hour in the 1 i- m u ill >id on his 2-10-i | i \ u i I the Pole. Oil i i) 1 i 1a 1 i l - j'iveii it as Ids } n .1 hlit nt in! L have gut dogs Lie wou;d have reacued the Pole himself on the pack ice. ]>ut that opinion he has proved to be extremely sanguine by his own desperate retreat, southward- aero--, the pack from where he abandoned his ship to the northern const of Franz Josef Land. I>r Nansen's plan was to leave the coast at the month of the river Lena, and then to start in a northerly direction along the western coast of the Island of Kotelnoi, the most westerly of the Liakov, or New Siberian Group, continuing, until the pack ice rendered further navigation impossible. On this point Dr Nansen 'said before he started :—■ " We shall do our best to force the

ship through the ice, but we shall at last reach a point where we must stop. This will probably bring us to September, 1893, and we shall in this way get to some distance north of the New Siberian Islands ; but I cannot say how far, as no one has ever been there before. Wlien navigation becomes no longer practicable I shall have nothing left but to ram the ship into the ice as far as possible and stick there. Having rammed the ship into the ice for the winter—possibly for ever, as I don't expect we shall be able to move until we reach open water on the other side of the Pole—we shall have to be contented for the time being with a policy of masterly inactivity. We shall be continually moving in a northerly direction. Assisted by nature, instead of fighting' against her. we expect to be tak"n by the drifting of the ice tloes right across the Polar region down into the East Greenland sea, between Spit/bt rgr n and Greenland, having in this way reached and passed the Pole. We take with us provisions for live years, and it is possible that this may be the period during which we shall be at the mercy of the ice." To carry out this plan he left Norway in -June, 1898, in the Fram. In August a telegram was received from him that he was about to enter the Kara Sea on his way to the New Siberian Islands, N.E., and that his

ship was behaving splendidly. Since then little has been heard of him, and that little has proved incorrect and mysterious. What has happened in the tlm t \eir-, that have since elapsed ; nto the cable message ;we published recently. The Fram appears to k isted the constantly crtishinir an 1 1111 Imp; ice for months ot weary drst'in, md had at last to be aba nli in 1 ift i i h lit of 18 months. The doctor then made a plucky am nipt to reach the Pole in sledge's and canoes. The difficulty of his taskmay Ja- -ten from the words of Sir L>- tj'old M( CKntocL " A «i.'ll-eipnjiped sledge party can onh lea\e lis base for about ~A) davs on itN own r "mrcti. Calculating that a man can drag 2001b and a clog 1001b, then a party with one six-man sledge and one six-dog sledge can drag ISOOIb ;■ but this must include the weight of the sledges, the tents, anus and ammunition, medical stores, instruments, clothing worn by the party as well as provisions." It was a curious a id most fortunate coincident that he fell m with Jackson's party, lie turns out at last to have collaborated with that party in the most valuable manner. Had* his expendition been planned to explore ahead of Jackson, who is feeling his way north along the coast of Franz Josef Land, things could not have fallen out better. It is not improbable, judging by Nansou's sanguine tone, that the two will combine for another expend ition to work by the light of Naesen's experience of the pack ice, which seems not to have been quite so bad as decribed by McClinfcock. Certainly no one has ever seen so much of it as Naosen. Dr Nansen's farewell to his countrymen when he set out in the Fram Were, ".I hope that Norwegian men ■women will ami kind thoughts to ' * c^Vi,jZl "...

us while we drift through the cold, dark polar world." Few Norwegians, however, expected to see the explorer again. On September 29th, 1895, the Herald published an interesting letter describing ail interview with the explorer's wife. Dr Nansen's home is picturesquely situated at Lysaker, a suburb of Christiania. Here live his wife and daughter—the former an intellectual, vivacious and cheerful young woman, the latter a beautiful little girl about two and a half years of age. Here they await his return in a characteristic Norwegian home, in every part of which mementoes of the absent voyager meet their eyes. A bust of I)r Nansen is the prominent object in the parlor. In every corner, on every little stand and table are photographs and paintings of the distant husband and father. The walls are decorated with paintings representing Arctic scenes and adventures. He has been away just over three years. After all his hardships and desolations and dangers, he returns safe and sound, beaten, but the splendid hero of the most perilous Arctic expedition in the records of Arctic adventure. That he will get a grand reception from the world goes without saying. But for him the grandest thing will be his return to his Norwegian home, his patient life, and his idolised child. Of that we need say no more than that it must not be described, and that it toudu-s everv heart.