BALLOONING TO THE POLE.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2169, 13 August 1897, Page 6

BALLOONING TO THE POLE.

ANDREES RIVAL GOES ONE BETTER. Judging from a cable message it seems probable that Dr Andree is not yet going to reach the North Pole by balloon. If his balloon was seen over —and not u in "—the White Sea the other day, it was travelling southwards and not northward from the starting point That was one of the possible incidents of his adventure, which, no doubt Andree took into consideration, and the wind which to-day blows him back may to-morrow help him onward. It is Nansen's " drift to the North " on a more rapid and more exciting scale. If on the other hand, the balloon was floating in the sea, the whole party may have been drowned. In the meantime it is on the cards that before long a French balloon expedition will be on its way to the Pole. M. Louis Godard has one in progress, and it has found plenty of support in France from newspapers, the Academy of Science, and the public. 111. Godard has been thinking out and studying the plan of the expedition, and he believes that with a well-constructed balloon and a well-

balloon and a wellchosen crew there is no risk about the enterprise. People's ideas of risks appear to differ. ■ Further," adds M. Godard, "our balloon will not follow any marked out route." That can well be believed, it is a way balloons have. The car of the balloon (which is to be of silk) will be about Bft long by 6ft wide and 6ft high. The working operations will take place on the roof, and inside will be cabins in which to eat and sleep. There will be altogether a crew of seven, including an Arctic navigator and a navy surgeon. ' Tha balloon will be inflated with hydrogen gas at Spitsbergen, and with a favourable wind it is expected that it will travel 225 miles a day. It will be able to remain floating in the air for fifty days—that is, if the calculations as to leakages are correct—and the contemplated voyage of exploration is not expected to last more than twelve or fifteen days, so that the explorers have a wide margin to allow for being blown hack occasionally. The cost of the expedition is to be defrayed by national subscriptions and grants from public bodies. M. Godard is as certain of success as it is possible for a man to be under such circumstances. At the same time he evidently does not think Andree's expedition will come to much, as in his opinion the balloon is not constructed on proper principles.