TO REACH THE NORTH POLE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XL, Issue 4, 5 January 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

TO REACH THE NORTH POLE.

SIS YEARS' DRIFT WITH THE ICE. ' Nothing less tJaan a five or six years' drifting expedition in the ice is Dr. Nansen's theory for the successful exploration of the yet undiscovered regions of the North Pole.

The famous' explorer and present Norwegian Minister in London di&cusses;this entrancing subject of Arctic discovery in the columns of the Reader, in an article entitled "How to Reach the North Pole." Referring to Commander Peary's venture 280 miles from his base—within 203 of the Pole— and the hardships due to the break-up of the ice, Dr. Nansen says: "One must h& prepared every year to meet similar conditions in the north; and sledge journeys across the Polar ice are, therefore, always more or less difficult as compared with sledge journeys along the coast of Arctic lands or across the inland ice of Greenland. ■-.. . . " We thus sco that a sledge expedition across the ice to the Pole from, say, Grant Land, Greenland,, or, perhaps, some still unknown land to the west, stretching further north, will have to cope -with" very greSt difficulties. None tae less, lam of the opinion that an experienced sledge traveller like Peary, .with an adequate equipment, and above all with good dogs arid plenty of them, will be able to accomplish the task." So much for the possibilities of sledging. Dr. Nanson turns then'to "another way —"by drifting across the North Polar basin in a ship enclosed in the ica in ths same way as that adopted by the Fram" (Dt. Nansen's vessel), and adds that "Peary's last discoveries of drifting ice in the north bring out still more clearly the great advantage of this method. The one desirable thing to be done is to send a ■ ship to Behring, Strait, let her penetrate as far north ai possible in the region between 160 and 170 degrees west longitude— to the north-west of the coast of Alaska—let her be frozen in there, and be borne along with the ice. We may now fbe perfectly confident that she will be carried across the North Polar region, far to the north of the route of the Fram, andaeross the most interesting part of what is still unknown. After five or six years, perhaps a little less, .she-would be carried out again on this side of the Pole between Greenland and Spitzbergen. "An expedition of this kind lias the great advantage that it gives the necessary conditions for important scientific observations. Soundings' might be taken, the life-of the sea might be examined in all depths, the temperature and currents might be measured, and physical observations of all kinds j might be carried on. . . May we hope that w© shall soon see both these expeditions carried out, one sledge expedition from the west- northwards, and one drifting expedition from, the Behring Strait."