A TRAGIC MESSAGE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 172, 13 August 1909, Page 4

A TRAGIC MESSAGE.

FROM THE POLAR ICE. THE ERICHSEN EXPEDITION. Along the boundless dessert of ice stood a 11..,.i, staring at the blood red sun that stood like a Chinese lantern upon the horizon. Slowly the red bail sank and with it sunk hope. The gray Arctic shadows spicad over the inexcrable whiteness, and on their wings rode despair. As the hist red ray lingered dying over the icy waste, the man stretched out his arms' to it in a last farewell. For him that sun would rise no more. The dying ligjtt meant death. The dawn was six mouths distant, and he was alone, alone in the Arctic night, his furs in tatters, his feet hare and frozen. He was alone and starving in the silence and the cold of the Arctic night.

He lay down in the snow and wrote upon a book. lie signed' his name as one would write ''Amen." Then he staggered on in the darkness, the silence, the cold. Hut his feet were frozen, hunger gnawed him like a wolf. The cold gripped to is heart; the Arctic night gathered him in eternal silence. .Months later they found his body and read the shaky lines which lie had performed as his' last ilutv: GREENLAND DISCOVERED TO BM

AN ISLAND. "Dead, at the fjord, after tryinsf to return over (he ice of the interior, ill November, I reach here at the setting I of the moon; I can go no further because of my frozen feet and the darkness. The bodies of the others will bo found in the middle of the fjord, in front of the glacier, about two and a half miles, llagen died on the 15th November, and Myliug about ten days afterwards.—.Torgen Bronlund." In these few simple words, scrawled with numb lingers, the log of the Erichsen expedition closed and the latest tragedy of the Arctic reached its' climax. The survivors of the expedition have just returned to civilisation, bringing with them the previous finite to the gathering of which three human lives were sacrificed. The most precious of these is the completed map of Greenland, proving that Greenland is an island; but, precious as this is, one cannot help asking if it is worth the months of torture and the awful deaths which were the price at which it was bought. From the log of the expedition the tragedy can be reconstructed. The Kriohsen expedition sailed from Copenhagen on June 24, 1006. Its object was to chart the north-east coast of Greenland and Peary Land. It was commanded by Mylius Eriehs'en, a Dane, and the Denmark, its vessel, was under Captain Koch. With them were Lieutenant Hagcii, a-cartographer; M. Bertiesen, an artist; Tobias Gahrielson and ■lorgou Bronlund, Danes, whose homo was in Greenland. Besides these were more than 100 Esquimaux dogs, in charge of three natives'.

After sailing through the ice along the eastern shore of Greenland, as fur us Cape Amelie, the Denmark reached Cape Bismarck, on August 10, 1900, and anchored to the north of the Koldcwey Islands, in a sminll, natural harbor, 'Which they christened Danmark's Haon (Denmark Harbor). There the ves'scl remained for two years, while the explorers, with their sleighs, surveyed the coast to the "north and south—from Shannon Island, as far as Cape Brid»maii, and as fa r as Cape Glacier, in Independence Bay.

DIFFICULTIES OF POLAR EXI'IiOEATION. From the uutunni of 1908 to the spring of 11)07 they installed depots of provisions nt point.,' where thev would be most useful, and it was not until March 28. IIIU7, that they actually started on their perilous trip. The expedition was divided into four parties, two principal ones and two of which tile duty was simply to establish distant depots ot stores'. The two principal parties consisted, the first, of Erichscn, Hagcn and Bronlund; the second, of Koch Iter--tlesen, and Gabrielsen. The first was to go to the west across Independence Bay to a point that had boon established by Peary near Cape Glacier, and tae second was to go north towards' another of Peary's points near Cape Hridg.ua... II they should succeed the map of Greenland would be complete. The two parties travelled together nnui May 1, when they separated. After ft voyage of three months, Koch's partv returned to naumark's Mao,., l lav i„; accomplished its task of smvoviim- the coast as far a. Cape Bridgm,,,,.' & j ts return it met tl„.. ErMlsca t tape Kiksdag. J Ei'iehsen had encountered great difficulties; he had ascended Danmark's I'jord to its end, and was now 0 n his way north. lie told Koch to return southwards, while ho am! his partv pushed on towards Cape Glacier The tnch.cn party missed its way, mistook - I-'Vat. fjord for Independence Bay. « 'sled much tunc in exploring ft before be error was discovered, ami had to dc!l''| Sto|M - 1!l,t *l Jart it reach«pe Glace,-, and proved that Creen"urn was an island. lii'turning, they «or,. impeded be "K'ltms ice, and bad to spend the summer of 1907 nt the head of Damm™ I'jni''., hi the autumn they tried by 'arching across country to 'reach the co I, ami night overtook them, and they pciiahcd one after another. On May »7 re n^rf o7l^''! 5 , the e,ltr - v thnt they ; o "t Cape Riksdag, after hayi„„ explored the great bay, which they n°an,e,l ftmmark's Fjord. This same day they encounter the Koch party, returning £. '■earful from the north. Although the S/ S , far Erlchsn decided, as we have said, to try again to accomplish the most important part "Mini nnss.on, Mlncl ,, to

to Hie three horoes-thc poor Greenn ns t ' X^t, ;'' 1 f t, '!' U . ntfft '' , ' is ™" : the hw of I , i- • an '' mn l ls "1" e nL '' PX l ,cd J tlo " oaref.Hlv pack-'ieh-e Tm/'u"'' 'TI tI,C ™*» <•'