ALLEGED DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH POLE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 10329, 10 June 1895, Page 2

ALLEGED DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH POLE.

A GERMAN PROFESSOR HOAXED. Baron 'VON Mueller, of Melbourne, informed the Melbourne papers on May 22nd that 'he had received a copy of a German paper, styled tho Deutsclic Australische Post, of May 18th, containing a statement 'to tho effect that the Arctic exploring ship Aegir, which was sent out by Dr. Schomlank, of Berlin, and was commanded by Captain Haarfage, bad reached the North Pole. Baron Von Mueller said he .was inclined to believe the statement to be authentic.

The Deutsche Austral ische Post is a German newspaper, published in Sydney, and the information it gave was republishedfrom the well-known Berlin journal, the Berliner Tageblalt. The statements with reference to this interesting matter are to the effect that Dr. Schomlank, a wealthy man, and well-known in scientific circles, and a Mr Swend Foyen, who died recently, fitted out a whaler called the Aegir, for a voyage of discovery to tho North Pole, and placed her in charge of Captain Harrald Harfagr, a Norwegian. The vessel carried a captive balloon for making observations, and an aluminium boat fitted, on wheels, so that it could be hauled over land or ice. The expedition set out on 6th May, 1894, skirted Norway and Lapland, and crossed over to Nova Zembla. The.Gulf Stream luckily took them north, and then they reached Frank Joseph's Land. They were able to proceed at first by a passage, but on being blocked took an observation from the balloon, and saw in the direction in which they wished to go ice plateaus, with an open sea beyond. They then took to their aluminium boat, and on return despatched from Vardohnus, in Norway, a telegram to Dr Shoenlank, according to which they reached the North Pole, and thus accomplished the task in attempting which so many brave mariners had lost their lives. The telegram is as follows :—": — " After a long and painful voyage, we have reached the North Pole by the aid of a boat made of aluminium and on wheels, and we have found an open sea there. We saw some rocky masses slightly elevated formed of a porou* substance and peopled with rayriadß'ot sea' birds. The direction of this rocky island is east and west, and it iB traversed by a sort of narrow canal, between elevated rocks, the inner walls of which join at the summit. Our eye 3 were struck by phosphorescent flashes or electric lights of great intensity, and the flashes were accompanied by violent detonations. At the exit from the canal we discovered anew the open sea. The temperature is regularly uniform at 2* above zero. The open aea is peopled with innumerable shoals of fish of all sorts, which would cause one to believe that he was in the presence of the great reservoir which provisioned all the seas of the globe. We are returning all well. —(Signed) Harrald Harfagr."

The Aegir was built at Marstat five years ago. She is a wooden vessel of 148 tons, and is rigged as a three-masted schooner.

The Pall Mall Gazette humorously offers its " respectful congratulations " to the North Pole : — " AmoDg its press cuttings," observes the Pall A/all, the North. Pole will receive ■ a little paragraph from tbe Figaro, announcing its discovery by Dr. Nansen. Dr. Nansen, says the greatest of modern newspapers, started to drift with currents, and apparently drifted up a chain of mountains, among which he found tho pole. Also, it seems, he found a telegraph office, nnd at once wired off the great news to the Crown Prince of Norway and Sweden, who prudently refrained from mentioning it to anybody but .the Figayo, He then hoisted the Norwegian flag, ' to mark the spot,' our contemporary intelligently explains : it is Bucb a convenience to visitors to have the principal objects of interest in a locality prominently designated so. On his way back lie will presumably put up signposts and mile stone 3 along the currents. The temperature was two centigrade degrees above freeaing, so that the North Polo may yet become a winter health resort, where those whose constitution unfits them to brave a! 'Parisian winter, may enjoy the keen mountain air, swim in the < invigorating currents, walk round < and round (he flag, arid when all this palls, send telegrams, as from a new Eiffel Tower to the Crown Prince of Sweden and Norway." Mr A. H. Fieldstad, writing to the Sydney Morning Herald respecting the above, says :— '• This canard published in the DeutscH Australische Post, and siid to oo.rejpublished from the Berliner Tugeblatt, is so clumsy that one would hardly think that it could be taken seriously. But when on its round in the daily press it is stated (I am quite sure erroneously) that a man like Baron Ferdinand von Mueller is inclined to attach credence to it, I think it is time to give tha cheeky bird ,a kuock oh the head. It is ljkely, if thii piece of 'news were tme.that it should have reached Australia by the alow means 'of the Ber~ liner Tagcblatt in a maihbag to bs subsequently transferred to the DeuUihe Aus(raliecke Post ? In these dayaVwhen news of events of so little piiblio interest as the successful passing an"oxaroin"sition ,by a cojonial student are flashed through the 1 'cable," it would' be an incredible and iih- j pardonable negligence on the part "of i Australian newspaper correspondents in London to omit the news of the' diico very j of the North Pole. The writoris regularly in receipt of Norwegian newspapers, but no expedition such as described in the German paper has over been mentioned. Tho very name of the captain;, "> Harrald Harfao^r "—Harold with the beautiful hair — is clearly a fi.otitiou3 one. It is the name of tho king who, in tho ninth century made Norway into one kingdom after conquering all the separate kings and princea. The aluminium boat on wheels ia an absurdity. The. idea of a boat on wheels in an icefield is simply smasing ; had it been on ru.nn.evs it might have been feasible. The reports of phosphorescent flashes and electric lights, accompanied by violent detonations, remind U3a little toe much about the style of Jules Verne to be taken seriously, it is clear that the whole story ig a canard of the very clumsiest kind, far iufbrior to tho one a short time ago set afloat by the Paris Figaro on the same subject."