THE NORTH POLE HOAX.

Timaru Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 1775, 8 June 1895, Page 4

THE NORTH POLE HOAX.

Full particulars of the manner m which Baron von- Mueller' was hoaxed with an account of the alleged disccv/nr oT the North Pole show "that -the aitaii^origin^ ated m Berlin. The Baron obtained his information from an- article m a Crermari paper published m Sydtfey." The report was very circumstantial, and bu L t fpi'i one thing was calculated ' to. /, de<?e|ye , tjie reader. It purported to be a telegram • ' dated! from: Vardoehurisy tat. f7Odeg; 20min. N., long. 31deg. 10min.\' ? arid narrated that the ship* Aegir' had succeeded m reaching the North Pole/ *' Alter a long journejr through ojteri water,- the crew, which had taken to a boat fixed on four wheels, came abross a line of porous rocks running from east to west. -These rocks were inhabited by millibnsiQf water--birds. The western passage waVmade through narrow; channels -the sides of which almost touched each other at the top. Above the rocks a brilliant light,accompanied by" a. great 'roaring noise,' was noticed. After passing through the, channel' the; crew came upon _a_wide! extent of open 'watei 1 , "containing enormous quantiti^s^oi fisliAof •: alUdesdrlp-j tions*. The temperature was 36deg Faluv The crew, whoai i e 1 all"w > ell;.''avei now on| their way oack." In JEjaron von Mueller's; opinion *the expedition .to which* . the| telegram 2 referred was planned by:. one| Schonlank, of Berlin,.], The Aegir wag; given by the late Commander i^vend' Foyen, of Tpnsberg, the r sanife gentleman; who recently sen^.the 'steamer to the South Polar Sea:' The report further stated;- that.-, the ;open expanse of water mentioned was ; discovered by ; means of a captive .balloon,; and the' Baron took some credit to himself for having assisted m the solution of the one great gepgraphicalproblem,as he hadfirst suggested the use of suchbaljoons when corresponding" "with Or Nansen on the subject' of polar exploration .The ex-' pedition, it may Ve"*mentioned, was said to be commanded by a Norwegian bearing the historic im|de of Harold Haarf age. The Melbourne ' papers to whlcli'JSaron von Mueller furnished this information regarded it, m Mark Twain's words, as " interesting but tough." .-The one thing needed to lend it Versimifttude was the corroboratlon of the report by English and Continental journals: ■ In the absence of this authentication the Argus mildly chaffed the Baron over the matter, and that worthy' Sjrietotist was uiiftbl^'to;;<j6n- ;- vert the 'editor from his scepticism although he evolved most ingenious theories as to? the .means by ."which the news reached Berlin, and subsequently Sydney, without attracting the attention of. the European Press. Finally, the Baron communicated the doubtings of. the journalistic mmd to the 7 editor of the German paper published m Sydney, the name of which we forbear to inflict upon our readers. That gentleman ; -who -had -copied^ the story from a Berlin paper.; with considerable enterprise cafcledtd Berlin to ascertain the truth of the report. ; The, result was that the Baron admitted that "for the first time m his life." (happy man) he had been cruelly deceived. The answer received m. Sydney from Berlin •was that the whole article was a hoax and that no such expedition was ever organised. The T^orth Pole may stand where it did,, but its discovery is still a problem of the future!'" ' '.".'.,