ANOTHER POLAR EXPEDITION.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 11689, 24 February 1902, Page 3

ANOTHER POLAR EXPEDITION.

Wireless telegraphy is to be a prominent feature of the next expedition that 1 sets out to seek the North Pole, and may be expected to prove of the greatest value on, a journey of this kind. Captain Bernier, the leader of the proposed expedition, intends to build a special ship, of about 300 tons net, and to take a .staff of six scientists and eight navigators. The ship will proceed from Vancouver to Behring Strait, and thence sail due north to a position 150 miles north-east of the point where the American vessel Jeannette was caught- in the ice. By following this course, which was the one taken by the American surveying expedition Of 1881, Captain Bernier claims that he will reach a point 150 miles nearer the Pole than the Jeanette did before his vessel gets jammed in the ice. His scheeme is a daring one, for even assuming the correctness of his theory, it will be necessary to drift with the ice for about two years and a half before the vessel reaches the point whence he intends to make his jour-ney-across the ice towards the Pole, which should then, according to his calculations, be not more than 100 or 150 miles distant. The plans for the land-journey have been carefully thought out, and if the weather conditions are favourable there seems to be a reasonable prospect of success for the adventurous undertaking. The party which leaves the ship will plant at intervals of one mile numbered aluminium tubes, 18 feet long, which will not only contain condensed provisions, but will also act as landmarks to guide the explorers back to the ship on their return journey. This work will be carried out by relays of men, and when the line of tubes has been carried northward to within 50 miles of the Pole, Captain Bernier and/ several of his party will then make the final " dash" across the intervening ice. The wireless telegraphy apparatus will enable the land party to keep in constant touch with the ship, and thus minimise one of the greatest difficulties against which arctic explorers have hitherto had to contend. Captain Bernier has secured two-thirds of the £30,000 required for the expedition, and is now in England collecting the balance. If his scheme works out successfully, he expects to make the journey to the Pole and back within four years. I