A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIII, Issue 15000, 21 November 1899, Page 3

A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.

.'_".- -'■'• ■ ■» r— ' IQuite^ the most thrilling story which we j have had .for some time is that b-ought I "back from the frozen north by the members of the ICWelbnan expedition, whose return-, to Trpmsoo was recently recorded. In the'" aUtihttif bf 1898, ifc appears, an outpost, balled Fort ' McKinley, was estabtlrhed in latitude 81, and a house was built -jf rocks, • roofed ove- with walrus hides.-. -D Tiring the voyage of the Fram two Norwegian*, named Paul Bjoervig and Berht Ben'.ien, re- ••--. mained there. The main- party- wintered in a. canvas covered hut," .lamed Harms- "• worth House, at Cape Tegetthoff, in la.ii-. "".tuaeßO. - In" the middle of Febraary, be- ' the.rise-."of''the sun, .and in tini.depth .2 of 'winter;'' 3 M£ Wellma'ft, with /three Nor-, 'veglans and ~45 dogs, started north, this being the. earliest sledge journey on record t in such" a-'higKlatifude. On realcbing Fort* ' McKinleyth'ey~found the two men who had been 'with Nansen. ' Bentzen had died, and . ' Bjoervig, ..in' accordance with a nfemise he ' had made,-- kept his companion's dead bod-? in t^a house, sleeping beside it- tbrou.gh ,-- :tWO months of Arctic darkness:. Notwitb standing this terribJe e^pepence, Bjoervig -. was' well -'and cheerful. Another incident ■ of tho expedition was an earthquake, whicn -•occurred' ona. evening, killing many dogs ' and destroying Beveral. sledges. _ _M>- Well '.',> maim'himselfeds probably permanently crip ■■ pled frorft the efrects.of an a-cidenV whiph v . jnjured'his leg. -For a time, indeed, it i« said, his cimditioiL-Vas exteremely alarming ©ri ""account of inflammation, but his bravo. Norwegians dragged bim on a sledge making forced marches for neirly 200 miles i to' -the headquarters of the expedition". ' where they arrived early in April. As has . • "already been. stated, no- tracss of Andree' were found ih Franz Josef Land. ■" ■ " ' '' ' ■