THE HERO OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 12053, 22 December 1906, Page 7

THE HERO OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE.

THE GJOA AT SAN FRANCISCO.

Th« Gjoa, the staunch little Norwegian sloop in which Captain Roald Amundsen, navigator, explorer, scientist, for three years defied the storms and perils of the Arctic, and successfully made the uncharted and untraversed Nortli-west Passage, reached San Francisco last montn. Amid the booming of cannon and dipping bunting she was officially navigated into the channel waters of San Francisco by her master, the hero of the North-west Passage. The Gjoa will probably be left in San Francisco, as it would be too expensive to take her around the Horn. " And do you feel satisfied with the results of your trip, Captain Amundsen?" was asked. " Yes," said the captain, seriously, "I must be. When I lectured to the Geographical Society in Christiania in 1902, telling about' my plans, I drew a line on the map where I wanted to go, and it will not be necessary to draw another. I have gone over it. Nansen was present at my lecture,, and gave me great encouragement. It was owing to his help that I could go at all." " What did you miss most on your trip, captain?" " Miss? I missed absolutely nothing. The town life? Not for one instant. As far as that is concerned, I should not care if I could go back to-morrow. There is something about the solitude, the groat, beautiful calm, which draws one more than anything else in the world. I can't explain what the charm is." The great explorer was struggling to clothe in appropriate words the deep poetic feeling in h's heart for the solitude of the Arctic ice-fields, but he is a man made more for action than for words. Nevertheless his enthusiasm could not help communicating itself to his hearer.