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Show tap Qf Jierfrctic. Qirce ahptqhf pre nous cxpeet.ficrTS ". Meir $r-fyet north The, proba&le course of fAe Ccaftewe . HAfct was e&ancfantct is Shown onthe njap. 7he iAioneffc, is fiouoht fo hort drifted etroif Mr Fee. Tho very latest suggestion as a moans of reaching tho North polo Is to uso tho very barrier thnt has hitherto hith-erto blocked tho way of ambitious navigators. nav-igators. Tho suggestion Is tho oralnwork of a Frenchman, founded on tho ad-tIco ad-tIco of Dr. Nanson, tho famous Norwegian Nor-wegian explorer. "Tako a ticket of lco in tho big train of lco" and drift. It Is not a ehanco where luck may decide, de-cide, but Is based on a knowledge of Arctic Occnn currents that nro known to cross tho polo from tho coast of Siberia to finally wash the shores of Qreonlnnd. M. Chnrles Benard, a French naval ofllcer, has attracted tho scientific ear of the world by this suggestion nnd tho proofs hu offers to sustain his theories. the-ories. Tlmo and tlmo again daring men hnvo attempted to force their ships through tho mountainous lco packs that bar their progress further north. Not so with Ilennrd, Ho would uso tho lco. He feels certain that tho drifting will do tho rest, for has not Siberian mud been found on tho coast of Greenland, sustaining his claim that glaciers from tho Russian shore havo crossed tho "open polar sea" and been thrown by tho ocean's currents cur-rents on tho shores of "tho big continent conti-nent of tho north, but llttlo known, for vast portions of Greenland nro still nn unexplored region. This Is not tho only proof of tho course of this Artie drift, for thoro Is tho story of tho ill-fated Jeanotto that was abandoned by Explorer Do Long off Dennett Islands, situated north of the Siberian northern coast, and which, after years' In tho Ice, wns thrown upon tho coast of Greenland. It Is the Jcanctto that has been advanced ad-vanced to provo two thlngn ono, that there must bo nn open sea, clso sho would hnvo been beached elsewhere, and tho other that tho current must practically bo continuous in a given direction, thnt Is, from Siberia toward Greenland. Thero havo been hundreds of thousands thou-sands of dollars spent on theso dashes for tho polo and a big sum Is asked for this unlquo scheme. Andreo tried to reach tho polo In a balloon nnd has never been heard of. Hansen constructed con-structed nn lco breaker and tried to butt in. Peary loll his ship nnd with sleds and dogs tried to reach tho coveted spot. All to no purpose but all acting ns a spur for otners to mako tho attempt. No ono has over thought of tho Idea, or, probably a fairer way of putting It, has over publicly pub-licly prosentod tho Idea of conquering lco by lco. It will bo a trip crowded with perils, for It Is tho purposo to forco tho ship Into tho lco with all tho attending dangers of having the vos-sol vos-sol crushed and being loft to freeze to death. There Is ono precaution taken to guard against this mishap In that two ships are to enter the pack together, and, whllo at a long distance dis-tance apart, to be held In communication communica-tion ono with tho othor by wireless telegraphy. Tho explorers expect that It will take from three to five years to drift across tho polo years of ex-tromo ex-tromo hardship, with' all tho attendant suffering that tho most intense cold enn Impose, such a cold that no ono except men who hnvo made voyages to tho north can understand, being almost al-most beyond human endurance. It Is of unusual Interest nt this tlmo also liecauBo Commander I'oary, tho American, Is about to undertake another an-other trip to tho north. Will tho American or Frenchman reach the goal first? Will both fall? Will the? over como back? Such questions may bo fairly put when an Arctic explorer starts on his voyago to tho regions of tho midnight sun. Tho Donard expedition will havo a rival In tho field In tho' shnpo of tho German south polar ship Gauss, which has been refitted for a Canadian expedition, nnd tho Peary expedition. Doth theso expeditions nro more on tho linos of former parties and rely on tho superiority of their outfits and good luck for their success. Part of M. Dcnard's speech, translated trans-lated Is as follows: "Tho only means of crossing th great polar basin consists in making again tho voyago of tho Fram of Nan-son, Nan-son, but a llttlo more to tho north, and to tako, ns Nansen said, 'a ticket of lco in the big train of lco.' In fact, It is necessary to remember that tho first Idea of tho crossing of the great arctic current originated In th discovery of driftwood nnd Siberian mud on tho eastern and southorn coasts of Greenland, and also In tha sighting nt Capo Farewell of the wreck of tho Jeannotto, which -was abandoned by her crow to tho north of Dennett Island. "So It Is necessary In thrt caso to start from a Norwegian port, Trom-soo Trom-soo or Vardoo, to cross tho southern part of tho Darren Sea, to touch at Karabova to tako on bonrd an equipment equip-ment of Eskimo dogs, and to steam up between tho concrete lco and tht land, up tho Yalmal Peninsula, calling nt Fort Dickson 'to coal from a ship that should bo specially chartered to crulso at tho end of tho summer along tho coast of tho Taimyr peninsula, reaching In autumn tho Island of New Siberia, and rush for a point situated on tho 158th degree of longitude east, regardless of cost, and even at the price of wintering in ono of tho Lllak-off Lllak-off Islands. When nt that point the ships of an expedition havo but to lei themselves drift with tho concrete lco, and If they follow n routo sensibly sensi-bly parallel to that of tho Fram, thoy will cross tho Arctic marltlmo basin on lines quite dlfferont from thoso ol that ship, and will incontestably cross In tho vory Immediate neighborhood of tho North pole, following, In fact, tho route which tho wreck of the Joannetto has most probably taken." |