MAKE A DASH FOR THE POLE.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 20 November 1901, Page 3

MAKE A DASH FOR THE POLE.

"If I succeed in reaching the Pole on my own hook, and retu.n alive, I will bring you some kind of souvenir." This startling announcement was written by Dr T. S. Dieirick, in the E.-kimo village of Etah, on August 24th, the day he left the Peary Polar expedition steamship Erik, and refused to return, to Rodman P. Cummin, a cigar manufacturer of Washington, N.J, the doctor's home, and it is the first announcement of his plans in leaving the Peary expedition.

The doctor intends to brave the risks of a dash over tho wastes of snow and ice packs that have hitherto proved insurmountable barriers. Dr Diedrick proposes to make tho attempt alone save for the company of such Eskimas as he can win over to his project. His friends in Washington, N. J., deny that the surgeon is mad. but rather that he had made some discovery through the natives of a way to find the goal for which science has sacrificed so many lives and sunk so many fortunes. For three years he has lived among Eskimos. He knows their language, and letters, sent back previously, show that he has made a study of their legends and folk lore. It -is believed that there are natives who have reached the latitude of the Pole, but none have ever conveyed intelligibly the route followed. Tho doctor's friends say ho is a sound, level-headed man, and believes he would not onter upon so daring an enterprise unless the reward of success is a possibility.