A DASH FOR THE POLE

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 811, 28 January 1903, Page 3

A DASH FOR THE POLE

CAPTAIN BERNIER’S OPTIMISM By telegraph—Press Association— Per R.M.S. .Sonoma at Auckland. SAN FRANCISCO. .Jan. 8.

A despatch from Winnipeg, Manitoba on Jan. 3rd says :—Capfc. Bernier, Cana* dian explorer, is satisfied that he will roach the North Polo. Mr Arthur Steyr is now in the norfchland of middle Canada, securing dog drivers who will have charge of Captain Bernier’s carrying outfit. Steyr is a man known from one end of Canada to the other as interpreter and traveller, and years of his life have been spent in the north and south. His only companions were a couple of Esquimaux and a half wolf dog that takes the place of beasts of burden in the Arctic. Ho is a Dominion Government surveyor, and played an important part in the Alaska boundary dispute. He understands travelling on ice thoroughly. “Good dog drivers are more than half the secret,he said to a press representative, “The beat we have come from the barren lands of Northern Canada. On fcbo Arctic ice floes are all hummocks. Travelling is of the roughest description, but it can be safely said the difficulties do not exceed thoso of the Canadian barren lands, where a piece of level travelling as broad as our hand is hard to find. The drivors I am after are men who know how to get the most travelling out of the dogs on loast food, how to keep them in good condition, and how to keep them from injury and fatigue.” Mr Steyr wholly disbolioves in killing dogs and feeding them to their companions, as has been done on previous expeditions. A big dash for the Pole will bo made with these export dog-drivers, and Steyr is confident of success. lie left to-day for Norway house and other Hudson Bay Company ports to get his men. The drivers of that country are chiefly halfbred Cree and Chippewayan Indians ol Scotch and Orkney extraction, broadchested, and athletic, to whom hardship and exposure are the bread of life