MY ADVENTURES IN SEARCH OF THE POLE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 227, 30 October 1909, Page 3

MY ADVENTURES IN SEARCH OF THE POLE.

THRILLING STORIES OF ARCTIC EXPLODERS. "As I looked at the drawn faces of my comrades, at the skeleton figures of my few remaining dogs, at my nearly empty sledges, and remembered the drifting ice over which we had come ami the unknown <|iiuntity of the 'big lead between us aud tile nearest land, 1 lelt that 1 had cut the margin '.s narrow as could reasonably lie ;x----pected." In these words' (says 'Tit-llitsj Commander Peary describes the ending of his expedition of l'JO.l-li. when lie broke all then existing records by getting within 203 miles of the Pole. ' 111 was a magnificent cll'ort, and one worthy of the man who had no sooner returned lionic'- than lie commenced preparations for another e.\pedition--his eighth attempt—which, to the glory of this great explorer, has been a complete success.

A FROST BITTEN DI KE. The fascination which the North l'ole has for Commander Peary will be well understood when it is stated I hat his recent expedition is the fourth lie luis made this century. In MIDI he got within 421 i miles of the Pole, and tinfollowing year within 1)40, which distance, as already stated, he cut down to '203 miles in I'JOIi.

It was a great disappointment to tliel Duke of the Abruzzi that he was un-J able to participate in the linal dash toj the Pole from Fran/. .Josef Land, made by the members of the expedition which lie. fitted out in 1809. Severe frost-bite, ! however, prevented him from travelling farther with his party, and he was thius' unable to share in their triumph of getting within 230 miles of the Pole, a record -which stood until Peary's expedition. UO\V NAN SEX KILLED THE HOUS. The danger of starvation, of course, is one of the greatest difficulties with which Arctic explorers have to contend. Xansen, for instance, might have covered the remaining 2(io miles between himself and the North Pole fourteen years ago had his food and dogs held out. He relates how one by one tlie dogs were killed to feed their fellow*, and at last only two dogs' remained. One was Hansen's, the other Johaiisens, his sole companion. Neither hum could kill his own, so they changed animals and then killed them. It was better that they should die thus than starve slowlv to death.

' WANTED TO CO WITH AXDREE. Altogether close upon 1000 nidi have sacrificed their lives «mM the frozen wastes of tile North striving to reach the North Pole. The young Danish explorer, Captain Mikkelsen, who started for the North Pole in May, 1900, in the schooner Duchess of Bedford, had been lidded to the number when, two years j later,'news was suddenly received of his safety. But the hardships ho had undergone were terrible in the extreme. His vwel was stink in a gale, and the party lu;<1 to cover- 1500 miles of the dreary Alaskan coast, trailing their provisions in sleighs and sleeping in leather sacks. Only live out of their eighteen dogs survived, the others going mad or eating each other.

It was Mikkelscn's fourth trip to the Arctic regions. As a boy it was his ambition to discover the Xortll Pole. H:> was nineteen years of age when the illfated Andrce was preparing to explore the Arctic regions by balloon, and Milcktlsen ran away from home-and begged Andrce to be allowed to go with him. He was not Successful, hon'evcr. and had lo work h\s passage back to Copenhagen.

IN TIIE NICK OF TIME. Admiral Sir Albert Maikiiam, too, almost lost hi- life during the Arctic Expedition of 1875-0, when he commanded t i\r> Alert and succeeded in planting the L'nion Jack on the highest northern position reached up to then. Admiral Si'.' George Xi.res. one of the oldest of living Arctic explorers, was in chief command of the expedition, and sailed iu the'DlslOverv, which accompanied the Alvt.' When La'iv Franklin I lay -was reached one ship ivas left and the other flushed fenvard. Ultimately three sledges ami eighteen men under .Markhani.were despatched towards the Xorlh across the ice. After reaching tile high latitude of over S'ideg., however, further progress appeared impossible. There was no tsign of an open sea, no single Eskimo, ami the cold was 72dcg. below zero. One man was frost-bitten, three died from scurvv. and the whole party would have perishel l-i.i not help arrived jihl iu the nick of time.

EXECUTED FOR PILFEIiINfi. l'eary in 181)5 was only just saved from starvation by a kite relief expedition; Dr. Cook commences bis narrative villi the words, "After a prolonged tight against famine"; while terrible indeed were the straits-to which MajorCcneral (Irecly, who commanded the Inlet national Polar Expedition of 188', :in<! his companions were reduced. Through the, failure of -a relief shi;>, which 'was fast in the ice far away to the south, Oreely and his companions, in all twenty-five, found themselves with only forty- days' provisions, less tlia.i; i ne tilth the quantity required. I 'lie man became so madly ravenous tbal he actually pilfered from the slender store of rations, and, being ultiniate11y -'-aught red-handed. was eondenmed, to '.lath. "Private Henry will be cxccuien ln-<!ay," wrote flrcely—and he was. When the party hail given up all hope, and were preparing for the end, a second relief ship arrived. But only seven survivors wete found. MOTOR SLHDC.ES,

L.ike Captain Mikkelsen, Mr. Walter Wcllman 'lias made four attempts to roach the Xortll l'olc—twice b.v ship and twice by balloon. The first.'expedition rcf-nltcd in his ship being crushed in the ice. anil live years later, when milking ,!<.wd progi ess, he slipped on the ice and so injured his leg that he was obliged to cotiirn. Accidents have on each occasion pi-evented him from carrying, out his dur. i'lg plan of reaching the'l'ole by balloon. At one time he contemplated making an a!tempt in a spherical balloon similar ti) that made by Andree, hut he finally decided that the risks were too g'reat. To give some idea of the cost of an expedition to the Polar regions by balloon, it might be mentioned that the fitting up of Mr. Wei 1 111 mi's HMD fxpeditifii cos( C.iO.IKIM. ;i novel feature beinj '■»" "lor sledges carried on the air--h'p. each of (i b.p.. Willi which if was l't<-|uiscd l» ill aw six Others,, should an v aceident happen to the airship and tile **aily found tllcm-clves obliged to lake o the ice.--1 lonic paper.