Thirty-three Years Old Mystery Cleared Up by Polar Expedition: Bodies of Party in Balloon Discovered at Pole Oslo, Aug. 22.
A mystery of the Arctic whi ich is thirty-three years old has at last been solved by the finding on White Island, between Spitzbergen and Franz Joseph Land, of the body of the famous Swedish explorer and balloonist, Dr. Salomon August Andree, by a Norwegian scientific expedition on August 6. The expedi tion also found a second body in the remains of a camp.
Both the bodies were in a good state of preservation.
Dr. Andree's body was fully rossed but coated with ice. He had a diary in his pocket, It was found near a boat, in which were vestiges of the remains of the third ballanist, Some equipment was also found, including a sledge, a book of observations and some instruments, All will te brought to Norway.
The captain of the Norwegian sealer Bratvaag, on which are the Norwegian scientists who made the discovery, expresses the opinion that the solution of the mystery is due to heavy rain melting the ice under which the bodies were buried, as only a fortnight previously the crew of another Norwegian sealer went on shore in the same neighbourhood and found nothing.
The discovery reveals what must have been one of the grimmest fights for life ever made by human beings trapped in the Polar The camp, situated a couple of hundred yards from the sea shore, bore many evidences that the Aconists had lived for some. ti after they had made a forced land ing.
Andree's diary and log-book were coated with ice, und it has not been possible to open them properly to the present, but one of the last pages of the log-book contains the entry; "July 18, 1897-83 degrees north 82 degrees East", indicating that the expedition reached a more northerly latitude than was generally opposed.
The skeleton of a polar bear was found in the camp. Presumably it was killed for food Dr, Andree left Danes _Isjand, Spitzbergen, on Sunday, July' 11, 1897, in a balloon with two com-anions, Fraenkel and Strindberg, Pole, 4 intending to fly to the North
The only news that the world ever received of them after that did nothing towards solving the mystery of thei Of the thirteen buoys which he carried with him on board his balloon only four were ever recovered. One was picked up at Skjervo, in Norway, and was found to contain a message to the effect that it had been thrown out at 10 ete lock on the night of July 11. Another, which had teen dispatched on its journey about an hour later, when the party had reached lat. 82° N,, long. 25° E., was recovered off the const of Teciand. The two remaining buoys bore no. message from the explorer.
On July: 15, 1807, the sailors of the str, Alken' shot carrier pigeon which had been let Icose two days Previously in lat. 82" 8" N long. 16" 5" E, but that was the' latest intelligence of the explorers that ever reached their friends at Many expeditions were sent oat to their rescue, and reports were brought in by natives of shots heard upon the ice and figures seen on the drifting floes. Fishermen, too, said that they had hentdl crleg for help, and that they had seen what looked like a deflated balloon drifting on the sea. But, carefully though these clues were followed, they came to nothing, and it was posed that, descending on some iee-field far from human aid, ably somewhere between Spitzber gen, Nova Zembla, and Siberia, the unfortunate men. had perished Posure. miserably of starvation and ex-
The Norwegian Expedition, be. fore leaving, built a cairn to to mark the site of the tragedy. Reuter, maux that three ite men came out of the sky carrying fire-arms, this story being brought—back to the civilized world by the explore er Knut Rasmussen, who also found traces of balloon-silk in huts of the As the Horn expedition cannot return before the end of September the press suggests that the government cond an aeroplane to bring the body of Andree and the documents found home, in order to throw soon as possible light on one of the darkest chapters of man's efforts to conquer the Pole.
Salomon August Andree was a Swedish engineer who was born at Grenna, en Lake Vetter, on October 18, 1854, After an education at, the Stockholm technical college he studied aeronautics. Tt was in 1895 that Andree elaborated a plan for crossing the north polar degree ing ropes. in 1896 when his plans had to be abandoned because of contrary winds, he started with his two companions from Danes Island, Spitshergen, on July 11, 1897. The party was never seen again—Trans-Ocean and Special.
Also, Aug. 23.
The—Norwegign _sailing-ship Bratvatg reports that she has taken en board the bodies of the two explorers Andree and 5 well as their equipment consisting of two sleighs, one boat, one cooking apparatus," two boxes with instruments and a logbook which on one of its Inst pages shows an entry made seven days after the departure of the expedition from Spitzbergen, July 18, 1807, 83 degrees Northern loti: tude, $2 degrees Eastern longitude, The Norwegian expedition which discovered the bodies erected a stone-monument en the spot. Meanwhile some sensation was created here by the statement of the well-known Swedish Polar explorer Svendrup expressing doubts that the bodies could be still in such a cod state of preservation as re-Ported, considering the preying in-stiners) of the Polar foxes. How-fever, the general consensus of, opinion is that the bodies found are' authentically those of Andree and \Strindberg—Trans-Ocean Kuo Min,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.