Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1949-11-24, Page 3• Set Off For Pole In Banoon, Fate A Mystery For 33 Years August of 1930 . and the sealer Bratvaag is nosing through the ice of Spitsbergen. On a routine seal hunt, hercrew little dream they' ▪ are about to uncover one of the great mysteries of polar explora- tion. .. "Seals off White island!" It is the lookout's cry, echoing over the ice, that startles them into making their great discovery. Soon the shouts .of the sealers are mingling with the roar of wal- rus, Within an ,hoar, the men are busy skinning, One of the sealers, seeking water to wash the gory pelts, sees a bright object—an aluminum lid— glinting on the ice. That is the be- ginning, In a few moments, he has discovered an upturned boat. Now he is scuffing up the snow, excitedly ... a boat hook . part Of a man's sleeve. He is' on the verge of uncovering a tragic chap- ter in the annals of polar explora- tion. "I've found Andree!" The hoarse shout jerks from his throat • and. starts the sealers scrambling over the ice towards him: Sure enough. on the boat hook he now brandishes Above his head are the tell-tale markings: Andree Pol. Exp. 1897 Grim Fragments Soon the ice is yielding up more and more grins, fragments. A Swed- ish flag, clothing and -human bones, rifles, a sledge, cameras and a diary until the whole pitiful story of Salamon Andree's ill-fated expedi- tion—vividly described by Frank illingworth in his book, "Men Against the Arctic"—can be slowly pieced together. Salamon Andree's plan to bal• loon across the North Pole cap- tured the imagination of the world —it was a world without airplanes —of 1897. On July 10• of that year, the ewede climbed into the gondola of his balloon, the Eagle, followed by Isis two countrymen, Nils Fraenkal and Kurt Stringborg. The sun ahone brilliantly above the Spitz- bergen beach. The wind blew gently towards the North Pole, 550 miles .away. A cheer went up from the linen grouped about the Eagle as she rose majestically and drifted across 'the ice of Virgo Bay, Yet she was hardly a black speck on the horizon before. doubts were nagging at their minds. Should they have sub- scribed to such a venture? Bearer of Good News At Spitzbergen they continued to wart anxiously. Until one morn- ing a welcome speck appeared in the Arctic sky.. Growing; steadily, it fluttered into their outstretched hands. A carrier pigeon—bearer of good news! Once more, a ciheer went up from the waiting scientists and newspapermen. They little knew then that the exhausted pigeon was to be their last living contact with the Eagle, although over the years, with ruth- less irony, the Arctic Ocean has eontinued to deliver up buoys con- taining "progress messages" drop- ped on to the pack ice by Andree in his drifting balloon. The last .such pathetic reminder of the explorers was tossed by the sea on to the Norwegian coast in 1938. Andree had planned to pilot his balloon with the aid of drag -chains. These he hoped would act as rod • tiers, but the chains fell off within a mile of their starting point. From that moment, the Eagle was at the mercy of the wind on the most hazardous adventure ever undertaken by balloon. For several days, the wind held in the right direction. By day the sun beat down and the balloonists perspired beneath ,,the shimmering envelope. At night, the tempera- ture fell sharply; gas in the balloon contracted astd the Eagle dropped slowly until the three Hien could make out the ragged edges of the floes. Then they suet snow, Andree turned his head to where the wind whipped through the shroud lines and his expression grew blank, un- comprehending. "It's torn!" He flung a hand to. wards the envelope. The triangular rentflapped vi- ciously, widening as they stared. Where an hour before they had been confident of success, now they faced disaster. Soon the gondola • was thudding oft to the ice and the three men were scrambling out for dear life, The Eagle was finished; and the , explorers' plight was desperate. Their boat was undamaged . but what were the chances/ of sailing it through the ice floes of the Polar Ocean? Witih as much food and equip ment as they could carry, titer paddled, hunching their shoulders against the wind. Before they had travelled a mile, the ice closed in. Nothing for it now but to walk, dragging the boat with them. Nearing Exhaustion A month went by, and tlhei vratched their rations dwindle. One day: "We've enough food tor a week," Andree told then. They were nearing exhaustion when Fraenkal saw the seal. Slowly lie wriggled towards it, aimed and fired. 'Within minutes, they were cut. 1 ting away the steaming red meal and cramming it .greedily into trei; mouth s. Their strength and hope were renewed . . even if winter was upon thefts Yet secretly, they had given up any real hope of winning through—although, each kept his fears to himself. "We'll have a long walk next spring, that's all," Fraenkal joked. But Andree knew that long be- fore „spring returned to the ice pack, the curent would' bear them towards the Pole, beyond the point where the Eagle lay shattered. He knew that—saving a miracle—there would be no spring for them. Propped against the side of the • upturned boat, sick with cold and fatigue, he wrote in his diary: "We have eaten the seal's brain, its flesh. liver, kidneys, heart, blood and in- testines." . Soon they were chewing the contents of the intestines, half- digested fish. And then . Andree's miracle almost happened. Stringborg was first to notice the change in the wind. "It's veered north-west!" he shouted. It was blowing the ice towards Spitzbergen! Still the days dragged on . • but now there was hope again! The wind stayed in its new quarter. The. moving ice drew -ever nearer land, End Of A Diary One day Andree called ioy1111is- to his companions, Yes! . it was a distant coastline. Before very • long, their frozen boots were stum- bling forward over rock. Solid rock. But land was not enough. It was the end of their desperate advent- ure. Too weak to go farther, they crawled beneath the shelter of their boat. All they needed now was an- other miracle! In November, 1897, nearly five months after he had cast off in the. Eagle, Salamon Andree tool: up his diary for the last bine. The pencil moved painfully in his stiffened fingers. He wrote: "Our position is not especially 'good." Thirty-three years later, an aluminum lid glinted on the ice of White Island and the mystery of his end was solved. Diet and Teeth Dr. (;uitrm Toverud, professor at the Dental School of Oslo,•Nor- way, recently reported that dental decay in Norwegian children de- • creased 60 per cent to 80 per cent - during 'World War II, partly be- cause the wartime diet contained little refined carbohydrates, espe- cially sugar and the sugar products. Norwegians also ate more fish, salted herring, potatoes and carrots —foods high in calcium, phosphor- ous, iron and vitamins A, B, C. and D. In 1949 dental decay in pre- school children has increased 30 per rent to 40 per cent. Ponderous Porker—There's 500 pounds of sausage, --nearly a third of a mile of links ---wrapped up in this high hog brought to market by Robes Hawley. The four-year-old Duroc boar is lour feet high, sig feel: long and weighs 1080 pounds. Packers paid I fatale} S124,20 for the hog and sharpened up their eatusage 1Pampshire hog in foreground paiait5., tip the monster's eiz+t. i Might Be A Good Idea To Copy! - A group of some 30 . fathers took pre -Christmas lessons its how to stuff a stock- ing, how to trim a tree, how to stroke a pipe without setting fire to false whiskers and other Santa Claus techniques. Some of the class are pictured above on "graduation Day." Paul Bunyanski And The Atomski There is going to be bottomless discomfiture and chagrin in the Am- erican West when readers in that section have absorbed the words of Andrei I. Vishinsky, Soviet For- eign Minister, about Russian pro- gress in the mysteries of atomic says a writer in The Christian Science Monitor. Said Mr. Vishinsky at Lake Suc- cess: "Right now we are utilizing atomic energy for our economic needs in our own economic inter - we are irrigating deserts; we are cutting through the jungle and the tundra; we 'are spreading life, hap- piness, prosperity, and welfare in places where the.hurnan footstep has =twit -been ieen'for'a thousand years." A Russian -licensed newspaper sin Berlin says atonic explosions were used to cut a canal through the Tut-, gai 'Mountains as. part of a rnam- moth water diversion project which would eventually involve a chan- nel 580 miles long, part of which in the Aral Sea would be deep enough for seagoing vessels and twice as wide as the English Channel. Dwellers in Michigan, 'Wiscon- sin, and the Pacific Northwest, pro- bably have thought they had a monopoly on this sort 'of thing in the doings of their regional hero, the legendary boss lumberjack Paul Bunyan and his big -blue ox, Babe. Paul and Babe it was who dug the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, and .Puget Sound, according to timber -camp account—and what a timber camp! The chow tables were three miles long, and the whole top of • the stove was used for a hot -cake griddle, with boys skating around on sides of bacon to keep it greased. If one wishes nowadays to get an impression of the size of the big blue ox, he must turn to• the Ameri- can South-west, to some such un- impeachable source as the booklet covers that: "If all the steers in 'Texas were one big •steer, he could stand with his front feet in the Gulf of Mexico, his hind feet in Hddson Bay, and punch a hole in the (noon with his horns while he brushed the mist , off the Aurora Borealis with his tail." But now, alas, the spinners of folklore apparently must give way to the pre-eminence of the Slay. Not only do we find the Russians built the first airplane, the first submarine, the first electric light, and the first radio, but we are al- most impelled to bow to their super- iority iib the art of the tall story. Why praise the roan who keeps both feet on the ground? Ile isn't getting anywhere! AR S: 1.-1 r. Key To Treasure Flung From Gallows When the 18th century French pirate; Olivier le Vasseur (nick- nanied La Beuze), stood on the gallows, he is said to have flung to the crowd a faded chart show- ing:'where he had buried treasure worth $450,000,000 at. Maye, Sey- chelles Islands. "Find it who can,' was the Challenge he hurled as he went to his death. Today, three Kenya treasure hunters are reported to have locat- ed a cavern where, according to the . chart which was placed in French archives, the treasure lies. They say their divining instruments dicated the presence of gold ° a n ictus stones. ri rust?"uments have also shown thai poisonous gases lie under the ground. These may be the reputed "hidden guardian" of the pirate's loot. Engineers have started to drill through rock, to release the gases. The treasure seekers will enter the cave in gas masks through a concealed entrance known only to themselves. 1111,FARN FRONT Jokz ea v I knagine that most poultrymen know that they should give • each hen three to four square feet of floor space in the laying house, and that heavy breeds need more than lighter ones. 9' * '4 But do you know the rest of the space requirements that will get the most eggs out of your. flock?? Here they are, as agreed upon by poultry experts of 47 agricultural colleges: g: • ': Feeders -32 feet of hopper space per 100 birds, or 3 4-5 inches per bird. If the birds can eat from both sides of the hopper, each foot of length is equal to two feet of space. r: * * Roosts -6 to 7 inches per bird. Heavy breeds need more space—up to 9 inches per hen in warm cli- mates. * $: '5' Waterers—One eight -gallon wat erer or its equivalent per 100 birds. * m 5 Nests -20 - box nests per 100 birds. * * 5 All of these figures are mini- mums. Give your birds more if yon want—but no less. * * * If deep litter won't work for you, there is a reason. Maybe sev- eral. Deep litter saves lots of time and cuts litter cost 1'f handler( properly. Yet deep litter is "out of the window" for some. And I mean the whole idea—not just the litter. 5 * Deep litter works best in insu- lated houses. Insulated houses are !setter because they are wanner. Warm air dries the litter. So, the warmer the house, the easier it is to keep deep litter dry and fluffy. 5 4: 5 You have to get the most out of your insulation, too. One flock own- er _thought he should ventilate his house 'more when the litter got damp in cold weather. So he kept the south door of the laying house open nearly all day. His litter stayed damp. He was putting too much trust in sunshine and not enough in temperature. So he kept the south door 'of•-thelying-'house open nearly all day. His litter stayed damp. He was putting too muob trust in sunshine and not enough in temperature. * 5 5 Many owners of single-wall houses also are getting good re- sults. They are cleaning the house only once or twice a year—and that's the test.. The reason is that they're still getting warm tempera- ture. But, instead of corning from insulation, it's coming from fer- mentation, which occurs in the litter with just the right tempera- ture and moisture level. * 5 * This is shown by a demonstra- tion .Rock owner's experience. Site. Used deep litter in one end of her 60 -foot house, and it worked fine all winter. She put it in the other end later in the fall and the litter was wet all winter. 4: 4: 4: Time of starting probably made a difference in fermentation. Litter used for the old hen flock was started in early September, that for the pullets in late. October. 4' ': , .Many flock owners find a little stirring of deep litter helps in areas that get' damp. Also, adding new litter occasionally, until the litter is at least six inches deep, often helps. 4. ry, d: Lime spread over the litter aids in keeping litter from sticking to- gether or matting. It is recom- mended for periods of unusual dampness. The Winnah! — Phillip Gor- man, aged 3, holds Buster, the prize alley cat that nipped top' honors in a cat parade and con- test in Greenwich Village. Bus- ter won the title "Homeliest Cat." Tit "ATOMGRADS"—Savie2 ajja Atomic Inergy IDevelopnrsats Somme of Plasionabls Material Ukhta rte•- 2,I:i;;::::....::>:.:; •y'.'i: `POLAND:: ;r' �• •,:lass �:::>; ::� ..;� •::.: is """""l.,loochimsthal AUsT UN •.;<: ::,;.� yG..:,.ROMANIA, Leningrad? Moscow • Cnepropetrovrk Stalingrad TANNU-TUVA Gorodok Kirovabad Tashkea Farkha Where Russia Gets Atomic • Material—The recent admission by Czechoslovakian pt em ier Za- potocky that Czech uranium, mined mostly at joachimsthal, is going into Russian atomic energy plants, spotlights Russia's supply of fissionable materials,ap shows USSR's princi- pal'known sources. None of them is very big, but their total yield, whined b;v- machine and hard- driven 'laborers, is enough to produce atomic bombs. Mt 140P IN ! $7A 60INeo <>6'P TO ABW ER A N HVS1WT cc)-- CIrre FoINIGH1NLi DADDY WANTS ME 10 00 TARE WHEN L 6RADUATO! I'M GOING INSIDE AND LOOK APOLIND! HAVE TO WAIT HERE, y ,. HIE! by Montana OH, I CAN HARDLY WAIT TO COME Tia VAN SNEWT! WILL YOU MI55 ME, ARCH IE? )T WHERE DID YOU WIN THAT LETTER? YEAH! IMGOrNG TO VISIT YOLJ EVERY DAY!