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The Seaforth News, 1949-11-24, Page 3Stet Off For Pole In Balloon, Fate A Mystery For 33 Years August of 1930 .. , and the sealer Bratvaag is nosing through the ice of Spitzbergeu, On a routine seal hunt, her crew little dream they are about to uncover one of the great mysteries of polar explore - tion, "Seals off^ '\\tine 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 ivitli the roar of wal- rus. alrus. Within an hour, 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 1" The hoarse shout jerks from his throat• and starts the sealers :-scrambling over the ice towards hint, Sure enough, on the boat hook he now brandishes• shove his head are the tell-tale markings: Andree Pol. Exp. 1807 Grim Fragments Soon the ice is.yielding up more and more grim 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 Swede climbed into the gondola of his balloon, the. Eagle, followed by his two countrymen, Nils Fraenkal and Kurt Stringborg. The sun shone brilliantly above the Spitz- bergen beach. The wind blew gently towards the North Pole, 550 miles away, .A cheer went up from the then grouped about the Eagle as she rose majestically and drifted across •Mie ice of Virgo Bay. Yet site 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 wait 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 cheer 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 continued 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 ..—_, ed 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 rud• dere, but the chains fell off within ' a mile of their starting point. From that moment, the Eagle was at the mercy of the wind the most hazardous adventure ever undertaken by balloon). For several days, the wind held M 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 and the Eagle dropped slowly anti! the three wren could make out the ragged edges of the floes. Then they met• snow, .\ lichee 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 stand to. wards the envelope. The triangular rent flapped 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 on to the ice and the three men were scrambling out for dear life. The Eagle was finished; and the explorers' plight was desperate. Theis' boat was undamaged . , , but what were the chance;; of sailing it through the ice floes of the Polar With as much •food and equip. stent as they could carry, the? paddled, hunching' their shoulders against the wind. Before they had traveller1 a mile,' the ice closed in. Nothing' for it now but to walk, dragging the hear with theta. Nearing Exhaustion .\ month went by, and they hatched thein' rations dwindle. One day: `We've enough food tor a week," Andree told then. They were nearing ewhaustio,, when Fraenkal saw the seal. Slowly lie wriggled towards it, aimed and fired, Within mtinutes, they were cut- ting away the steaming red meat and cramming it greedily into their tnouths. .!'heir strength and hope were rtnewed even if winter was upon them. Yet secretly, they had given up any real hope of winning through --although each kept itis fears to himself. "We'll have a long walk next spring, that's all," Fraenlcal 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 s•houted, It was blowing the ice towards Spitzbergen1 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 joyfully to Inc 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 took up his diary for the last time. The pencil moved painfully in his stiffened fingers. He wrote: "Out position is not especially good." 'thirty-three years later, an aluminum lid glinted on the ice of White Island and the mystery of his cud was solved. Diet and Teeth Dr. (inttormt l'overud, professor at the Dental School of Oslo, Nor- way, recently reported that dental decay in Norwegian children de - maned 60 per Cent to 80 per cent dttring• World War II, partly be- cause the wartime diet contained little refined carbohydrates, espe cially sugar and the sugar products. Norwegians alto ate more fish, salted herring, potatoes and carrots —foods high in calcium, phosphor - ons, iron and vitamins A, B. C. and 1.). In 1949 dental decay in pre- school children has increased 30 per cert 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 Robert 1. Fawley. The four-year-old Duette:, boar_ is four feet high, six feet long and weighs 1080 pounds. :loaolears paid I atvlev •`r12-1.20 for the hog and sharpened up their sausage • Mcic The no;utal-size llal tpshire hog itt foreground points.- up oints^up the monster's size, Might Be A Good Idea To Copy l — A group of some 30 fathers took pre -Christmas lessons in how to stuff a stock- ing, how to trim a tree, how to smoke a pipe without setting. fire to false whiskers a and other Santa Claus techniques. Some of the class ' are pictured above on - "graduation Day." Paul Bunyan8ki Arid The Atonaski 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 1. "Vishinsky, Soviet For- eign Minister, about Russian pro- gress in the mysteries of atomic says a writer in The Christian Science Monitor, Said Mr, Vishhnskr at Lake Suc- eess "Riglu 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 human footstep has not been seen for a thousand years," A Russian -licensed newspaper in Berlin says atomie explosions were used to cttt a canal through the Tur- gai Mountains as part of a mam- moth water diversion project which would eventually involve a chan- nel 580 utiles long, part of which in tiro 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 huuberjack 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 baron to keep it greased. If one wtsites 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 cover's that: "If all the steers itt "Texas were one big steer, Ile could staind with his front feet in the Gulf of Mexico. his hind feet in Hudson Bay, and punch a hole in the moon with his horns white Ire: brushed tate mist off the Aurora Borealis with his tail." But now, alas, the spinners of folklore apparently trust give way to the pre-eminence of the Slav, 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 in the art of the tall story. Why praise the man who keeps both feet on the ground? fie isn't getting anylvlrere' ARO " HOP IN! f`tiA GOING OW- TO LOOK OVFzF2 MAN 17,NOWT PINIS.HING ratHO3L! DADDY WANT'S ME Tq 00 TSIERC WHEN I GRADUATE! Key To Treasure Flung From Gallows When the 18th century French pirate, Olivier le \rasseut• ('•nick- named. La Bence), stood on the gallows, he is said to have flung to the crowd a faded (hart show ing where he had buried treasure worth $450,000,000 at hfaye, 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 have indicated the presence of gold and precious stones. But instruments have also shown that 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 erste; the cave in gas masks through a concealed entrance known only to themselves I imagine that most poultrym 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. en . they're still getting Waren tempera- ture. But, instead of coming from insulation, it's coming from fere mentation,' which occurs in the litter with just the right tempera- ture and rnoisture level. But do you know the rest of the space requirements that will get the most eggs out of your flocks Here they are, as agreed upon by poultry experts of 47 agricultural colleges: l7seders-3,3, 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. - Roosts—Fi to 7 niches per bird. Heavy breeds need more space—up to 9 inches per sten itt warm cli- mates. 'Waterers—One eight -gallon wat erer or its equivalent per 100 birds. * Nests -30 box nests per 100 birds. 4 4 4 All of these figures are mini - 'Mums. Give your birds more if yon want—but no less. Y. e: R, 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 if handled properly, Yet deep litter is "out of the window" for some. And 1 mean the whole idea—not just the litter, Deep litter works best in insu- lated houses. Insulated houses are better because they are warner, Warm air dries the litter. So, the warmer the house, the easier it is to keep deep litter dry.and fluffy. 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 clamp 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 doer of the lying house opeii nearly all day. His litter stayed damp, lie was putting too =oh trust in sunshine and not enough in temperature. Malty owners of single-wall (rouses 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 This is shown by a demonstra- tion flock owner's experience. She used deep' litter in one end of har 60 -foot house, and it worked fine all winter. She put it in the other end later its the fall and the litter utas wet all Winter. 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. Many flack 0,A iters find d little stirring of sleep litter helps in areas that get damp. Also, addingnew litter occasionally, until the, litter is at least six inches deep, often helps. 5 N Lance spread over the litter aids hi keeping litter from sticking' to gether or matting. It is recom- mended for periods of unusuai dampness. The Winnahl — Phillip Cor - man, aged 3, bolds 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." 71111 "ATOMCeltA DS"—Soviet AS Atonic Energy Developments ® $eureaI of fissionable Material TANNU•TUVA Gatedok Whore Russia Gets Atonic Material --The recent admission by Czechoslovakian p1t'tt :er <a- polocky that Czech uranium, mined mostly at joachnmthal is going into Russian atomic energy plants, spotlights Russia's supply of fissionable materials. Map shows t.JSSR's prim -l- in -0 known sources, None of them is very big, but their total yield, mined by machine and haled - driven laborers, is enough to produce atomic bombs.. GOING INSIDE AND LOOK AROUND! 'O9,i'LL t-lAVE TO WAIT' HER! A 1-11x! HASN'T HE ADOR,8L%' HAIR? YOURS NAME? 1 WHERE DID YOU WiN "NAT LETTER? MAN nett? by Monta WAIT TO COME OAN HARDLY CM dO NG VAN SNEWT., WILL To VISIT YOU MISS Mt: YOU ARCHIE' ir EVERY I �4 i