The Mystery of Andree

EXPERT TESTIMONY.

The two eminent Arctic explorers, Dr. Nansen and Dr. Nordenskjold, add their testimony to that of many others who refuse to credit a story that a tribe of Tunguses found the bodies of Andree and his unfortunate companions lying near a cabin of cloth and cordage, evidently once part of a balloon, on the Taimur peninsula. Dr. Nordenskjold is, perhaps, the best authority that could be consulted on such a question, for his famous voyage in the Vega, when he made the northeast passage, thoroughly familiarized him with the coast of Siberia. The Taimur peninsula is a barren waste, the most northern point of Asia, and it is fully 1200 miles from Krasnoyarsk, the city from which the telegram comes. For that reason it will, doubtless, be many months before it can be settled to a certainty whether the story is true or false. In the mean time, with such a unanimity of expert testimony against its probability, it would, as we said Sunday, seem to deserve very little credence.

Reproduced with permission: L.L. Lewis, Explorations (Newspaper Clippings Related to Polar Exploration), Vol. 1 & 2. University Archives, Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries, Lawrence, KS.