enterprise. Andree, who was a professor in the
Technical School at Stockholm, had been for some years interested in
the rising science of aerial navigation. He judged that by this means
a way might be found to the Pole where all else failed. By the
generous aid of the king of Sweden, Baron Dickson and others, he had a
balloon constructed in Paris which represented the very latest progress
towards the mastery of the air, in the days before the aeroplane and
the light-weight motor had opened a new chapter in {144} history.
Andree's balloon was made of 3360 pieces of silk sewn together with
three miles of seams. It contained 158,000 cubic feet of hydrogen; it
carried beneath it a huge wicker basket that served as a sort of house
for Andree and his companions, and to the netting of this were lashed
provisions, sledges, frame boats, and other appliances to meet the
needs of the explorers if their balloon was wrecked on the northern
ice. There was no means of propulsion, but three heavy guide ropes,
trailing on the ground, afforded a feeble and uncertain control. The
whole reliance of Andree was placed, consciously and with full
knowledge of the consequences, on the possibility that a strong and
favouring wind might carry him across the Pole. The balloon was taken
on shipboard to Spitzbergen and there inflated in a tall shed built for
the purpose. Andree was accompanied by two companions, Strindberg and
Fraenkel. On July 11, 1897, the balloon was cast loose, and, with a
southerly wind and bright sky, it was seen to vanish towards the north.
It is known, from a message sent by a pigeon, that two days later all
was well and the balloon still moving towards its goal. Since then no
message or token has ever been found to tell us the fate of the three
brave men, and {145} the names of Andree and his companions are added
to the long list of those who have given their lives for the
advancement of human knowledge.

With the opening of the present century the progress of polar
exploration was rapid. Peary continued his explorations towards the
north of Greenland, and, in 1906, by reaching latitude 87 deg. 6', he
wrested from Nansen the coveted record of Farthest North. At the same
time Captain Sverdrup (the commander of the _Fram_), the Duke of the
Abruzzi and many others were carrying out scientific expeditions in
polar waters. The voyage made in 1904 by Captain Roald Amundsen, a
Norwegian, later on to be world-famous as