ARCTIC ADVENTURE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2446, 10 March 1909, Page 2

ARCTIC ADVENTURE.

LONG SLEDGE JOURNEY. Captain Ejnor Mikkelsen, a young Danish explorer, tol-d’ an interesting tale of Arctic adventure when he returned to civilisation a few weeks back. Nearly three years ago -he sailed from Victoria,, in British Columbia, in a little ship, and made his way through Behring Strait and onward over icy seas to Flaxman Island, a distance of about 10,000 miles. The object of his voyage was to test the old- Eskimo story that an Arctic continent lies north of the faraway Flaxman Island. The island, whore sixty or seventy Eskimos Jive, was reached in September, 1906, and here the little expedition took up winter quarters. In the summer of 1907 they steered the little ship into the pack-ice, and took soundings to discover whether the scabed ; would support the probability.-of land further north. They found that the seabed dipped abruptly to a great depth, suggesting that no land lay to the north. The ship was destroyed in the ice, and Captain Mikkelsen sent Ins crew home in a whaling vessel, and, with a sledge and ten dogs, set out on a lonely journey of 3000 miles -along the ice-bound coast to Voldez. the nearest point from which he could get a boat to Seattle. He carried provisions sufficient for 600 miles of the distance, and after that depended on the Eskimos and what game he could kill. “It was, I suppose, the longest journey over made in that way,” lie said in describing the trip, “and it took me five months and a. half. At night I put up a little tent and slept in a bag. It was in the depth of winter; -and in the middle of the day it was no lighter than it is in Lo -don now between four and five in the afternoon. The light lasted only four hours or so a day, and for forty-three days I never saw the sun at all. Instead I had the moon, and very enjoyable it was to tramp along in tin? bright moonlight. But at dusk the effect was very curious, for then the moon threw no shadow, and I went along warily, unable to see whether I was on the verge of a hollow or within arm’s length of a Avail of iee. Altogether I had tAventy-fivo dogs, but at- times T ran so short of food that 1 had to kill a dog and use it for food.” Captain Mikkelsen is not weary of adventure, and he is planning to join an exploring Ncav Guinea.