ANDREE'S FATAL FLIGHT IN A BALLOON 399 



moment of mischievous humor, hoaxed a too confiding telegraph 

 agent. 



Later, on September 12, 1899, a Swedish sloop, the "Martha," 

 reached Hammerfest with the information that a buoy, branded 

 with the name of the Andree expedition, had been found to the 

 northeast of King Charles Islands. The buoy had lost the screw- 

 plug from the top, and had been so damaged by coming in contact 

 with some hard substance that the interior cylinder was too dented 

 to permit of an examination being made of the inside. 



It is still possible that one of the buoys taken by Andree may 

 be discovered containing a record of his doings from the moment 

 he disappeared with his balloon sailing towards the north. But it 

 is very unlikely, and it is scarcely probable that any sign will ever 

 be discovered of the balloon or its occupants. For years the frozen 

 north held all traces of the Franklin expedition from the eyes of the 

 searchers who were able to conduct their operations along the route 

 they knew Franklin had followed. No search party can knowingly 

 follow the route Andree and his comrades took. Their fate will 

 probably be forever a mystery, for so many things might have 

 happened that no one theory can claim for itself more probability 

 than another. All that is certain is that the party went out of sight 

 drifting towards the north. They carried their lives in their hands, 

 and knew that they did so. Had they succeeded, they would have 

 achieved a mighty triumph; they failed, and in doing so set their 

 names as indelibly on the scroll of Fame as any hero who has laid 

 down his life in the contest with the measureless mystery of 

 the Pole. 



In a lecture delivered by Andree in April, 1896, he had used 

 the following words : "If our expedition should return home with- 

 out success, or even if we should perish, it will not be long before 

 a new balloon expedition will be started for the same purpose as ours. 

 This idea has taken so mighty a hold on the human mind that it 

 cannot be quieted. It will necessarily appear again with the full 

 strength of a natural law," 



