LETTERS FROM THE ANDREE PARTY. 411 



which the balloon seemed unable to overcome. Instead of following 

 the bag out of the house, uncoiling as they went, the upper sections of 

 the drag ropes twisted, and under the severe strain the couplings 

 unscrewed. For a moment it seemed that the balloon would not get 

 away J that the friction of the heavy ropes would hold her to the shore. 

 Then, to our astonishment, the couplings parted and the airship 

 darted upward. 



The question whether or not the loss of these ropes would prevent 

 Andree from steering the balloon has been openly discussed. It is 

 impossible to tell, of course, though he may have remedied the defect 

 by putting out another drag rope composed of the rope which hung 

 from the basket and which for the time being was used as ballast. 



When the balloon rose out of the house some portion of it caught on 

 the structure of the balloon house. Audree was heard to exclaim 

 "What was that?" Then we heard Strindberg trying, "Long live 

 old Sweden!" A boat had pulled out from the shore, and as the bag 

 tore away Andree grabbed a speaking trumpet and shouted to those 

 in the boat. From his motions every one believed he was trying to 

 say something about the loss of the drag ropes, but no one could 

 understand what he said, and as the balloon got farther and farther 

 away, the difficulty of making himself understood became greater 

 and greater, 



Andree lost much ballast and much gas before the balloon passed oat 

 of sight. After its first jump upward from the balloon house it was 

 depressed toward the water by the air current coming down from the 

 mountains behind us. It got so near the surface of the water that for 

 a moment we wondered whether the expedition wasn't going to end 

 right there. Nobody spoke, but everybody was filled with excitement 

 all the more intense because no sound was uttered. Then the balloon- 

 ists began throwing out ballast, 9 bags of sand, weighing about 378 

 pounds. After that the balloon went upward. It reached over 3,000 

 feet in height; then it went forward again. Later on it was depressed, 

 evidently through the escape of gas, which the aeronauts permitted to 

 flow through the valves. Finally, when it rose over Yogelsung, more 

 ballast must have been dispensed with in order to accomplish the 

 purpose. 



Of course it is impossible to surmise where the explorers are at 

 present, if they have escaped the bad effects of Arctic exposure. It 

 is naturally impossible for the balloon to have floated until this time, 

 and in reasoning out any course of safety for the balloonists we must 

 presuppose that they descended safely on some land. We know from 

 the message received by means of the carrier pigeons that were shot 

 in the rigging of the sealing vessel Aiken in the vicinity of Spitzbergen, 

 that Andree did not continue northward. According to the dispatch 

 he was headed in an easterly direction, after having gone 145 geograph- 

 ical miles to the north. He had already gone 45 miles to the eastward 



