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There is news of Professor Andrée.

You remember that he started from Spitzbergen in a balloon, hoping to
sail across the North Pole.

A report from Arctic Russia says that on the night of September 14th the
inhabitants of a little village saw a balloon which was believed to be
that of Andrée's.

A day or two after this a carrier-pigeon brought a despatch from the
traveller.

The tidings brought by this bird were that Andrée was making a good
voyage to the eastward, and that all was going well.

There is no doubt that this message is a genuine one from the explorer.
The pigeon bore on its wings the same markings as on those which the
adventurer carried with him. Scientists have, however, expressed their
opinion that Andrée has failed to reach the Pole. The message of the
bird and the direction in which the balloon was seen to be going have
convinced them that Andrée has been carried eastward, and not across the
Pole, as he had hoped.

It is thought that by this time the gas in the balloon must have become
exhausted, and that Andrée and his companions have had to cut loose from
it, and are on the ice somewhere near Spitzbergen, and that they may
perhaps be so fortunate as to drift near enough to civilization to be
picked up and rescued.