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.
Interesting news has reached us about Lieutenant Peary.
He left Boston in July to see if he could not establish a settlement far to the north in Greenland, which should serve him as a base of supplies, or a place where he could leave the main part of his baggage, and to which he could send or return at will.
Lieutenant Peary's plan for reaching the North Pole, when he sets out in 1898, is to establish a number of Esquimau colonies at certain distances apart, and leave supplies with each colony on which he can fall back in case of need.
He reports that he will have no difficulty in carrying out his plan. He met a number of old friends among the Esquimaux, all of whom were eager to help him in his work of exploring the north of Greenland and searching for the North Pole. He has every hope that the new trip which he is about to undertake will be a successful one.
Lieutenant Peary reports that he is bringing with him the great Cape York meteorite, which he intends to place in the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
A meteorite is a fallen meteor or star, a mass of metal that has fallen upon the earth from space. It is often called a fallen star.