No one knows what happened to the balloon after it rose out of sight of the men on Dane’s island. For several years Andrée’s friends refused to believe that he had perished. They thought that he might be wandering about in the Frozen North in the care of some of the Eskimo tribes. Many stories have reached us from time to time bearing upon the fate of Andrée, but upon investigation they have all proved to be false. The only authentic trace which has been found is a buoy picked up northeast of Spitzbergen in 1899. This buoy was taken to Sweden, and proved to be the one which Andrée had taken with him for the purpose of dropping it, with a letter, in case he crossed the pole. No letter was found, but an anchor was attached to the buoy. This led to the supposition that the buoy and anchor were thrown out to lighten the balloon and keep it afloat a while longer, or else that the balloon had been lost in the sea and the buoy and anchor had drifted away. It is now generally believed that Andrée and his two companions lost their lives through the descent of the balloon into the ocean. XX. EXPEDITIONS OF 1902 During the spring of 1902, several expeditions were at work in the Northern regions, each hoping to be the first to reach the pole. One of the most important was the Ziegler-Baldwin expedition, equipped by Mr. William Ziegler of New York, and commanded by Mr. Evelyn Briggs Baldwin. This was the largest and probably the best equipped expedition sent out. Baldwin had two ships, four hundred Eskimo dogs, and fifteen Siberian ponies. His flagship, the _America_, was a stoutly built whaler and carried a cargo of six hundred tons. His other ship, the _Fridtjof_, carried the scientific instruments. Through the generosity of Mr. Ziegler, practically perfect scientific apparatus accompanied the expedition, and Mr. Baldwin was assisted by experts in geographical charting, geology, botany, and meteorology. Both the _America_ and the _Fridtjof_ reached Franz Josef land, but very little significant work was accomplished. Instead of wintering in the North as had been planned, Mr. Baldwin returned to Norway. Mr. Ziegler, however, has not faltered in his determination to find the pole, and he has sent out another expedition for that purpose which is now in the North. A Russian expedition excited widespread interest. Admiral Marakoff constructed an ice-breaking steamship, and with it expected to force his way through the ice to the pole. The steamer is called the _Ermack_, and is a very powerful ship, able to stand fifteen times the strain which may safely be brought to bear upon the average steel ship. In breaking the ice, the _Ermack_ rises upon it and crushes it down. The forward propeller sucks away the water underneath the ice, and thus reduces the resistance.