Daily Independent

To Look for Nansen.

Chicago, February 17.—The recent reports concerning the return of Dr. Nansen from the North Pole induced a Chicago syndicate to consider the advisability of dispatching a party at once to the Lena river for the purpose of ascertaining the foundation for the accounts received, as well as to assist, if possible, the returning explorer. They will probably journey to either Yakutsk or Irkutsk. The man selected to lead the party is Evelyn B. Baldwin, the meteorologist of Lieutenant Peary's North Greenland trip of 1893. Much information concerning the region to be traversed as well as facilities for expediting Baldwin on his journey to Siberia, has been undertaken by Monsieur A. Savin Conte de Toulouse Lautre, now in Chicago, who is connected with the Siberian Railway.

In an interview, Baldwin said: "Barring such information concerning Nansen's whereabouts as would make the trip inexpedient at this time, I shall go direct from San Francisco to Vladivostok, on the Pacific Coast, more than 8,000 miles from St. Petersburg. From Vladivostok to Irkutsk, the first 4,500 miles, will be by railway and the remaining distance by post. Twenty-two days will be occupied in making the transit. The time to be consumed between Chicago and Irkutsk will be in the neighborhood of fifty days."