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vorable for the operations of an airship than the temperate zones, but in other respects more favorable. Conspicuous among the first, of course, is the fact that if the voyage should for any reason be interrupted, the crew must descend upon the ice-fields which cover the polar ocean, where they could find neither food nor help; and repairs beyond what they could themselves make in the air would be out of the question. But apart from these inconveniences, and perhaps we should say these extra-hazards to the crew, the Arctic regions are favorable to aeronautics in important ways.

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[[caption]] FRONT VIEW OF THE BIG HOUSE, TAKEN AT NOON, JULY 4, 1907. [[/caption]]

Chief among these is the equability of the temperature. The cold itself is not a problem, because the temperature in July and August (the only months in which such a venture is at all practicable), rarely falls more than 3 or 4 degrees Fahrenheit below freezing. Nor is there, as many also suppose, an obstacle to be met in the power of the cold to condense the gas and diminish its lifting power. It is the variability of temperature which exhausts the vitality of a 

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