Introduction. 51 



as if we had seen it, that there is in the unknown regions 

 an extensive land which is the birthplace of the flat- 

 topped icebergs or the palreocrystic ice." In this 

 glacier-covered land, which he is of opinion must be over 

 300 miles in diameter, and which sends out icebergs to 

 Greenland as well as to Franz Josef's Land,"" the Pole 

 itself must be situated. 



" As to the indestructible ship," he says, "it is certainly 

 a most desirable thing for Dr. Nansen." His meaning, 

 however, is that it cannot be built. " Dr. Nansen 

 appears to believe that the question of building on such 

 lines as will give the ship the greatest power of resistance 

 to the pressure of the ice-floe has not been thoroughly 

 and satisfactorily solved, although hundreds of thousands 

 of dollars have been spent for this end by the seal and 

 whaling companies of Scotland and Newfoundland." As 

 an authority he quotes Melville, and says "every Arctic 

 navigator of experience agrees with Melville's dictum, 

 that even if built solid a vessel could not withstand the 

 ice-pressure of the heavy polar pack." To my assertion 

 that the ice along the " Siberian coast is comparatively 

 thin, 7 to 10 feet," he again quotes Melville, W 7 ho speaks 

 of ice " 50 feet high, etc. " (something we did not dis- 

 cover, by the way, during the whole of our voyage). 



* With reference to his statement that Leigh-Smith had observed 

 such icebergs on the north-west coast of Franz Josef's Land, it may be 

 remarked that no human being has ever been there. 



E 2 



