502 Chapter VIII. 



we have not advanced farther than to 83 N. lat. and 1 10 

 E. long, then something- might be said for waiting- till 



o o o o 



the spring of 1896 ; but I cannot but think that we should 

 thus in all probability let slip the propitious moment. 

 The drifting could not be so wearingly slow but that after 

 another year had elapsed we should be far beyond the 

 point from which the sledge expedition ought to set 

 out. If I measure the distance we have drifted from 

 November of last year with the compasses and mark 

 off the same distance ahead, by next November we 

 should be north of Franz Josef Land, and a little beyond 

 it. It is conceivable, of course, that we were no farther 

 advanced in February, 1896, either; but it is more 

 likely from all I can make out, that the drift will 

 increase rather than diminish as we work westwards, 

 and consequently in February, 1896, we should have 

 got too far ; while, even if one could imagine a better 

 starting-point than that which the Fram will probably 

 offer us by March ist, 1895, it will, at all events, 

 be a possible one. It must consequently be the safest 

 plan not to wait for another spring. 



" Such then are the prospects before us of pushing' 

 through. The distance from this proposed starting-point 

 to Cape Fligely, which is the nearest known land, I set 

 down at about 370 miles,* consequently not much more 



There must be an error here, as the distance to Cape Fligely from 

 the point proposed, 83 N. lat. and 110 E. long., is quite 460 miles; 

 I had probably taken the longitude as ico instead of 110. 



