40 Chapter I. 



mens, with one exception, with which it shows the most 

 complete conformity, namely, a specimen which was 

 collected by Kellman during- the Vega Expedition on an 

 ice-floe off Cape Wankarem, near Bering Strait. Species 

 and varieties were perfectly identical in both specimens." 

 Cleve was able to distinguish sixteen species ot 

 diatoms. All these appear also in the dust from 

 Cape Wankarem, and twelve of them have been 

 found at that place alone, and nowhere else in all 

 the world. This was a notable coincidence between two 







such remote points, and Cleve is certainly right in 

 saying : " It is, indeed, quite remarkable that the 

 diatomous flora on the ice-floes off Bering Strait and 

 on the east coast of Greenland should so completely 

 resemble each other, and should be so utterly unlike all 

 others : it points to an open connection between the seas 

 east of Greenland and north of Asia." "Through this 

 open connection," I continued in my address, "drift-ice 

 is, therefore, yearly transported across the unknown 

 Polar Sea. On this same drift-ice and by the same route, 

 it must be no less possible to transport an expedition." 



When this plan was propounded it certainly met with 

 approval in various quarters, especially here at home. 

 Thus it was vigorously supported by Professor Mohn, 

 who, indeed, by his explanation of the drift of the 

 Jeannette relics, had given the original impulse to it. 

 But, as might be expected, it met with opposition in the 

 main, especially from abroad, while most of the polar 



