APPENDIX V 



OCEANOGRAPHY 



Remarks on the Oceanographical Investigations carried out 



BY THE "FrAM" in THE NoRTH ATLANTIC IN 1910 AND IN 



the South Atlantic in 191 1 . By Professor Bjorn Helland- 

 Hansen and Professor Fridtjof Nansen 



In the earliest age of the human race the sea formed an absolute 

 barrier. Men looked out upon its immense surface, now calm and 

 bright, now lashed by storms, and always mysteriously attractive; 

 but they could not grapple with it. Then they learned to make 

 boats; at first small, simple craft, which could only be used when 

 the sea was calm. But by degrees the boats were made larger and 

 more perfect, so that they could venture farther out and weather a 

 storm if it came. In antiquity the peoples of Europe accomplished 

 the navigation of the Mediterranean, and the boldest maritime 

 nation was able to sail round Africa and find the way to India by 

 sea. Then came voyages to the northern waters of Europe, and 

 far back in the Middle Ages enterprising seamen crossed from 

 Norway to Iceland and Greenland and the north-eastern part of 

 North America. They sailed straight across the North Atlantic, 

 and were thus the true discoverers of that ocean. 



Even in antiquity the Greek geographers had assumed that the 

 greater part of the globe was covered by sea, but it was not till 

 the beginning of the modern age that any at all accurate idea 

 arose of the extent of the earth's great masses of water. The 



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