

THE OTTAWA NATURALIST. 



Vol. XIV. 



OTTAWA, NOVEMBER, 1900. 



No. 8. 



DR. NANSEN'S SCIENTIFIC RESULTS. 



1^ 



By Professor Edward E. Prince, Dominion Commissioner of Fisheries, 



Ottawa. 



On Dr. Nansen's return from his perilous Arctic expedition, 

 doubt was expressed in many quarters as to the utiHty and value, 

 scientific or otherwise, of any results which he might give to the 

 world. Even in scientific circles, the risks and hardships involved 

 were regarded by some as greatly overbalancing probably meagre 

 additions to our k.iowledge, and the question " Cui bono ? " was 

 not infrequently urged. Many critics, indeed, did not hesitate to 

 pronounce the North Pole expedition to be a somewhat foolhardy 

 enterprise. Nothing could be further from the truth, as those felt 

 who knew Nansen as a scientific worker, and especially those who 

 knew him personally as a friend. 



It cannot, of course, be denied that the chief aim of some 

 Arctic discoverers, so-called, has been self-glorification. Their 

 object was achieved when the columns of the newspapers were 

 filled with accounts of their elaborate preparations, or their 

 theatrical embarkations, Even an explorer like Peary, of the 

 United States Navy, declared to the American Geographical 

 Society (in Chickering Hall, 1897), that "his aim had always 

 been to push the Stars and Stripes to the very apex of the globe!" 



Wholly different were Dr. Nansen's aims. His methods 

 were entirelv the reverse of that. His object above all was to 

 add to the world's knowledge, and Lord Lister succinctly ex- 

 pressed the truth upon this matter when he said, addressing the 



