FOREWORD xxv 



26, a Russian village on the Lena. All the others 

 perished, some being lost at sea, by the foundering of 

 the boats, while others, including De Long, had starved 

 to death after reaching the desolate Siberian coast. 



Three years later some Eskimos found washed 

 ashore on the southeast coast of Greenland several 

 broken biscuit boxes and lists of stores, which are 

 said to be in De Long's handwriting. The startling 

 circumstance that these relics in their long drift 

 from where the ship sank had necessarily passed across 

 or very near to the Pole aroused great speculation as 

 to the probable currents in the polar area. Nansen, 

 who had already made the first crossing of Greenland's 

 ice cap, argued that the same current which had guided 

 the relics on their long journey would similarly con- 

 duct a ship. He therefore constructed a unique craft, 

 the Fram, so designed that when hugged by the ice 

 pack she would not be crushed, but would be lifted 

 up and rest on the ice; he provisioned the vessel for 

 five years and allowed her to be frozen in the ice near 

 where the Jeannette had sunk, 78° 50' N., 134° E. (Sep- 

 tember 25, 1893). When at the end of eighteen months 

 the ship had approached 314 miles nearer to the Pole, 

 Nansen and one companion, Johansen, with kayaks, 

 dogs, sledges, and three months' provisions, deliberately 

 left the ship and plunged northward toward the Pole, 

 March 14, 1895. In twenty -three days the two men 

 had overcome one-third of the distance to the Pole, 

 reaching 86° 12'. To continue onward would have 

 meant certain death, so they turned back. When their 

 watches ran down Providence guided them, and the 

 marvelous physique of both sustained them through 



