1896. THE ARCTIC WORK OF 1896. 235 



fashion, in a hut of skins, stones, snow, and earth ; used blubber for 

 fuel, and fed on blubber and bear meat. On May 19, 1896, they 

 started for Spitzbergen, keeping south-west down a broad, frozen 

 sound, to the open water and small islands to the south of the archi- 

 pelago. On June 16 they thought they heard dogs barking, and next 

 day heard a shot fired. Johansen stayed with the kayaks while 

 Nansen went off in search and found Jackson's party in their winter 

 quarters : the Norwegian explorers subsequently returned with the 

 " Windward " to Vardo. 



While Nansen and Johansen were making this daring march, 

 the *' Fram " had again turned northward, and, slowly drifting, 

 reached the latitude of 85° 57'. This was the furthest point north at 

 which an observation was possible, for clouds prevented the exact 

 distance further from being determined, though it has been estimated 

 on the "Fram" at as much as 30' north of the 85° 57' point. The 

 ship then drifted to the south-west until, in February, 1896, it reached 

 a point 84° 9' N., 15° E.; there it remained stationary until released 

 by the break-up of the pack in July. After that the vessel steamed 

 southward through the leads, until she reached open water to the 

 north of Spitzbergen on August 12. 



It is as yet too early to attempt to discuss the value of the fresh 

 information brought back by the " Fram " expedition ; we may, 

 however, briefly refer to the chief results. In the first place, there is 

 no doubt now that the area round the North Pole is a deep ocean 

 basin. In a remarkable lecture delivered to the Geographical Society 

 in 1894, Professor Lapworth predicted, from geological considera- 

 tions, that this would be found to be the case. As the orthodox view 

 represented the Arctic Ocean as a shallow-water area studded with 

 islands and archipelagoes, the correction of this error is of great 

 importance in geography, meteorology, and geology. The depths 

 proved by the " Fram " show that the great depression west of Spitz- 

 bergen is not a basin surrounded by shallow sea, but is widely open 

 to the north, where it spreads over the polar area. The depth of this 

 ocean renders it improbable that many islands will be found in it. It 

 has been confidently asserted that there must be land to the north of 

 Spitzbergen, as birds are seen flying northward from it. The voyage 

 of the " Fram " has, however, shown that there is no land in the 

 position expected, and once again we are taught that birds make 

 mistakes as well as other animals. Another bogey from which Nansen 

 has relieved us is that the whole of the central Arctic Sea is full of 

 ice of immense thickness and great age. He found that, except for 

 local heaps and hummocks, it is only about thirty feet thick, and thus 

 the great " palaeocrystic ice" and floe-bergs of north-western Green- 

 land are proved to be exceptional. After this discovery, geology will 

 no longer be burdened with the incubus of a recent Polar ice-cap. 

 Another interesting geological contribution is Nansen's collection of 

 Jurassic fossils in northern Franz Josef Land. 



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