DR. NANSEN'S '^THROWING STICK:' 175 



when the museum at Christiania received a valuable collection of 

 Eskimo implements from East Greenland, collected by the expe- 

 dition of Captain Holm and Lieutenant Garde. He then gave 

 his " throwing stick " to the museum, as probably coming from 

 the same region. To his surprise, it was found entirely different 

 from the East Greenland implements, and the Norwegian trav- 

 eler Jakobsen, who had spent many years in Alaska, suggested 

 the resemblance to the Alaskan pattern, which gave rise to the 

 notice that I saw in Naturen. 



So, from all this, two things were pretty certain : First, that 

 the stick was made in Alaska ; and, second, that it was picked up 

 on the beach at Godthaab. Now, how could it have got there ? 

 It surely could not have drifted round by way of the Northwest 

 Passage, for that way is barred by such a network of islands that 

 the stick would undoubtedly have been stranded long before it 

 reached Greenland. 



Some people have said, " A sailor on an American whaleship 

 might have brought it home with him from Bering Sea, and 

 taken it to Greenland," but any one who is familiar with the 

 customs of American whalemen knows that the same ships never 

 go to the North Pacific and to Davis Strait, and that very few 

 men in the fleet have been to both regions. Moreover, the Amer- 

 ican whaleships keep over on the other side of the strait. It is 

 very unlikely that the stick could have reached Godthaab in that 

 way. As for the suggestion which has been made that it was 

 dropped somewhere off the Atlantic coast from a ship coming 

 home to New Bedford from Bering Sea, that may be dismissed in 

 a few words. If it were dropped near shore, it would fall into 

 the inshore current and drift south; while if it were dropped 

 farther off, the Gulf Stream would take it to Iceland or Norway. 



But it is well known that a current sets north through Bering 

 Strait into the Arctic Ocean, and that north of the strait the 

 current moves steadily westward, as shown by the drift of the 

 Jeannette. It is very easy to believe that the stick drifted in 

 this way, keeping on till it met the current that sweeps down be- 

 tween Iceland and Greenland, and then turned northward again 

 round Cape Farewell. Indeed, it is hard to see how it could have 

 got there otherwise. 



So this is the way that the finding of this little piece of wood 

 came to be a link in the chain of evidence that led Dr. Nansen to 

 form his adventurous plan of trusting his stout little vessel to the 

 current which he believed would take him over the very pole. 



For my part, I believe that he was right, and that, even if the 

 present rumor turns out to be untrue, there is a very good pros- 

 pect that he will attain his object. 



