444 NANSEN — POLAR EXPEDITION, 1893-96. [Oct. 29, 



by the Swedish Vega expedition were examined by Prof. Cleve, who 

 also examined my mud. He said "that the diatoms contained in 

 the two samples of mud are perfectly alike, and are totally differ- 

 ent from those contained in all other samples in the whole world." 

 I thought it could not be explained in any other way but that there 

 must be some connection between the two places, the ice^carrying 

 the mud to where this mud was found across the polar sea. 



There were also other evidences that made me believe in this 

 drift current. If this drift really existed, I thought it a simple 

 thing to go with it ; to build a ship strong enough to stand the 

 pressure, push her into the ice and let her be carried along with 

 it just as the Jeannette was. And that is what the expedition 

 accomplished. As the expedition was therefore undertaken with 

 the intention to drift with the ice, we could not expect that we 

 would discover many new lands. My hope was to keep clear of the 

 land, as that would stop our drifting and perhaps oblige us to leave 

 the ship and travel over the ice. We were fortunate enough not to 

 meet any land. We found only one vast extended sea in the north, 

 which was very much deeper than we had expected. 



Before we set out a good many authorities said that the reason 

 why such a drift was impossible was because we would me*t with 

 much land in the north, and that the sea was shallow. So far as 

 we knew it was shallow north of Asia. The greatest depth found 

 by the Jeannette expedition was eighty fathoms. I also believed 

 that this sea might be pretty shallow, but seeing that there was a 

 deep sea north between Greenland and Spitzbergen, a sea extending 

 up to 2600 fathoms in depth, the northern limits of which had not 

 been found, and seeing at the same time that the depth increased 

 with the progress of the Jeannette expedition, as it was carried to 

 the north and east, I said it looks as though there should be some 

 connection between the deepening of the sea to the north of where 

 the Jeannette expedition met with disaster and this deep sea east of 

 Greenland. I thought there might be some narrow channel or 

 trough of deep sea across the polar region. 



Great was my astonishment when I found a great depth as soon 

 as we got north of the New Siberian Islands. All the way north from 

 the Siberian coast there was a very shallow sea, only twenty or thirty 

 fathoms deep, until at a certain point the depth suddenly increased 

 and we could not reach the bottom with all the lines we had on 

 board. We had to make new line and at last we found the bottom. 



