1807.1 NANSEX — POLAR EXPEDITIOX, 1893-96. 447 



is a group of very small islands. We came southward here (indi- 

 cating) and we saw there was no land of importance to the north. 

 The island we first met with was situated in 8i° 38'' north latitude. 

 We traveled along the north coast here (indicating), and now the 

 English expedition has this spring traveled along the northwest 

 coast of these islands here (indicating) and found that there was 

 nothing but a comparatively small island which approximates the 

 most western point of this map. Consequently we know pretty 

 nearly the whole extent of Franz- Josef Land. We want to know 

 its extent toward the east and it is hoped that some expedition not 

 far in the future will settle that. 



While I have mentioned the geographical results of the expedi- 

 tion, I should mention the geological results also, but will not 

 detain you long with them. There is one important geological 

 discovery which we made, and that is the evidence we found of a 

 glacial epoch in Siberia. As you certainly know, the whole of 

 northern Europe and the northern parts of North America have 

 had at least one glacial age, during which they were covered with 

 an extensive ice cover as Greenland is at the present time. It was, 

 however, generally believed that Siberia and the whole of northern 

 Asia had had no glacial age, as there were no marks indicating an 

 ice-cover in those countries. During our voyage along the Siberian 

 coast I had an opportunity of visiting the coast at several places, 

 and everywhere I found signs that there had been at one time a 

 glacial covering, an ice mantle over the whole country. We found 

 the coast here pretty much cut up. It did not look as it appears on 

 this map, but looked more like the western coast of Alaska, and 

 more like the coast of Norway. 



Outside of the coast there was a belt of islands which we find 

 on]y along the coasts of lands which have once been covered with 

 an ice cap. This is but an indication that something of the same kind 

 must also once have existed in Siberia. But I found more certain 

 proofs that such had been the case. In one place I saw the rock 

 scratched with glacial striae and marks, which is a certain evidence 

 that glaciers have once covered that country. In another place I 

 found ground moraines covered with big erratic blocks of vari- 

 ous forms, and there is, in my opinion, no explanation of these 

 blocks being there except that they have been carried by glaciers 

 similar to what we know have been in Europe and America. 



I have already mentioned some of the evidences on which I 



