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



founded my theory >bout the drift of ice across the polar region. I 

 have mentioned that the expedition was accomplished in the way it 

 was planned, and thus the theory was proved to be fairly correct. The 

 expedition has, however, given us a great deal of information which 

 enables us to form a much clearer and better idea of this drift of ice 

 across the polar region than we could have had before. We have had 

 plenty of experience, and have made many observations of how this 

 ice is constantly being drifted from one side of this polar region to 

 the other. What causes this drifting? The drift is for the most 

 part caused by the prevailing winds. The data collected have not 

 been calculated yet, but so far as I can now say the direction of the 

 prevailing winds was pretty nearly the same as the prevailing drifts. 

 Perhaps they do not, however, quite coincide, as I believe there are 

 some other factors which also help to decide the final drift of the 

 ice. 



The prevailing winds in this region during the whole year go from 

 this Siberian side (indicating) toward the Atlantic sea, and con- 

 sequently sweep the whole expanse of ice cover out into the Atlantic 

 sea. That is the main feature of this drift. Of course there are 

 many variations, many periods of drift during the year. At 

 some periods the drift is more rapid. At other times the drift stops, 

 or even goes in the opposite direction. But as a rule the best 

 period for the drift to go in the direction we wanted was the 

 winter and spring, and the worst period, generally, was the late 

 summer and autumn. 



I may mention here that the route you see on this map^ is very 

 much simplified. If we had it marked down as it really was it 

 would not be possible to understand it ; it would be so complicated 

 that you would not know one drift from another. During the first 

 autumn we had a drift backward, and were drifted southeast into 

 the shallow sea and toward the New Siberian Islands again. Then 

 the winter came and we were pushed forward until the middle of 

 June, and then came another bad period and we were pushed back- 

 ward. Then it began to drift onward again until the next year ; 

 then there was a stop again during the summer. Then there was a 

 more favorable drift during the winter again until the Fram worked 

 her way out of the ice to the north of Spitzbergen. 



You will understand that we are now able to form pretty nearly 

 a complete picture of the motion of this ice in the polar sea. You 



^ An enlarged drawing of a map given in " Farthest North." 



