1897.] HEILPRIN — REMARKS ON POLAR EXPEDITION. 461 



hundred oaken casks, properly numbered, made after the manner 

 of a beer keg of twenty gallons capacity, properly hooped, and the 

 ends extended out to complete a parabolic spindle, would demon- 

 strate the drift. At the end of four or five years, we might begin 

 to look for the beer kegs between the Spitzbergen and Greenland. 

 And now, as regards the work of our honored guest this after- 

 noon: 



His is the honor to have reached the ''Farthest North," the 

 Ultima Thule, that has defied the best blood and brains for three 

 centuries. He it was who conceived the grand thought of making 

 that most perilous drift, though he knew not how long it might 

 last, nor whether his good ship and ship's company would ever 

 drift out of the terrible unknown sea of ice and snow. His was 

 the honor — after waiting months and years for the slow drift, and 

 becoming impatient of the gods of ice and snow — to break away 

 from the good ship in order to add a few more miles to his northern 

 journey; and, taking his life in his hands, with but one solitary 

 human companion, to make the long and dreary march to Franz- 

 Josef Land. And to what purpose ? That we, the eager, driv- 

 ing, working world, might have that knowledge which is power, 

 wealth and happiness. 



And let me ask my hearers this afternoon. What better school of 

 heroic endeavor for our lusty youth than the Arctic ocean ? There, 

 amidst the silence of the eternal ice and snow, man can commune 

 with the God of Nature in the hushed stillness that brings awe, but 

 not fear, to the soul of the intrepid explorer, and there he receives 

 the inspiration that spurs him onward in his search for the great 

 unknown ! 



This, gentlemen, is Dr. Nansen, the guest whom we delight to 

 honor, who among Arctic explorers is ''the noblest Roman of 

 them all.'' 



Prof. Angelo Heilprin : 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — I was asked to speak this 

 afternoon, and inasmuch as my resources in Arctic exploration are 

 extremely limited, it is doubtless expected of me to say something 

 on the scientific aspect of the subject, something of what remains to 

 be done and something that has been done. 



The question of the existing and past relations of the land and 



