378 THE NORTH POLAR BARIN. 



tlie sng'gestive fact that tlie thernionieter can rise to 41° F., and tor- 

 rents of rain can fall in the middle of February as far north as latitude 

 78°, must be regarded as a valuable discovery. 



It was hardly to be expected that so successful a journey should not 

 be followed by a second attempt in order to follow up the discoveries 

 of the first. Peary has started for the north of Greenland with a more 

 carefully organized staff for a longer expedition, andhas already reached 

 his winter quarters. They expect to be absent two years or more. In 

 March they hope to start for Independence Bay, wiiich was discovered 

 on the i)revious expedition, and there the party will divide, with tlie 

 object of comi)leting the survey of the coast-line of (Ireenland by reach- 

 ing Cape Bismarck, if possible, and at the same time to exi)loie the 

 northern coast-line of Independence Bay, hoping that it may land 

 them farther north than the highest point yet reached by any An^tic 

 traveler. 



In the summer of 1888 Dr. Nansen was bold enough to cross the con- 

 tinent of Greenland about latitude 04°, reaching an altitude of 0,000 

 feet, and he told his story to this section in his own simple words on 

 his return. The distance across was about 10 degrees, and the highest 

 point was about one-third of the Avay across from the east coast. If 

 the scientific results were necessarily somewhat meager. Dr. Nansen 

 established a reputation for bravery and i)hysical endurance, which he 

 hopes to increase by an attempt to reach the iSTorth Pole. The Frant 

 has already started from Hammerfest, and was telegrai)hedafew weeks 

 ago from Waigatz Island. The intention is to enter the Kara Sea and 

 to push northward and eastward, hoping- that the warm currents caused 

 by the great Siberian rivers will enal)le them to get well into the ice 

 before winter begins. Once frozen into the pack ice, Nansen hopes to 

 be carried by the currents somewhere near the North Pole, and, after 

 drifting for two or three years, he hopes finally to emerge from his ice 

 l)rison somewhere on the east coast of Greenland. Foolhardy as the 

 expedition appears, it is nevertheless planned with great skill, and its 

 chances of success are supposed to be based upon a sufficiently accurate 

 knowledge of the ocean currents of the Polar Basin. 



These currents, so far as they are known, are very interesting. The 

 Mackenzie and the great Siberian rivers flow into the Polar Basin, and 

 the current through Bering Strait is supposed to do the same; but 

 both these sources of sui)ply can only be regarded as of minor imjjort- 

 ance. Between Spitzbergen and Finmark, however, the Gulf Stream 

 enters the Polar Basin 300 or 400 miles wide. To compensate for these 

 inward currents, there are two outward currents, one on each side of 

 Greenland, which, coming from the center of cold, do their best to 

 intensify the rigois of that mountainous island. 



Nansen hopes that the current which carried the Jcainiefte from Her- 

 ald Island, north of Bering Strait, in a northwesterly direction for.liW 

 or (100 miles, is the same current that flows down the east coast of 



