919.8 233 



The Arctic Work of 1896. 



''PHE year 1896 will long be memorable in Arctic annals. It opened 

 •*• sadly, hopes for a vigorous effort to explore the Antarctic Con- 

 tinent having been damped by the inability of the British Admiralty 

 to help in the work ; and although we have heard of many expedi- 

 tions, British, Belgium, and German, which were preparing, not one 

 of them has yet started. The disappointment thus occasioned has, 

 however, been completely effaced by the rejoicings over the return of 

 Dr. Nansen and his colleagues of the " Fram." 



The story of Nansen's daring march is well known from his 

 graphic narrative published by the Daily Chro?iicle (August 17 and 19), 

 from which, in the main, the following outline has been compiled. 



Nansen left Europe in 1893 i" order to reach the Pole by floating 

 with the ice-pack from the north of Siberia to the Greenland Sea. 

 It was well known that off the Arctic coast of eastern Siberia the 

 water drifts northward ; also that currents flow southward from the 

 Pole down each side of Greenland and along the eastern coast of 

 Spitzbergen. Nansen thought it probable that these movements 

 were all part of one great current, which flowed right across the Pole. 

 Support was given to this idea by two considerations : firstly, the 

 marine fauna of the Greenland coasts is remarkably similar to that of 

 Siberia; secondly, in 1881 the steamer *' Jeannette " (better known 

 by its old name of the " Pandora ") was crushed by ice to the north- 

 west of the New Siberia Islands (155° E. 77° 15' N.), and some years 

 later various articles, supposed to be relics of the " Jeannette," were 

 found off Cape Farewell, at the southern end of Greenland. Accept- 

 ing these two arguments as rendering the existence of the Polar 

 Current most probable, Nansen proposed to get frozen into the pack 

 near the point where the "Jeannette" was nipped, and then float 

 along the same course into the Greenland Sea. The " Fram " was 

 accordingly designed with especial reference to capability of with- 

 standing ice-pressure, and supplied with stores for six years. Nansen 

 left Norway early in 1893, and the last news from him was sent fron^ 

 Jugor Strait, the south-western entrance to the Kara Sea, in 

 August of the same year. It had been arranged that he should pick up a 

 further supply of dogs from the Olonek River, but owing to some delays 

 in rounding Cape Chelyuskin, it was not till September 15 that the 



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