PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 667 
he entered on what was at the time of its organisation considered 
by almost all who had experience of Arctic voyages to be a hope- 
less expedition. With faithful reliance on his theory, he per- 
mitted his strongly-built and specially well-equipped vessel the 
“ Fram” to become embedded in the great Arctic ice mass, appa- 
rently with no chance of escape. But, as he had expected from 
his better knowledge, the ice carried his stout vessel in a definite 
direction, and, drifting over the Polar region, was freed from the 
ice-grasp after three years’ imprisonment, with the whole party in 
excellent health. Nansen and his companion Johansen had left 
the “Fram” in the second year, and returned on foot and in 
kayaks, spending a whole dark winter of six months’ night on the 
north end of Franz Joseph Land under circumstances of the 
greatest conceivable hardship. Yet they returned to civilisation 
almost on the same day as the “Fram.” It is not necessary to 
dwell .on the details of this attractive subject, which has so 
recently aroused such intense public interest. The scientific 
results of this wonderful venture have not yet been published, 
but two remarkable advances in geographical science have been 
announced :—Ist. That the North Polar Ocean is not a shallow 
sea with scattered islands distributing icebergs, as has hitherto 
been supposed ; but it is a profound ocean basin, which should 
hereafter be known as Vansen’s Basin. So little had this condi- 
tion been expected, that the “ Fram” was not provided with deep 
sea sounding apparatus, and Nansen had to manufacture some 
from wire shrouds; and on frequent occasions, after boring 
through 37 feet of ice, obtained a depth of nearly 2,000 fathoms, 
or 2} miles, without touching bottom. 2nd. That there are 
definite movements of the great Polar ice-cake, and that they 
cross and do not merely circulate round the Pole. It is as if the 
ice in winter accumulated in greatest abundance along the Sibe- 
rian border of the Polar Sea, and in summer progressed like a 
great melting and plastic glacier in the direction of Spitzbergen 
and Greenland, gravitating towards the warm currents close to 
the Gulf Stream, which, by melting the ice-border at that point, 
diminish the pressure. This brings me to the subject on which I 
wish specially to address the section. 
SUBMARINE GEOGRAPHY. 
Three quarters of the whole earth’s surface is concealed from 
us by the oceans, which have an average depth of 3 miles, and an 
extreme depth, so far as known, of 5,%; miles, while its cubic 
contents exceed 400,000,000 cubic miles. The larger area of the 
sea bottom ranges from the shore line to 2 miles in depth. 
For our knowledge of the ocean bed we are dependent on the 
sounding-line, and the improved appliances in connection with it 
which have been introduced within the last twenty years. The 
