304 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AXD DISCOVERY. 



Josef Land, where we felt certain to find a ship. We 

 had 28 dogs, 2 sledges, and 2 kayaks for possible 

 open water. The dog food was calculated for thirty 

 days and our provisions for one hundred days. 



"We found the ice in the beginning tolerably 

 good traveling, and so made good distances, and the 

 ice did not appear to be drifting much. On March 

 22 we were at 85 10' north. Although the dogs 

 were less enduring than we hoped, still they were 

 tolerably good. The ice now became rougher and 

 the drift contrary. On March 25 we had only 

 reached 85 19' north, and on March 29, 85 30'. 



" We were now evidently drifting fast toward the 

 south. Our progress was very slow. It was fatiguing 

 to work our way and carry our sledges over the high 

 hummocks constantly being built up by the floes 

 grinding against each other. The ice was in strong 

 movement, and the ice pressure was hard in all di- 

 rections. On April 3 we were at 85 50' north, con- 

 stantly hoping to meet smoother ice. 



" On April 4 we reached 86 3' north, but the ice 

 became rougher until on April 7 it got so bad that 

 I considered it unwise to continue our march in a 

 northerly direction. We were then at 86 14' north. 

 We then made an excursion on skis farther north- 

 ward in order to examine as to the possibility of a 

 further advance. But we could see nothing but 

 ice of the same description, hummock beyond hum- 

 mock, to the horizon, looking like a sea of frozen 

 breakers. We had had low temperature, and dur- 

 ing the early three weeks it was in the neighbor- 

 hood of 40 below zero. On April 1 it rose to 8 

 below zero, but soon sank to 38. When a wind 

 was blowing in this temperature, we did not feel 

 comfortable in our too thin woolen clothing. To 

 save weight, we had left our fur suits aboard ship. 

 The minimum temperature in March was 49 and 

 the maximum was 24 . In April the minimum was 

 38 and the maximum 20. We saw no signs 

 of land in any direction. In fact, the floe of ice 

 seemed to move so freely before the wind that there 

 could not have been anything in the way of land to 

 stop it for a long distance off. We were now drift- 

 ing rapidly northward. 



" On April 8 we began our march toward Franz 

 Josef Land. On .April 12 our watches ran down, 

 owing to the unusual length of the day's march. 

 After that date we were uncertain as to our longi- 

 tude, but hoped that our dead reckoning was fairly 

 correct. As we came south we met many cracks, 

 which greatly retarded our progress. The pro- 

 visions were rapidly decreasing. The dogs were 

 killed one after the other to feed the rest. 



" In June the cracks became very bad, and the 

 snow began falling rapidly. The dogs and sledge 

 runners broke through the superficial crust and 

 sank deep in the wet snow. Only a few dogs were 

 now left and progress was next to impossible. But, 

 unfortunately, we had no line of retreat. The 

 dogs' rations, as well as our own, were reduced to a 

 minimum, and we made the best way we could 

 ahead. We expected daily to find land in sight, 

 but we looked in vain. On May 31 we were in 82 

 21' north, and on June 4 in 82 18' north, but on 

 June 15 we had been drifted to the northwest to 

 82 26' north. No land was to be seen, although, 

 according to Payer's map, we had expected to meet 

 with Petermann Land at 83 north. These dis- 

 crepancies became more and more puzzling. 



" On June 22 we had a last shot at a bearded 

 seal, and as the snoV became constantly worse I de- 

 termined to wait. We now liad a supply of seal 

 meat until it melted away. We also shot 3 bears. 

 We had only 2 dogs left, which were now well fed 

 upon meat. On July '22 we continued our journey 

 over tolerably good snow. On July 24. when about 

 82 north, we sighted unknown land at last, but the 



ice was everywhere broken into small floes, the 

 \\aler between being filled with crushed ice in 

 which the use of the kayaks was impossible. We 

 therefore had to make our way by balancing from 

 one ice piece to another, and we did not reach land 

 until Aug. 6, at 81 38' north and about 63 east 

 longitude. 



" This proved to be entirely ice-capped islands. 

 In kayaks we made our way westward in open 

 water along these islands, and on Aug. 12 we 'dis- 

 covered land extending from the southeast to the 

 northwest. I still could find no agreement with 

 Payer's map. I thought we were in longitude cast 

 of Austria Sound, but if this was correct, we were 

 now traveling straight across Wilczek Land and 

 Dover glacier without seeing any land near us. 



"On Aug. 2 we reached a spot in 81 13' north 

 and 56 east, evidently well suited to wintering, 

 and as it was now too late for the voyage to Spitz- 

 bergen I considered it wisest to stop and prepare 

 for winter. We shot bears and walruses and built 

 a hut of stones, earth, and moss, making the roof 

 of walrus hide, tied down with rope and covered 

 with snow. We used the blubber for cooking, 

 light, and heat. The bear meat and the blubber 

 were our only food for ten months. The bear skins 

 formed our beds and sleeping bags. The winter, 

 however, passed well, and we were both in perfect 

 health. Spring came with sunshine and with much 

 open water to the southwest. We hoped to have 

 an easy voyage to Spitzbergen over the floe of ice 

 and the open water. We were obliged to manufac- 

 ture new clothes from blankets and a new sleeping 

 bag of bear skin. Our provisions were raw bear 

 meat and blubber. 



" On May 19 we were at last ready to start. We 

 came to open water on May 23 in 81 5' north, but 

 were retarded by storms until June 3. A little 

 south of 81 we found land extending westward 

 and open water, which reached to the northwest, 

 along the north coast. But we preferred to travel 

 outward over the ice through a broad sound. 



"We came, on June 12, to the south side of the 

 island and found much open water trending west- 

 ward. We sailed and paddled in this direction in 

 order to cross to Spitzbergen from the most west- 

 ward cape, but Payer's map was misleading." 



Explorer Jackson thus describes the meeting 

 with Nansen : "On June 17 I met Dr. Xansen 3 

 miles out on a floe, south-southeast of Cape Flora, 

 and under most extraordinary circumstances. He 

 had wintered in a rough hut within a mile or two 

 of our northern limit in 1895, and this spring we 

 unwittingly came within a few miles of his winter 

 quarters." 



The " Fram " reached Tromsoe Aug. 20, having 

 drifted from a point 85-95 north. It reached open 

 water' Aug. 13. and the next day called at Danes 

 island, where Prof. Andree had been waiting for a 

 favorable wind before attempting his proposed 

 balloon trip across the arctic regions. The " Fram " 

 still had provisions sufficient for three years. The 

 deepest sounding taken was 2,185 fathoms. In the 

 highest latitude reached birds were seen, but no 

 other organic life was visible. The lowest tempera- 

 ture was 62 below zero. 



In regard to the results of Xansen's expedition, 

 Dr. Supan says, in " Petermann's Mitteilungen ": 

 " Xansen himself calls it successful, and such it was 

 in the highest degree. That the mathematical pole 

 was not reached matters little ; the task of bringing 

 to light a part of the arctic region hitherto wholly 

 unknown was fully performed. It has rectified the 

 notion heretofore entertained that the polar sea 

 was a shallow basin filled with islands. A few 

 islands were discovered in the southern part near 

 the coast; other parts appeared to be landless. 



