I 



THE CONTINENTAL GLACIERS OF POLAR REGIONS 287 



ing to Nansen be arranged like the meshes of a net having roughly 

 squared angles and reaching to heights of 15 to 25, rarely 30, feet 

 above the general surface of the pack. The ice within each mesh of 

 the network is a floe, which at the times of pressure is ground against 

 its neighbors and variously shifted in position. At the margin of 

 the pack these floes become separated and float toward lower lati- 

 tudes until they are melted. 



The drift of the pack. The discovery of the drift in the Arctic 

 pack is a romantic chapter in the history of polar exploration, and 

 has furnished an example of faith in scientific reasoning and judg- 

 ment which may well be compared with that of Columbus. The 

 great figure in this later discovery is the Norwegian explorer 

 Fridtjof Nansen, and to the final achievement the ill-fated Jean- 

 nette expedition contributed an important part. 



The Jeannette carrying the American exploring expedition 

 was in 1879 caught in the pack to the northward of Wrangel Island 

 (Fig. 315), and two years later was crushed by the ice and sunk to 

 the northward of the New Siberian Islands. In 1884 various 

 articles, including a list of stores in the handwriting of the com- 

 mander of the Jeannette, were picked up at Julianehaab near the 

 southern extremity of Greenland but upon the western side of 

 Cape Farewell. Nansen, having carefully verified the facts, 

 concluded that the recovered articles could have found their way 

 to Julianehaab only by drifting in the pack across the polar sea, 

 and that at the longest only five years had been consumed in the 

 transit. After being separated from the pack the articles must 

 have floated in the current which makes southward along the east 

 coast of Greenland and after doubling Cape Farewell flows north- 

 ward upon the west coast. It was clear that if they had come 

 through Smith Sound they would inevitably have been found 

 upon the other shore of Baffin Bay. In confirmation of this view 

 there was found at Godthaab, a short distance to the northward 

 of Julianehaab (Fig. 315), an ornamented Alaskan "throwing 

 stick " which probably came by the same route. Moreover, 

 large quantities of driftwood reach the shores of Greenland which 

 have clearly come from the Siberian coast, since the Siberian 

 larch has furnished the larger quantity. 



Pinning his faith to these indubitable facts, Nansen built the 

 Fram in such a manner as to resist and elude the enormous pres- 



