Nov. 2 2, 1888] 



NA TURE 



89 



se the ^'o/Vi^-messenger should catch the steamer without 

 jcing her to wait for us, I write these few lines just to inform 

 that we are all alive and well. 

 Ls you will know, we left the Jason, the Norwegian sealer, 

 t July 17, and expected to reach the shore the next day. But 

 Itiis we were sadly disappointed. Screwing ice, maelstroms, 

 sable ice, where it was alike impossible to row or to drag 

 two boats, stopped us. One of the boats was stove in, but 

 got it repaired again. V\ e drifted seawards at a speed of 

 ty sea miles in the twenty-four hours. Drifted in the ice for 

 Ive days. Strove hard to get to the shore, were three times 

 the point of succeeding, but were as often carried out to sea 

 lin by a current stronger than our power of rowing. Were 

 once, for a whole day and night, very near perishing in tremen- 

 dous breakers of the sea against the ice-rim. After twelve days' 

 drifting about, we managed at last to get ashore near Andretok, 

 north of Cape Farewell, at 6x° and some minutes of northern 

 latitude. We rowed again northwards, reaching Uminik, from 

 which point the crossing of the inland ice began on August 15. 



We directed our course for Christianshaab on the western 

 coast. Encountered severe snowstorms and had heavy ground. 

 Estimating that it would be too late to reach Christianshaab in 

 time for this autumn's vessel, we altered our course and steered 

 for Godthaab, the ice-fields in that direction having, besides, 

 been hitherto trodden by no one. After altering course, reached 

 height of 10,000 feet, with temperature of 40" to 50° C. below 

 zero. For several weeks we remained at an altitude of over 

 9000 feet. Tremendous storms, loose, new-fallen snow, enor- 

 mously difficult passage. Towards end of September we 

 reached at last the western side above Godthaab. Had a 

 perilous descent, on ugly and very uneven ice, but got safely 

 down to Ameralik Fjord. Managed to build a kind of boat 

 from floor of tent, bags, bamboo reeds, and willow branches. 

 In that frail craft Sverdrup and I rowed away, and arrived here 

 on October 3. The four men are left at Ameralik, living there 

 on short rations fare, but will be sent for as soon as possible. 



There you have in short outline our Saga. We are all per- 

 fectly well, and everything has been in the best order. I hope 

 that we may catch this steamer, and that instead of this letter 

 you may see our sunburnt faces. 



With many greetings, yours ever devotedly, 



Frithiof Nansen. 



P.S. — Just now the kajak-raGx\ must leave, profiting by the 

 favourable weather. They have 300 miles to make before 

 getting to Ivigtut. 



The following is a translation of Mr. Sverdrup's letter : — 



Godthaab, October a^, 1888. 



We arrived safely here yesterday after forty-six days' wandering 



from east to west. It did not prove so ea.sy to get on shore 



from the Jason as we had expected. We got into formidable 



1 ice-screwings, and the current took us southwards and out from 



1 the shore, so that we had twelve days' very hard work before 



I getting to land, and that 300 miles more to the south than we 



I had intended. We began at once to work back along the coast, 



I and thi.s took us another twelve days, so that we did not begin 



[ our crossing of the ice before August 15. The ascent was very 



fortunate, as we chanced to find comparatively easy ice to climb 



j up. We shaped our course for Christianshaab, but after getting 



up to 7500 feet we were attacked by a northern snowstorm. We 



resolved, therefore, to set our course for Godthaab, the distance 



being shorter, and there being a better chance of favourable 



winds. I may truly say that we had a hard time of it. The 



snow and ice were very heavy, and the weather was trying. For 



nearly three weeks we were up at nearly 10,000 feet, and had a 



temperature of -40° to - 50" C. Only for four days were we 



snowbound. After all, we have to be thankful it was not worse. 



Alter getting down from the inland ice on the western coast, we 



had before us some ninety miles of barren country, of which the 



half lay along a fjord. We tried to cross here, but found it too 



hard work ; so we managed to construct a kind of boat from the 



bottom of the lent and some bag--, and in that, after four days' 



rowing, Dr. Nansen and I reached here, where we had the most 



cordial reception from all the inhabitants of the colony. Two 



boats have now been sent to the bottom of the fjord to fetch our 



comrades. The regular vessel has long since left, but some 



250 or 300 miles further south there is supposed to be, at 



Ivigtut, a steamer loading for Copenhagen, and we are now 



sending a -6a;aZ'- message in order to stop that steamer if poss'ble. 

 We have but little hope of that, however, and are preparing to 

 pass the winter here. That may be very comfortable after all, 

 but of course we would prefer getting home. I must hurry up, 

 as we are now going to dine with the parson, and, in fact, we 

 have not had time for anything, as since arriving here we have 

 gone from one social party to another. You may see from that 

 how well we are o^. I was the only one of our whole party 

 who got over all the tremendous fatigues without the smallest 

 ailment. I am, and have been all the time, as fresh and sound 

 as a fish. 



Dr. Georg Schweinfurth has started upon an Oriental 

 journey. He is going to Arabia first, to continue his studies of 

 the coffee-plant. 



THE FOUNDATION-STONES OF THE 

 EARTH'S CRUST} 



1~^0 we know anything about the earth in the beginning of its 

 hi>tory — anything of those rock masses on which, as on 

 foundation-stones, the great superstructure of the fossiliferous 

 strata must rest? Palaeontologists by their patient industry 

 have deciphered many of the inscriptions, blurred and battered 

 though they be, in which the story of life is engraved on the 

 great stone book of Nature. Of its beginnings, indeed, we 

 cannot yet speak. The first lines of the record are at present 

 wanting — perhaps never will be recovered. But apart from 

 this — before the grass, and herb, and tree, before the "moving 

 creature in the water," before the "beast of the earth after his 

 kind," — there was a land and there was a sea. Do we know 

 anything of that globe, as yet void of life? Will the rocks 

 themselves give us any aid in interpreting the cryptogram which 

 shrouds its history, or must we reply that there is neither voice 

 nor language, and thus accept with blind submission, or spurn 

 with no less blind incredulity, the conclusions of the physicist 

 and the chemist? 



The secret of the earth's hot youth has doubtless been well 

 kept. So well that we have often been tempted to guess idly 

 rather than to labour patiently. Nevertheless we are beginning, 

 as I believe, to feel firm ground after long walking through a 

 region of quicksands ; we are laying hold of principles of 

 interpretation, the relative value of which we cannot in all cases 

 as yet fully apprehend — principles which occasionally even 

 appear to be in conflict, but which will some day lead us to 

 the truth. 



I shall not attempt to give you an historical summary, but 

 only to lay before you certain facts for which I can answer, and 

 to indicate the inductions which these, as it seems to me, 

 warrant. If I say little of the work of others, it is not from a 

 desire of taking credit to myself, but because it is immaterial 

 for my present purpose who first made a particular observation 

 and how far his inductions therefrom were correct. The ac- 

 knowledgment of good work would involve repudiation of bad, 

 and for that, so far as persons are concerned, it seems hardly 

 fair to use the present occasion. So, in theoutset of this lecture, 

 I will once for all make a statement which I have sometimes 

 thought of invariably using, like a prefatory invocation, "You 

 are free to suppose that everything herein has been said by 

 somebody, somewhere," but I will add that, as far as possible, 

 every assertion has been personally verified. 



The name Cambrian has been given to the oldest rocks in 

 which fossils have been found. This group forms the first 

 chapter in the first volume, called Palaeozoic, of the history of 

 living creatures. Any older rocks are provisionally termed 

 Archaean. These — I speak at present of those indubitably 

 underlying the Cambrian — exhibit marked differences one from 

 another. Some are certainly the detritus of other, and often of 

 older, materials — slates and grits, volcanic dust and ashes, even 

 lava- flows. Such rocks differ but little from the basement-beds 

 of the Cambrian ; probably they are not much older, compara- 

 tively speaking. But in some places we find, in a like position, 

 rocks as to the origin of which it is more difficult to decide. 

 Often in their general aspect they resemble sedimentary de- 

 posits, but they seldom retain any distinct indications of their 

 original fragmental constituents. They have been metamor- 



* An evening discourse, delivered at the Bath meeting of -Mt British 

 Association, by Proi". T. G. Bonney, D.Sc, LL.D., F.R.S., &c 



