90 



DISCOVERY 



rate found by Nansen averaged about one mile per day. 

 The relation between the Greenland Current and the 

 Polar Basin is therefore similar to that between a mill-, 

 race and a sluggish pond which it drains. To keep the 

 race fed a big gathering-ground is necessarj^ : and 

 it is therefore a fair deduction that the bigger part of 

 the unexplored area is likely to be ice-covered sea. 



This is the state of knowledge about the Polar Basin ; 

 and sporadic attempts have alreadj' been made to find 

 the new land. To Mikkelsen and Leffingwell belongs 

 the credit of first venturing out (in 1907) from the 

 Alaskan coast on to the polar ice, though their journey 

 was hardly long enough to give definite results. Ste- 

 fansson's wondci ful trip from Martin Point in Alaska to 



Banks Land in 1914 was a much longer journey, but 

 is just as inconclusive. On the information gained, 

 however, he arranged for one of his men, Storkersen, to 

 make a still longer trip. Storkersen sledged out about 

 150 miles from the Alaskan coast in April 1918 ; and 

 then lived on a drifting floe for six months. His 

 observations show that there is little or no true current : 

 the wind is the controlling factor, and imder its 

 influence he zigzagged back and forwards for a long 

 time over tlie same ground, just as did the J can mil e and 

 the Fram during their drifts. Then, unfortunately, 

 before anj' conclusion could be arriv^ed at as to the 

 direction of the drift, Storkersen had to return owing to 

 ill-health. Among other things, however, he brought 



