58 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[March 1, 1897. 



very bad weather at the start, in which the Fram behaved 

 none too well — for she is not a conafortable sea-boat — pack 

 ice was reached, and here the Fram soon proved her value. 

 The voyage through the Kara Sea was thus, notwith- 

 standing its dreaded reputation, more successful than 

 could have been expected, and on September 25th, 1893, 

 the ship was frozen in fast, and the drift was begun. All on 

 board were soon engaged in preparing for the long sojourn 

 in the ice. All sorts of workshops were erected, and 



Scott-Hansf.s. Nokdahl. 



Movable Meteoeological Siatiox on the Ice, July, 1895. 



(Copyright ba Archibald Constable & Co., 1897.) 



there was " nothing, from the most delicate instruments 

 down to wooden shoes and axe-handles, that could not be 

 made on the Fram." Then the windmill was set up 

 which was to drive the dynamo, and produce the electric 

 light ; and, more important still, preparations were made 

 to take regular scientific observations. A thermometer 

 house was fixed on the ice, and meteorological observa- 

 tions were taken from first to last " every four hours day 

 and night," and " for a considerable part of the time 

 every two hours." Sounding and dredging were also 

 frequently done. At stated periods, observations were 



taken to " determine the magnetic constant in this 

 unknown region." But the observations which had most 

 interest to all the members of the expedition were those 

 (about every second day) to ascertain their position. 

 Every man on board seems to have had the utmost 

 faith in his leader and his theories, and such interest 

 was taken in the course of the drift that " it was not 

 uncommon to see Hansen's cabin, while he was making 

 his calculations, besieged with idle spectators waiting to 

 hear the result — whether we had drifted north or south 

 since the last observation, and how far. The state of 

 feeling on board very much depended on these results." 

 When we look at the zig-zag line which the Fram took, 

 and the necessarily slow rate at which she drifted, we can 

 imagine that the state of feeling on board fluctuated 

 considerably. 



But there was always plenty to do for everyone ; the 

 ship proved a most comfortable home, and opportunity 

 was wisely taken of the anniversary of every birthday, 

 every fete day, and every memorable day — such as the day 

 on which the sun returned to them— to proclaim a general 

 holiday, a special feast, speeches, music, and fun. We 

 are not surprised, therefore, that the spirits of those on 

 board were seldom low. In the summer, when day was 

 perpetual, amusements were of course more numerous than 

 in the dark Arctic night. There were a few bears and 

 many birds to be shot, and very graphically and amusingly 

 are the hunts described. Small sledge and snowshoe 

 excursions were undertaken un the drift ice, and even 

 sailing could be indulged in, in small boats on fresh- 

 water pools which formed on the top of the ice. Not the 

 least amusing portions of the book are extracts from the 

 Fram newspaper — the Framsjaa — which contained brilliant 

 little articles, " local " news, poems, and even sketches. 



The following extract speaks for itself : — " On account of 

 want of storage room, a quantity of old clothes are at present 

 for sale by private arrangement at No. 2, Pump Lane. . . . 

 The clothes are quite fresh, having been in salt for a long 

 time." Such, then, was the daily life on board the Fram 

 during those three long years of imprisonment. 



On October 13th, 1893, came the first experience of 

 "what the prophets would have had us dread so much" 

 — ice pressure. This is graphically described, and no boat 

 but the Fram could possibly have withstood the fierce 

 onslaught of the ice. "It is grinding itself," says the 

 author in his diary, " into long walls and heaps high 

 enough to reach a good way up the Fram's rigging ; in 

 fact, it is trying its very utmost to grind the Fram, into 

 powder. But here we sit quite tranquil, not even going 

 up to look at all the hurly-burly, but just chatting and 

 laughing as usual " — so firm was the faith in the Fram. 

 Sometimes the pressure was so great that as floe after 

 floe crushed itself against the sides of the boat, only to be 

 driven under it and then lift it up, the noise was so terrific 

 that those on board could not hear each other speak in the 

 saloon ; but the Fram stood it all, and neither cracked a 

 board nor strained a beam. 



l)r. Nansen seems to prefer the Polar night, with its 

 lovely moon and marvellous displays of aurora and northern 

 lights, to the continual dazzle of the Polar day. His 

 descriptions of the aurora borealis are very tine. But in 

 spite of his hking for the Polar night, and notwithstanding 

 his high spirits and apparent cheerfulness, he had many a 

 tit of home-sickness, and many a longing to see again his 

 wife and his Little daughter Liv ; and this is touchingly 

 revealed on more than one page of his diary. 



In the autumn of 1891 it became apparent that the 

 theory of the drift was proved, and that, if nothing un- 

 toward happened, the Fram would reach open water on the 



