60 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[March 1, 1897. 



possible from around tbo sides of the Fram. An immense 

 pressure ridge bad advanced on her in the winter, and had 

 almost buried her. It took about a fortnight's hard work 

 to clear this ice away down to " such a depth that two and 

 a half planks of the ship's iceskin were free." The third 

 winter was passed through, and at the end of May, 1896, 

 by means of blasting and hard work with the axe, these 

 brave men managed to float the Fram once more from off 

 her bed of ice. " Thus," says Sverdrup, after graphically 

 describing how the ship was launched from the ice, " the 

 Fram was free and ready to force her way through the ice 

 as soon as the circumstances would permit." On August 

 14th they steered through the last ice-floes, after some 

 wonderfully clever mancpuvring, into open water. " We 

 WERE FREE ! Behind us lay three years of work and 

 hardships, with their burden of sad thought during the 

 long nights ; before us life and reunion with all those who 

 were dear to us." Evidently Sverdrup does not appreciate 

 the Polar night in the same way that Nansen does. 



In the concluding chapter Dr. Nansen briefly sums up 

 the results of the Norwegian Polar Expedition. He shows 

 that it is impossible to deal with the scientific results until 

 the numerous observations and collections have been worked 

 out by the specialists in whose hands they now are. The 

 whole scientific world will anxiously look forward for these 

 results, which may be expected in a few years' time. 



In short, Dr. Nansen has proved that the Polar sea, or, 

 at all events, this side of it, is a deep basin — not a shallow 

 one containing many expanses of land and islands. He 

 has proved that the ice which covers it, instead of being 

 a solid and immovable mantle, is a floating mass con- 

 tinually drifting across the Pole from Behring Strait to the 

 Atlantic Ocean. He has proved that the Polar basin, 

 instead of being filled with water continually under the 

 freezing point, has layers of warmer water under the cold 

 water, and that this water is " more briny than the water 

 of the Polar basin has been assumed to be. This warmer 

 and more strongly saline water must clearly originate from 

 the warmer current of the Atlantic Ocean (the Gulf Stream), 

 flowing in a north and north-easterly direction off Novaya 

 Zemlya and along the west toast of Spitzbergen, and then 

 diving under the colder, but lighter and less briny, water 

 of the Polar sea, and filling up the depths of the Polar 

 basin." It is scarcely needful to point out to the readers 

 of Knowledge the immense benefits which the records of 

 this " observatory," floating in the Polar regions for three 

 years, will confer on science. The records were most 

 carefully and conscientiously kept by Lieut. Scott-Hansen 

 and his assistants under the most trying conditions. To 

 take observations of the sun and stars in seventy degrees 

 of frost, with the breath freezing on the instruments and 

 the bare hands getting frostbitten ; to go out and take 

 the records of thermometer and barometer at all hours of 

 the day and night, was the every-day work of these men. 

 Indeed, we owe to them an immense debt of gratitude. 



In conclusion let us urge on everyone to read this epoch- 

 making book and learn something — for we can never know 

 all — of the courage and resolution of those thirteen lieroes, 

 who nobly risked their lives and underwent the most 

 incredible hardships in the cause of science. 



The illustrations accompanying this article are taken 

 from Dr. Nansen's book, and have been courteously lent 

 by the publishers, Messrs. Constable. It is only fair to 

 state that the printing and binding of the book are perfect ; 

 indeed, in the whole eleven hundred pages we have only 

 discovered two slight misprints. We are not told the 

 names of the translators, but their work deserves great 

 commendation — it is admirably done. 



Habey F. Witheeby. 



THE |? ^/ ^[SCIENCE 



' lOFTHEl ^ 



k QUEEN'S REIGN 



THE VICTORIAN ERA IN GEOGRAPHY. 



By HuoH Egbert Mill, D.Sc, F.R.S.E. 



QUEEN VICTORIA, in the first month of her reign, 

 became the official head of British geographers 

 by' succeeding King William IV. as patron of 

 the Royal Geographical Society. In addressing 

 the Queen on the occasion, the President and 

 Council said : — 



" England has achieved some of her proudest triumphs 

 under the sovereignty of a queen ; the annals of our 

 country record the names of Drake, the celebrated circum- 

 navigator, and of Raleigh, the adventurous discoverer, 

 both distinguished during the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; 

 and we confidently anticipate that the reign of your 

 Majesty will be equally famed for its glory and prosperity, 

 and for the promotion of geographical knowledge. 



" That your Majesty's reign may be rendered illustrious 

 as the era of important discoveries which may diffuse the 

 blessings of civilization throughout the globe, as well as 

 endeared to the aft'ections of a free and grateful people, is 

 the earnest wish and ardent prayer of your Majesty's loyal 

 subjects, the President, Vice-Presidents, and Council of 

 the Royal Geographical Society." 



How fully this moderate and dignified anticipation was 

 fulfilled, the record of the last sixty years attests. 

 Perhaps the Queen has never received a dedication so 

 perfervid as those addressed habitually to "that bright 

 Occidental star Queen Elizabeth, of most happy memory " ; 

 but her subjects, and even the subjects of other monarchs, 

 have delighted to plant her name on the dominant features 

 of the Earth, as they have been unveiled in every land and 

 on every sea. There are probably not less than a hundred 

 place-names of Victoria on our modern maps, where sixty 

 years ago there were half a dozen. In 1837 the name 

 was proposed for one of the hypothetical divisions of 

 Australia (that of the south-west), although many years 

 elapsed before it was actually bestowed on the famous colony 

 which now bears it. It was given to the most southerly 

 discovered land of Antarctica, and later to an inlet of 

 Nares Land in the remotest North ; it is borne by flouri.sh- 

 ing commercial cities at both ends of the great trans-Pacific 

 route in British Columbia and Hong Kong ; it graces the 

 largest lake of Africa and the loftiest lake of Asia ; and it 

 crowns the highest peaks of two of the remotest mountain 

 masses in New Guinea and in Equatorial Africa. As 

 Alexandria, the sacred city of early geography, perpetuates 

 the memory of the world-empire of Alexander of Macedon, 

 so will the century of Victorias on our maps keep the 

 Victorian era in geography in everlasting memory. 



The geographers of 1837 were a scattered band of dis- 

 tinguished explorers and men of science, whose enthusiasm 

 was deeply stirred by the vast field for research lying before 

 them ; almost all of them have now returned for ever from 

 their labours, bringing their sheaves of discovery and 



