14 FARTHEST NORTH 



mankind towards the north. In two cases only have ice- 

 bound vessels drifted in a northerly direction — in the 

 case of the Tegctlwff and the Jcannctte — while most of 

 the others have been carried away from their goal by 

 masses of ice drifting southward. 



On reading the history of Arctic explorations, it early 

 occurred to me that it would be very difficult to wrest 

 the secrets from these unknown regions of ice by adopt- 

 ing the routes and the methods hitherto employed. But 

 where did the proper route lie ? 



It was in the autumn of 1884 that I happened to 

 see an article by Professor Mohn in the Norwegian 

 Moroenblad, in which it was stated that sundry articles 

 which must have come from the Jeannette had been 

 found on the southwest coast of Greenland. He 

 conjectured that they must have drifted on a floe right 

 across the Polar Sea. It immediately occurred to me 

 that here lay the route ready to hand. If a floe could 

 drift right across the unknown region, that drift might 

 also be enlisted in the service of exploration — and my 

 plan was laid. Some years, however, elapsed before, in 

 February, 1890, after my return from my Greenland 

 expedition, I at last propounded the idea in an address 

 before the Christiania Geographical Society. As this 

 address plays an important part in the history of the 

 expedition, I shall reproduce its principal features, as 

 printed in the March number of Naturcn, 1891. 



After giving a brief sketch of the different polar 



