32 FARTHEST NORTH 



majority of them met with a lamentable end. 

 Nordenskiold advanced no farther northward than 

 to the southernmost of the islands mentioned (at the 

 end of August) but here he found the water every- 

 where open. 



" It is, therefore, probable that we may be able to 

 push our way up past the New Siberian Islands, and 

 that accomplished we shall be right in the current which 

 carried the Jeannette. The thing will then be simply to 

 force our way northward till we are set fast.* 



" Next we must choose a fitting place and moor the 

 ship firmly between suitable ice-floes, and then let the 

 ice screw itself together as much as it likes — the more 

 the better. The ship will simply be hoisted up and will 

 ride safely and firmly. It is possible it may heel over 

 to a certain extent under this pressure; but that will 

 scarcely be of much importance. . . . Henceforth the 

 current will be our motive power, while our ship, no 

 longer a means of transport, will become a barrack, and 

 we shall have ample time for scientific observations. 



" In this manner the expedition will, as above in- 

 dicated, probably drift across the Pole, and onward 

 to the sea between Greenland and Spitzbergen. And 

 when we fret down to the Soth des^ree of latitude, or 



* As subsequently stated in my lecture in London {Geographical 

 Society's Journal, p. i8), I purposed to go north along the west coast of 

 the New Siberian Islands, as I thought that the warm water coming from 

 the Lena would keep the sea open here. 



