INTR on UC2Y0N 47 



relics. " If found in Greenland, they may well have 

 drifted down on a tloe from the neighborhood of Smith 

 Sound, from some of the American expeditions which 

 went to Greely's rescue." " It may also well be that 

 some of De Long's printed or written documents in 

 regard to his equipment may have been taken out by 

 these expeditions, and the same may apply to the other 

 articles." He does not, however, expressly say whether 

 there was any indication of such having been the case. 



In a similar letter to the Geographical Society the 

 renowned botanist Sir Joseph Hooker says : " Dr. Nan- 

 sen's project is a wide departure from any hitherto put 

 in practice for the purpose of polar discovery, and it 

 demands the closest scrutiny both on this account, and 

 because it is one involving the greatest peril. . . . 



" From my experience of three seasons in the Antarc- 

 tic regions I do not think that a ship, of whatever 

 build, could long resist destruction if committed to the 

 movements of the pack in the polar regions. One built 

 as strongly as the Fram would no doubt resist great 

 pressures in the open pack, but not any pressure or re- 

 peated pressures, and still less the thrust of the pack 

 if driven with or by it against land. The lines of the 

 Fram might be of service so long as she was on an 

 even keel or in ice of no great height above the water- 

 line ; but amongst floes and bergs, or when thrown on 

 her beam-ends, they would avail her nothing." 



If the Fram were to drift towards the Greenland 



