INTR on UCTION 49 



me to be based on fallacious ideas as to physical condi- 

 tions within the polar regions, and to foreshadow, if 

 attempted, barren results, apart from the suffering and 

 death among its members. Dr. Nansen, so far as I 

 know, has had no Arctic service; his crossing of Green- 

 land, however difficult, is no more polar work than the 

 scaling of Mount St. Elias. It is doubtful if any hydrog- 

 rapher would treat seriously his theory of polar currents, 

 or if any Arctic traveller would indorse the whole scheme. 

 There are perhaps a dozen men whose Arctic service has 

 been such that the positive support of this plan by even 

 a respectable minority would entitle it to consideration 

 and confidence. These men are: Admiral M'Clintock, 

 Richards, Collinson, and Nares, and Captain Markham 

 of the Royal Navy, Sir Allen Young and Leigh-Smith 

 of England, Koldewey of Germany, Payer of Austria, 

 Nordenskiold of Sweden, and Melville in our own coun- 

 try. I have no hesitation in asserting that no two of 

 these believe in the possibility of Nansen's first proposi- 

 tion — to build a vessel capable of living or navigating 

 in a heavy Arctic pack, into which it is proposed to put 

 his ship. The second proposition is even more hazard- 

 ous, involving as it does a drift of more than 2000 miles 

 in a straight line through an unknown region, during 

 which the party in its voyage (lasting two or more years, 

 we are told) would take only boats along, encamp on an 

 icebero", and live there while fioatins: across." 



After this General Greely proceeds to prove the 



