50 FARTHEST NORTH 



falsity of all my assumptions. Respecting the objects 

 from the Jeannctte, he says plainly that he does not 

 believe in them. " Probably some drift articles were 

 found," he says, " and it would seem more reasonable to 

 trace them to the Portciis, which was wrecked in Smith 

 Sound, about looo miles north of Julianehaab. . . . 

 It is further important to note that, if the articles 

 were really from the Jcanncttc, the nearest route would 

 have been, not across the North Pole along the east coast 

 of Greenland, but down Kennedy Channel and by way 

 of Smith Sound and Baffin's Bay, as was suggested, as to 

 drift from the Portciisr 



We could not possibly get near the Pole itself by a 

 long distance, says Greely, as " we know almost as well 

 as if we had seen it that there is in the unknown re- 

 gions an extensive land which is the birthplace of the 

 flat-topped icebergs or the palceocrystic ice." In this 

 glacier-covered land, which he is of opinion must be over 

 300 miles in diameter, and which sends out icebergs to 

 Greenland as well as to Franz Josef Land,* the Pole 

 itself must be situated. 



" As to the indestructible ship," he says, " it is certain- 

 ly a most desirable thing for Dr. Nansen." His mean- 

 ing, however, is that it cannot be built. " Ur. Nansen 

 appears to believe that the question of building on such 



* With reference to his statement that Leigh-Smith had observed sucli 

 icebergs on the northwest coast of Franz Josef Land, it may be re- 

 marked that no human being has ever been there. 



