52 FARTHEST NORTH 



He allows also that my scheme has been carried out 

 in spite of what he had said. This time he concludes 

 the article as follows: "In contrasting the expeditions 

 of De Long and Nan sen, it is necessary to allude to 

 the single blemish that mars the otherwise magnificent 

 career of Nansen, who deliberately quitted his comrades 

 on the ice-beset ship hundreds of miles from any known 

 land, with the intention of not returninor, but, in his own 

 reported words, ' to go to Spitzbergen, where he felt 

 certain to find a ship,' 600 miles away. De Long and 

 Ambler had such a sense of honor that they sacrificed 

 their lives rather than separate themselves from a dying- 

 man, whom their presence could not save. It passes 

 comprehension how Nansen could have thus deviated 

 from the most sacred duty devolving on the commander 

 of a naval expedition. The safe return of brave Cap- 

 tain Sverdrup with the Fram does not excuse Nansen. 

 Sverdrup's consistency, courage, and skill in holding fast 

 to the Fraiii and brincrino- his comrades back to Nor- 

 way will win for him, in the minds of many, laurels even 

 brighter than those of his able and accomplished chief." 



One of the few who publicly gave to my plan the 

 support of his scientific authority was Professor Supan, 

 the well-known editor of Pcternianiis Mitteihtugeu. In 

 an article in this journal for 1891 (p. 191), he not only 

 spoke warmly in its favor, but supported it with new 

 sua:2:estions. His view was that what he terms the 

 Arctic "wind-shed" probably for the greater part of the 



