08 
NANSEX’S POLAR EXPEDITION 
Nansen’s plans, told of finding a fresh stick of Siberian pine, 
with the bark still upon it and which seemed to have been only 
a few months in the water, on the west shore of Wellington 
channel, which enters Baffin’s hay from the west.* If such a 
tree could l^e carried eastward in a few months from Siberia to 
a [)oint accessible by ships from Baffin’s bay, why is it not more 
))robable that this throwing-stick, lost near Port Clarence, was 
carried north and east by the well-known northeasterly shore 
current ])ast point Barrow and so on to Baffin’s bay and the 
Greenland coast? 
At this meeting such Arctic authorities as Admiral Sir George 
Nares, Cai)tain Wharton, Hydrogra])her II. N., ex-Hydrographer 
Sir George Bichards, K. N., and Sir Joseph Hooker united in the 
opinion that nothing was known about the direction or exist- 
ence of sea currents in the region Nansen ho})ed to traverse, and 
that all o[)inions in regard to them must l)e purely speculative. 
The doubtful character of the so-called Jeannette relics was also 
distinctl}" pointed out.f It cannot be said therefore that Nansen 
])ursued his {)lans in ignorance of the doubtful elements of his 
hyi)othesis, but rather that his courage, energ}", and audacity 
were such that he was willing to risk everything to put his specu- 
lations to a final test. 
NANSEN’S POLAR EXPEDITION 
By General A. W. Greely, 
Chief Signal Officer, United States Armij 
The continuing interest of the unsolved polar mystery has 
been strikingly illustrated by the eagerness with which the press 
of the world has caught at every word that seems to indicate 
the success and safety of the brave Norwegian in his dangerous 
drift- voyage toward the north ])ole. , 
Dr Fridtjof Nansen, born in 1861, became famous by cross- 
ing, first of all men, the inland ice of Greenland in 1888 from 
Umivik, 64° 45' north, on the east coast, to Kangersunek fiord, 50 
miles south of Godthaab. Later, he conceived a novel and 
dangerous }>lan for polar work. Ignoring the accepted rules of 
* Geographical Journal, Jan., 1893, p. 25. 
t Op. cit., pp. 22-32. 
