484 THE WELLMAN POLAR EXPEDITION 



upon bear and walrus meat, still remain, mute witnesses to the 

 fact that Dr Nansen and Lieutenant Johansen were not the first 

 explorers to show that if worst comes to worst the adventurous 

 man, caught out for the long night, may make himself reason- 

 ably comfortable with such materials as the country affords, 

 while his rifle keeps him from starvation. 



Next came the carefully prepared Jackson-Harmsworth expe- 

 dition, which explored the western and central parts of the 

 archipelago, but did not succeed in getting farther north than a 

 little beyond the 81st parallel. Mr Jackson, whom I esteem as 

 a painstaking and conscientious explorer, pronounced his judg- 

 ment that Franz Josef Land was not a good gateway to the Pole, 

 being a mass of small, detached islands, instead of a continental 

 land mass. My own opinion is quite the contrary. It is true 

 the region is one of comparatively small lands and many islands, 

 and in summer the straits and fiords are broken up and filled 

 with drift-ice, which precludes, more or less, active expeditionary 

 work ; but at this season of the year not much can be done any- 

 where in the Arctics, and in the favorable season, to wit, the spring 

 of the year, these fiords and straits afford the best of roadways 

 toward the far north. 



The next visitor to these lands was Dr Nansen, and he came 

 down from the north on his return from his memorable sledge 

 journey from the Fram, reaching the northeast islands at the end 

 of the summer, and finding it necessary to winter in an impro- 

 vised hut. Next spring, without knowing where he was, and 

 imagining himself to be nearer Spitzbergen than Franz Josef 

 Land, he renewed his journey, only to meet, by a most rare and 

 happy chance, with the Englishmen at Cape Flora. 



After the Norwegians came the Americans, ourselves, with our 

 Norwegian comrades, and as we were coming out this summer 

 we met going in the young Duke of Abruzzi, the Italian prince. 

 This young scion of royalty (he is a son of a former King of 

 Spain, Amadeus) has at great expense outfitted his expedition, 

 and is determined, as he says, to reach the Pole or lose his life in 

 the effort. When we met the Duke his ship, the Stella Polare, was 

 in the British channel, in latitude 80° 20', and with good pros- 

 pects of pushing 20 or 30 miles farther north before stopping for 

 the winter. Subsequently a pigeon message is reported arriving 

 in Russia with word from the Italian explorer that he is winter- 

 ing about the 81st parallel of latitude, near the site of the Nansen 

 hut. He has, therefore, an excellent chance for doing good work 



