ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS. 285 



of the east coast of Greenland. My friend Nansen is a man who has 

 the courage of his own convictions, and he has boldly set out in his 

 little Fram in order to test the accuracy of his theory. It is, however, 

 a theory that does not find favor with men of science in this country or 

 with Arctic authorities generally, who, from practical experience, have 

 laid down certain axioms connected with ice navigation which, in their 

 opinion, should not, if possible, be departed from. Nansen has set these 

 at defiance, for one of the most important of these rules, connected with 

 the exploration of high latitudes, is to adhere to the coast and to keep 

 away from the pack. Nausen has done exactly the contrary, for he has 

 started with the express intention of keeping away from the land, and 

 forcing his ship into the ice. 



Not only was Nauseii guided, in forming his ideas, by the well-known 

 drift of ships, and of parties of men who had drifted for many hundreds 

 of miles on ice floes after the destruction or loss of their vessels, but 

 he enforced his arguments by accepting as a fact the reputed discovery 

 of various articles on the southwest coast of Greenland, which were 

 supposed to have been lost from the Jeannette, and which, if this sup- 

 position is correct, could only have reached the position where they 

 were found by drifting across that point situated on this terrestrial 

 sphere where the northern axis of our globe has its termination. But 

 even, for the sake of argument, admitting that Dr. Nansen's conjecture 

 regarding the oceanic drift of the northern region is correct, the pres- 

 ence of land, and it need only be a small island, directly in his path, 

 would suffice to upset his plans, and put an end to the drift of his vessel 

 in the same way that Wilezek Island put a stop to the further drift of 

 the Tegetthoff. My own view regarding the direction of the currents in 

 the Arctic seas is that they have an unmistakable southern tendency, 

 and that this southern drift is caused by the outflow from the polar 

 basin due to the periodical thawing during the summer months of the 

 enormous quantities of snow and ice that accumulates during the long 

 winters in the neighborhood of the North Pole, and which must neces- 

 sarily seek an outlet to the south. 



The last news we have of the expedition is contained in a letter from 

 Dr. Nansen written on board the Fram on August 2, 1893. They were 

 then in Yugor Strait, and were all well, happy, and confident of success. 

 Nansen's intention was then to proceed along the Siberian coast until 

 the mouth of the Olenek River to the east of the Lena delta was 

 reached. Thence he proposed steering a northerly course to the west 

 of the New Siberia Islands as far as the open water would let him, 

 and then to push his vessel into the ice to be carried by it in that 

 northerly current in the existence of which he so firmly relies. He 

 concludes his letter by saying, "When years have passed, I hope you 

 will some day get the news that we are all safely returned, and that 

 the knowledge of man has advanced another step northward." Fortune 

 always favors the brave, and let us fervently pray that the little Fram 



