34 2 Arctic and Antarctic Exploration [part i 
The drift during the first year, from September 1893 
to September 1894, was 189 miles in a northerly direction, 
from 78 0 N. to 82 0 N. In the second winter Nansen 
resolved to leave the ship with one companion, make 
an attempt to reach the Pole, and return by Franz 
Josef Land and Spitsbergen. Sverdrup was to complete 
the voyage. Nansen selected Frederik Hjalmar Johansen, 
a native of Skien, then aged 28, as his companion. He 
took 28 dogs, intending to feed them on each other. 
His sledges — which were too narrow — were the same 
pattern as on the Greenland journey, the runners 3^ in. 
wide and slightly convex, covered with a thin plate 
of German silver, and with loose well-tarred guard- 
runners of maple underneath the metal ones 1 . Two 
kayaks were carried on the sledges, as open lanes of 
water were sure to be encountered. His clothing was 
woollen, his shoes made of the skin of the hind leg of a 
reindeer filled with "senegraes" or sedge {Car ex arenaria). 
Leather Lapp boots were used for warmer weather. The 
tent was square at the base, ending in a point with a central 
pole, and had a canvas floor. The double sleeping-bags 
were of reindeer skin. 
Nansen's cooking apparatus was rather complicated. 
Petroleum was found to generate more heat than spirit 
in comparison with the weight, 4 gallons lasting 100 
days with two hot meals a day. The lamp, called a 
"Primus," was of German silver with lid and cap of 
aluminium, and heated two boilers and a vessel for 
melting snow. For food there was a sort of pemmican, 
fish flour, dried boiled potatoes, pea soup, butter, choco- 
late, and biscuit. This was no improvement on 
M'Clintock's scale of diet. 
Starting on the 14th March, 1895, the ship being 
in 84 0 N., there was good travelling for the first week. 
But on the 29th ridges of hummocks commenced, and 
there was trouble with the sledges, which capsized, 
and holes were torn in the kayaks. The travelling got 
worse and worse, with ridge after ridge of hummocks, 
and occasional lanes of water only covered with thin 
ice. After 26 days Nansen, who had reached a latitude 
1 The British sledges 1850-9 were 3 feet wide, the runners of metal, 
3 inches wide, and slightly convex. 
