ch. xxxviii] Nansen and the " Fram " 345 
fixed the position of the Siberian continental shelf and 
found that beyond it there was an ocean with a depth 
of 2000 fathoms, which is covered with a continual 
breaking and shifting expanse of drift ice. The most 
striking result of the deep-sea soundings was that w T hile 
the surface water was verv cold, there was warmer 
water in the depths. 
The results of the expedition were published in six 
folio volumes, containing reports on the biology by 
Professors Collett and Sars, the geology of Franz Josef 
Land, and the bathymetrical, astronomical, meteoro- 
logical, and magnetic observations. The most valuable 
and interesting papers are those by Nansen himself on 
the bathymetrical features of the polar seas, and on 
the continental shelves. 
At the great meeting in February 1897 in the Albert 
Hall Nansen received a memorable welcome from his 
English friends. The late King Edward, then Prince 
of Wales, who was present, suggested to me that, though 
the popular reception had been a great success, he thought 
that there should also be a meeting to discuss the scientific 
results of Nansen's expedition. Acting on this advice 
I called such a meeting and the result was the best 
discussion I have ever heard at any meeting of the Geo- 
graphical Society. It appeared to me, as I stated at the 
time, that the light thrown upon the Arctic problem by 
Nansen not only extended our knowledge positively, but 
had the effect of piecing together what appeared before to 
be fragmentary, and of making detached pieces fit into 
their proper places and form a consistent whole. 
Nansen continued the work in which he took the 
deepest interest — the bathymetrical features of the 
Norwegian Sea, his chief aim being the greatest attainable 
accuracy in the construction of instruments and the 
working out of results 1 . In 1914 he accompanied a 
Russian expedition through the Kara Sea to the Yenisei, 
and went by land across Siberia as far as Vladivostok. 
The result was a most interesting narrative, but it is the 
1 See Nansen 's " Oceanography of the North Polar Basin" in Vol. in 
of the results of the expedition, the "Bathymetrical Features " in Vol. iv, 
also The Sea West of Spitsbergen (Christiania, 1912) and. the oceanographic 
observations of the Isachsen Spitsbergen expedition, by Bj^rn Helland 
Hansen and Fridtjof Nansen. 
