CHAPTER XL 
ATTEMPTS TO REACH THE NORTH POLE. 
CAGNI— COOK— PEARY 
The present writer, throughout the sixty years and 
more of his connection with polar research, has always 
deprecated the diverting of exploring energy to dashes 
for the Pole, if this be the sole object. 
In former days the enterprise of reaching the Pole 
was looked upon as including important discoveries, 
and the opening of a route to the east. It was for these 
objects that John Davis made his attempt; that the 
Government in the eighteenth century offered a reward 
for reaching 8() 0 N. ; that Phipps, Buchan, and Scoresby 
tried how far north it was possible to go in a ship, and 
Parry with boats and sledges. Sir George Nares was 
ordered to attempt an approach to the Pole in the 
erroneous belief, inspired by Hall's map, that the land 
trended north, in which case such a journey would 
have useful results. But since Nansen's discovery that 
the Pole is in an ice-covered sea there was no longer 
any special object to be attained in going there, except 
for magnetic observations. 
Nansen made an interesting journey northwards 
which showed the character of the ice to be crossed. 
As the floes are in motion during a great part of the year, 
and there is danger from the lanes of water that form 
and much obstruction from the lines of hummocks 
thrown up by ice pressure, progress is difficult and 
uncertain. Nansen wisely took kayaks with him, capable 
of carrying the sledges across lanes of water. 
The Duke of the Abruzzi was bitten with the idea 
of reaching the Pole by way of Franz Josef Land, following 
Nansen's route and adopting his plans for sledge, tent, 
and other travelling equipage. He bought a Norwegian 
sealer and was fortunate in reaching the northern part 
of Franz Josef Land (near Cape Fligely) for winter 
