Fridtjof Nansen, his life and explorations

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FRUnjOl. NANSEN, SCIENTIST AND EXTLORER,

FRIDTJOF NANSEN

1bi6 Xife aiit) lEyploration^,

C BY

C ARTHUR BAIN, ,- , .

AUTHOR OF "the NANSENS" (" IDLER," MARCH, 1896) ; " FRW RANSEN "

("strand magazine," NOVEMBER, 1896) ; "a TALli^ WITH

DR. NANSEN "(" STRAND MAGAZINE," CHRISTMAS. 1896).

I

abrtUgeU from Ujr iargev asaorfe.

SECOND EDITION. TENTH THOUSAND.

LONDON

S. W. PARTRIDGE & CO

8 & 9 Paternoster Row

1897.

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2007 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/fridtjofnansenhiOObainuoft

CHRISTIAMA.

PREFACE.

THE only cure for the Arctic fever is the
discovery of the North Pole, A goal at
once so definite and so encompassed with
mystery is sure to command human effort
until it shall be reached, and never was man-
kind nearer to this consummation than at the present
time. The operations of Arctic heroes, beginning
with Sebastian Cabot and ending with Fridtjof
Nansen, have gradually broken down the barriers
that have stood for ages between restless man and
his ambition. For many years Great Britain has
stood foremost in the history of Arctic exploration,
but Norway has lately proved a formidable rival in
the person of Fridtjof Nansen, whose crossing of the
great Greenland plateau in 1888 drew attention for
the first time to the fertility of resource possessed by
this strong-nerved Scandinavian.

VI PREFACE.

Only the Arctic explorer himself is able to explain
the source of the attraction that lures men to the icy
north. However greatly opinions may differ as to
the feasibility of the plans of the majority of the
explorers ; as to the practical results which may
accrue to navigation or commerce ; or as to the
benefits to be derived by science from their observa-
tions in these regions, it will not be denied that the
men who, in face of a terribly rigorous climate and of
fearful bodily risks, sail northward with a fixed
determination to wrest from Nature her most closely-
guarded secret, are worthy of admiration.

In this record I intend to place before my readers
not only the life and history of a brave man who has
early in life eclipsed the performances of many of his
predecessors, but to present it in such a manner as to
allow the ordinary reader to draw a parallel between
the doings of Fridtjof Nahsen and those of the men
who have gone before him in the path which he has
himself chosen.

In comparison with the journeys of Dr. Nansen
and his companions, all other Arctic ventures of
recent years fall into the shade. No explorer of the
Arctic regions since Franklin, no traveller indeed
save Columbus, has gained so great a hold upon the
imagination of his contemporaries. As in his journey
across Greenland, so in his attempt to find the North
Pole— he modestly but fearlessly confronted danger
with the full knowledge that to fail was most probably
to die.

There is much in Nansen to inspire respect and
confidence. His character and bearing are unmis-
takably those of the man who achieves greatness.

PREFACE. Vll

Without fear on the one hand or vanity on the other,
he spoke of his purpose with simple candour exag-
gerating nothing, making h'ght of nothing, not greatly
concerned as to what the world might think of his
project, except to let men see that he had excellent
reasons for the birth and growth of the faith that was
in him. Amid the many discouragements he met
with, none stung him so much as the implied censure
of the people who said that the risk was needless ;
that neither time, money, nor life ought to be
expended on his quest ; that its only reward could
be, if successful, a trivial gain of knowledge ; and
that the only result of failure would be the death of
the explorer and his companions. To these he once
made a famous answer — an answer that deserves to
ring throughout the ages in the ears of the doubters
and faint-hearted : — " Man wants to know ; and when
man no longer wants to know, he will no longer be
man."

The unprecedented public interest which Nansen's
record has aroused in this land proves that to-day, as
much as ever, the heart of the British public warms to
great deeds. And hardly the less so, be it remem-
bered to our credit as a nation, when the doer of them
is a foreigner, and the laurels he wins are for another
brow than Britannia's.

In conclusion, I wish to acknowledge the kindness
of Fru Nansen and Alexander Nansen, to whom I am
indebted for much of the information contained in my
earlier chapters ; of Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co.,
for their prompt permission to make extracts from
" The First Crossing of Greenland," the " Life of
Nansen," etc. ; of Mrs. Alec B. Tweedie ; of the

vm PREFACE.

proprietors of The Illustrated London News ; of the
editor of The Strand Magazine ; of Sir Clements R.
Markham, F.R.S., President of the Royal Geogra-
phical Society ; of Dr. John Murray ; and numerous
others who so readily granted me leave to enlarge on
my own information by quoting from their publica-
tions and writings.

The large excerpts from Dr. Nansen's address, due
to the courtesy of the editors of the Proceedings of the
Royal Geographical Society, are rendered desirable by
the numerous canards afloat at the present time
regarding his plan in the polar expedition of 1893-
1896.

J. ARTHUR BAIN.

Nansen House, Millhouses,
Sheffield, April, 1897.

a^. NANSKN IN FURS.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

SCHOOL LIFE AND PASTIMES, .11

CHAPTER n.

SCIENCE, SPORT, AND EXPLORATION, . . . .21

CHAPTER III.

FIRST CROSSING OF GREENLAND, 34

CHAPTER IV.

FRU NANSEN, 43

CHAPTER V.

NANSEN'S HOME, -52

IX

X CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VI.

PAGE

HOW TO CROSS THE NORTH POLAR REGION, . . . 6o

CHAPTER VII.

NANSEN'S ARCTIC SHIP, 79

CHAPTER VIII.

"we are THIRTEEN ALL TOLD," 97

CHAPTER IX.

THE DEPARTURE, II4

CHAPTER X.

THREE YEARS' SILENCE, I23

CHAPTER XI.
A TALK WITH DR. NANSEN, SEPTEMBER, 1 896, . . 130

CHAPTER XII.

CONCLUSION, 155

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FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

CHAPTER I.

SCHOOL LIFE AND PASTIMES.

I^HE earliest ancestor of whom Nansen has trust-
worthy records was one Ewart, of the same
surname, a merchant of Flensburgin, Schleswig-
Holstein, who died in 1613. Ewart Nansen's
son, Hans, went with his uncle on a merchant ship
to Russia ; afterwards became Russian interpreter
at the Court of the King of Denmark ; and, later, a
special Danish envoy to the Czar. Subsequently, as
chairman of the Icelandic Trading Society, he made
many voyages to Iceland and Russia, and wrote, in
Danish, a "Compendium Cosmographicum Danicum,"
which had many editions (1633 46) — a comi)iIation

1 1

12 FRIDTJOF NANSEN,

much affected by seamen until comparatively recent
times. The Nansens of to-day are traced from these
ancestors, one of the first of whom thus showed a
bent for travelling, and for writing on his travels.
Indeed, the family has been distinguished for its
soldiers, sailors, lawyers, and administrators, who
have done good service for their native land. From
his mother Nansen inherits a strong mind in a healthy,
body. As a young lady his mother was noted as a
snow-shoe runner, and that at a time when ladies were
not encouraged in outdoor sport. " Her will-power
and love of activity, her intrepidity, her practical and
resolute nature have descended to her son." His gift
of thoroughness he owes to his father — a refined
gentleman of the old school, and a distinguished
advocate, who has been followed in this direction
by his younger son, Alexander, now in practice in
the Norwegian capital.

Fridtjof Nansen was born at Froen, two miles and
a-half from Christiania, on the loth of October, 1861.
He began his career as a skilober at the tender
age of four. He himself tells the story of his first
snow-shoes, and his first great leap : — " I am not
speaking of the very first pair of all ; they were pre-
cious poor ones, cut down from cast-off snow-shoes
which had belonged to my brothers and sisters. They
were not even of the same length. But Mr, Fabritius,
the printer, took pity upon me : ' I '11 give you a pair
of snow-shoes,' he said. Then spring came, and then
summer, and with the best will in the world one
couldn't go snow-shoeing. But Fabritius's promise
sang in my ears, and no sooner had the autumn come
and the fields begun to whiten with hoar-frost of a

SCHOOL LIFE AND PASTIMES. 1 3

morning, than I placed myself right in his way where
I knew he would come driving by.

" ' I say ! What about those snow-shoes ? '
" ' You shall have them right enough,' he said, and
laughed. But I returned to the charge day after day :
' What about those snow-shoes ? '

" Then came winter. I can still see my sister
standing in the middle of the room with a long,
long parcel which she said was for me. I thought
she said, too, it was from Paris. But that was a
mistake, for it was the snow-shoes from Fabritius —
a pair of red-lacquered ash snow-shoes with black
stripes. And there was a long staff, too, with shining
blue-lacquered shaft and knob. I used these snow-
shoes for ten years. It was on them I made my first
big jump on Huseby Hill, where at that time the
great snow-shoe races were held. We boys were not
allowed to go there. We might range all the other
hills round about, but the Huseby Hill was forbidden.
But we could see it at Froen, and it lured us day by
day till we couldn't resist it any longer. At first
I started from the middle of the hill, like most of the
other boys, and all went well. But presently I saw
there were one or two who started from the top ; so
of course I had to try it. Off I set, came at frantic
speed to the jump, sailed for what seemed a long
time in space, and ran my snow-shoes deep into a
snow-drift. We didn't have our shoes fastened on in
those days, so they remained sticking in the drift,
while I, head first, described a fine arc in the air.
I had such way on, too, that when I came down again
I bored into the snow up to my waist. There was
a moment's hush on the hill. The boys thought I had

14 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

broken my neck. But as soon as they saw there was
life in me, and that I was beginning to scramble out,
a shout of mocking laughter went up ; an endless
roar of derision over the entire hill from top to
bottom.

" After that, I took part in the Huseby Hill races,
and won a prize. But I didn't take it home ; for
I was put to shame on that occasion as well. It was-
the first time I had seen the Telemarken peasants
snow-shoeing, and I recognised at a glance that I wasn't
to be mentioned in the same breath with them. They
used no staff ; they simply went ahead and made the
leap without trusting to anything but the strength of
their muscles and the firm, lithe carriage of their bodies.
I saw that this was the only proper way. Until I had
mastered it, I wouldn't have any prize."*

He made rapid progress in outdoor pastimes, and
soon became famous as one of the most accomplished
skaters, skilobers, and sportsmen in Norway. He
and his brother, Alexander, used their ski in the
winter in their daily journey to and from their school
at Christiania, and many a storm was braved by the
brothers in order that they might not miss their
studies. During the interval, therefore, between
Fridtjof's fourth and his eighteenth year, while he
was attending school at Christiania, he was steadily
cultivating his capacity for physical endurance. His
upbringing was of the homely, Spartan kind that
prevails in Norway, distinguished only by extra
hardihood and by an utter carelessness as to the
comforts of life. Long fishing excursions, in which

* " Life of Nansen " (Longmans, Green & Co.).

SCHOOL LIFE AND PASTIMES. 1 5

he forgot about food, or hazardous ascents of snow
mountains, were his principal relaxations from the
monotony of home and school life.

In the first two sporting meetings at which Nansen
competed he won several cups, medals, and cham-
pionship races. Thus unconsciously he prepared
himself for the dangers and the strain upon his
physical powers that were to come in later years.

Nansen himself writes in " The First Crossing of
Greenland " : — " I have myself been accustomed to
the use of ski since I was four years old. ... I know
of no form of sport which so evenly develops the
muscles; which renders the body so strong and
elastic ; which teaches so well the qualities of
dexterity and resource ; which in an equal degree
calls for decision and resolution, and which gives the
same vigour and exhilaration to mind and body
alike, . . . Nor can there be many lands so well
fitted as ours for the practice of skilobning and its
full development as a sport. From our childhood
onwards we are accustomed to use our ski, and in
many a mountain valley, boys, and girls too, for
that matter, are by their very surroundings forced to
take to their ski almost as soon as they can walk."

The hills about Froen witnessed Nansen's first ski
runs ; on the frozen ponds in Vestre Aker he found
his first inland ice ; and it was to the heights of
Tryvand and Nordmarken that he went to prepare
himself for the work of Arctic exploration.

At a ski run which took place in February, 1882,
he distinguished himself by carrying off a cup, which
was offered by his father as a prize to the best
skilober around Christiania. This trophy, the Ladies'

1 6 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

Cup, is the subject of an annual competition at
Christiania, which attracts thither the fleetest skil-
obers that Norway possesses, the hills and forest
paths where the races take place being overcrowded
with those anxious to witness the keen contests.

It has been said that as a skater Nansen also took
high rank. When he was only sixteen years old he
took the first prize in the great annual skating match
near Christiania, and a few years later was second in
a most important skating competition, the "King
Skater," King Ajel Paulsen, carrying off the principal
honours after a supreme effort.

Very early in his boyhood Fridtjof showed a high
spirit of courage, a fondness for the invigorating
sports of his own country, a love of outdoor recrea-
tions and trials of physical strength, and he gloried
in the excitement and dangers of the chase.

As a schoolboy he was industrious, and passed out
of the intermediate school at the age of sixteen with
distinction. In his teens much of his spare time
was taken up with sport, and he used to pass weeks
at a time alone in the forests. He himself writes
of those days : — " I disliked having an outfit for
my excursions. I managed with a crust of bread,
and broiled my fish on the embers, I loved to live
like Robinson Crusoe up there in the solitudes."*

"There was one thing that used to annoy his
snow-shoeing cronies in those days, and that was his
total carelessness as to creature comforts. If" he
happened to look from the tower on Tryvand's

* " Life of Nansen " (Longmans, Green & Co.).

L

SCHOOL LIFE AND PASTIMES. 17

Height away over to Stubdal, twenty miles off, a
whim would all of a sudden seize him, and nothing
would serve but he must set off without taking a
crumb of food with him. On one occasion he
descended upon a farm in Stubdal so ravenously
hungry that the people did not forget his visit for
many a day."*

It was on these long winter journeys that he
learned to love nature with a depth of love seldom
shown by boys. He early recognised that there
were " no gains without pains," and, alike in sport
and study, he put his whole soul into his task. He
was a muscular as well as a handsome young fellow
— tall, well-formed, and manly, which made him a
hero among the lads who shared his sports. There
was no recreation in which he did not take part
with keenest ardour, and did not soon become an
adept. He was a born leader of boys, as of men,
and a rival he could not brook. Rivalry for the
leadership was apt to make him brusque and irritable.

On many an early summer morn he was wont
to follow the Frogner river, which wound its way
past the front door at Froen, with angler's hook and
line. In this stream he bathed summer and winter,
frequently breaking the ice in winter to procure his
dip.

He never tired of boating and sailing, nor of
boarding the sealing or whaling vessels as they lay
in Christiania Harbour. The rough, weather-beaten
sailors took a strong fancy to the stalwart, inquisitive
lad, who listened with open mouth and dilated

* " Life of Nansen" (Longmans, Green & Co.).

B

1 8 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

pupils to their doings in the land of the seal, the
walrus, and the whale, and to the surmises about the
unknown regions beyond.

That the boy makes the man is perhaps more
evident in Nansen's up-growing than in most cases.
He was ever a studious youth ; perhaps over-much
given, in his schoolmaster's eyes, to finding out the
why and wherefore of things. From early childhood
his thoughts were more to him than his meals ; and
when he was absorbed in anything he was oblivious
to his surroundings. His brothers and sisters were
frequently provoked at his everlasting " What 's
that?" "But how can that be?" He would forget
his appointments, and when they went in search of
him would find him in the usual "brown study."
" There 's the duffer at it again," they would angrily
exclaim. " You '11 never come to any good, you 're
such a dawdler."

" In the upper school," write his biographers,
"it is possible that sport and a thousand and one
private preoccupations absorbed too much of his
time. In any case, we find a heartfelt sigh going
up from the half-yearly report of his masters, Aars
jind Voss, in 1879: — 'He is unstable, and in several
subjects his progress is not nearly so satisfactory as
might have been expected.' It is true that their
expectations were probably rather high in the case of
a boy who astonished his teacher of mathematics by
giving a geometrical solution of a problem in
arithmetic."* Nansen was, however, conscious of
powers which only required development to secure

* " Life of Nansen " (Longmans, Green & Co.).

SCHOOL LIFE AND I'ASTLMKS.

19

unbounded success ; but he was too wise to muse
over useless ambition, and turning to the work that
lay nearest his hand he did it with all his might,
contented to bide his time. Thus early in life he
took to natural science and original research, and
showed that he was compounded of intense curiosity,
utter indifference to personal comfort, all engrossing
ambition, and a resolution as hard as aJam.ant.

Nansen was a reckless climber — at times utterly
regardless of life and limb — and his escapes from
death can only be accounted for by his fine

Style uf I'cleniarkun Ski (with two grooves in the bottom), .'iiid
Finmarkcn Ski (plain or one yroove).

physique, and that immortality which attends men
whose work is not yet done. The story of how
he crossed Vosseskavlen by night, in the dead of
winter, has been told by himself His daring made
the peasants, on whom he unexpectedly called for
something to eat, stand aghast with fright when they
heard of his intention. Not even the best skilobcr
in the district would dare the same feat. As ski
formed so important a feature in the Arctic work of
Dr. Nansen, a descri[)tion of these articles and their
uses may prove of interest.

20 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

In " The First Crossing of Greenland " Nansen
says : — " Ski are long narrow strips of wood, those
used in Norway being from three to four inches in
breadth, eight feet, more or less, in length, one inch in
thickness at the centre under the foot, and bevelling
off to about a quarter of an inch at either end. In
front they are curved upwards and pointed, and they
are sometimes a little turned up at the back end too.
The sides are more or less parallel, though the best
forms have their greatest width in front, just where
the upward curve begins, but otherwise they are quite
straight and flat, and the under surface is made as
smooth as possible. The attachment consists of a
loop for the toe, made of leather or some other sub-
stance, and fixed at about the centre of the ski, and a
band which passes from this round behind the heel of
the shoe. The principle of this fastening is to make
the ski and foot as rigid as possible for steering
purposes, while the heel is allowed to rise freely from
the ski at all sides."

The ski are driven forward, they are not lifted.
With the snow in good condition, the rate of progress
is surprising, and without great effort a speed of from
eight to nine miles an hour may be kept up on ski
for a considerable time — 70 or 80 miles a-day being
no unusual achievement.

<-^fl.-5*!ft!4sr.a-^

CHAPTER II.

SCIENCE, SPORT, AND EXPLORATION.

IN 1880 Nansen matriculated with credit, proving
that distractions had not seriously interfered
with his studies. He got a first-class in all
natural science subjects, mathematics, and
history; and when, in December, 1881, he went up
for his second examination he was classed as
laudabilis proe ceteris.

It was shortly after this that he finally decided to
take up zoology as a special study. In 1880 he had
entered the University of Christiania, the only insti-
tution of the kind in Norway, where he had manifested
a strong scientific bent. He was specially fond of
zoology, and soon became known at the University
as an enthusiastic zoologist.

In 1882, at the age of twenty-one, and at the
advice of Professor Collett, he went as a passenger to
the polar seas in a Norwegian sealing steamer named
the Vikings for the purpose of increasing his zoologi-

22 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

cal knowledge, and likewise to train himself for
zoological research.

The vessel was ice-bound for twenty-four days off
the mysterious and fascinating east coast of Green-
land, in latitude 66° 50' N. In " The First Crossing
of Greenland " the young explorer states : — " Many
times a-day from the maintop were my glasses turned
westward, and it is not to be wondered at that a young
man's fancy was drawn irresistibly to the charms and
mysteries of this unknown world."

This cruise occupied nearly six months, and served
a double purpose. It enabled Nansen to add con-
siderably to his knowledge of zoology, and he received
his first lessons in ice navigation. His party were
frozen in off the east Greenland coast at the end
of June. He complains that this was the more
deplorable as it was the best time for seal catching.
The young explorer consoled himself for the dis-
appointment by bear shooting and by scientific
research. Everything he captures — animals, birds,
and insects — he conscientiously examines. He carries
out the instructions given him by his professors with
great faithfulness, and proves by the work done that
he was an ardent zoologist

On his return he contributed articles to both
scientific and sporting journals. In the former he
showed that he was the fortunate possessor of keen
receptive and perceptive faculties, his chapters on
the habits of the seal and polar bear being especially
worthy of remark. In the latter he gave a number of
demonstrations in rifle firing. During his enforced
stay on the Greenland coast, he shot more than five
hundred seals and fourteen polar bears, many of

SCIENCE, SPORT, AND EXPLORATION. 23

whose skins now adorn his study at Lysaker. His
descriptions have both animation and insight, and
call up with clearness the scenes of his exploits. He
owes much to the fact that he could use both pen and
gun with equal facility at an early age.

The following entry is from his diary of the voyage,
dated the 28th of June, and gives a glowing account
of the perils and delights of his first bear hunt in
high latitudes : — " As I lay peacefully this morning
dreaming of bears which I never got hold of, I was
awakened by a whisper in my ear, * You had better
turn out, for we have got a bear right under the ship's
side.' Hardly had I heard the word ' bear ' before I
sprang up, rubbed my eyes, gazed with astonishment
at the second mate, who continued whispering, as if
the bear were outside the cabin door, ' You must look
sharp ; ' and look sharp I did, for I was up and on
deck in a moment with rifle and cartridges. Quite
right ; there was the bear within range, quietly and
reflectively walking backwards and forwards, and
stopping now and then to sniff the air and scrutinise
the ship, which was evidently a novelty. There is
no hurry, I thought ; I can very well wait and enjoy
the sight of this splendid, proud animal till the captain
comes. But why does he not come ? Yes, there he
is at last ; and I was just burning to speak to him
when I heard a report. As if stung by a serpent I
rushed up, in order that I, too, might at least send a
shot after the bear on his journey. But no. Undis-
turbed by such trifles, he still walked quietly about,
although the bullet had struck the snow close beside
him. The shot was from one of the seal-shooters,
who could no longer restrain himself. It was there-

24 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

fore best to make our way on to the ice without
further delay. Once down I crept along, and was
soon within range, but the bear had meanwhile caught
sight of me, and had gone up on to a hummock or
crag of ice to reconnoitre. It was a pretty sight.
I aimed just behind the shoulder — one does not shoot
in the head for fear of spoiling the skull and skin —
pulled the trigger of my rifle, and — it missed fire.
It was fatal, and to make everything complete, the
cartridge stuck fast, so that I nearly tore all my
nails off in getting it out. At last, however, it slipped
out, and I was ready to begin again. Luckily the
bear, instead of running away as I had expected,
approached and showed me his broad breast. I aimed
straight into the whirl of white fur, and this time
there was a report. Bruin did not like his reception ;
he growled, bit the ground, fell over, but jumped up
again directly, and started off. I put another cart-
ridge into my rifle, and sent a bullet into his hind-
quarters, which were now the only visible parts of
him. A new growl, and a still more hasty retreat,
I followed him from floe to floe, but at last they
became too far apart for him to jump, and he had to
take to the water. In this way I gained on him, and
put a bullet between the shoulder-blades, just as he
was climbing up the other side of a large piece of ice.
He was done for now, and fell back into the water,
looking at me furiously out of his small, fiery, black
eyes, but could do no more. Another bullet, and his
sufferings were at an end."*

On this journey Nansen sighted Jan Mayen and

* Longmans Magazine^ Ju^yj 1894.

SCIENCE, SPORT, AND EXPLORATION. 2$

Spitzbergen, and spent some time in Iceland, where
he afterwards landed previous to his crossing of
Greenland.

One of his finest trophies at Lysaker is a skin of
one of the largest bears shot by the party. This
lies under his writing-table, and Nansen jocularly
remarked concerning it : — " I can truly say that I sit
with my foot on the neck of my enemy ! "

The bladder-nose seal is the largest and strongest
seal to be found in Arctic waters. Such is its
immense power it can readily jump out of the sea,
describe a curve in the air, and plump down on the
edge of a floe that stands six or seven feet above the
surface. Nansen, on his first voyage, was attacked
by a fierce-looking male bladder-nose that leapt over
the gunwale of his attacking boat. "He struck at
me," says Nansen, " with his teeth, missed me, but
caught the woodwork, on which he left deep marks."

Nansen tells us that seal shooting is excellent
practice, and tends to make one a cool and steady
rifle-shot, " for the thing is to hit the seal only in the
head, or, at worst, in the neck. . . . To hit him else-
where is worse than missing him clean, as if shot in
the body he takes to the water at once."

Although from the point of view of excitement and
scientific research this, his first Arctic cruise, was a
success, so far as the sealing was concerned it was a
failure, for by the time the ice gave way the sealing
season was over, and they had nothing better to do
but set their course homeward. Nansen ends the
account of the journey thus : — " Lightly the Viking
sped over the waves as fast as wind and steam could
carry her, and great was the joy on board when the

26 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

weather-beaten peaks of dear old Norway appeared
in sight, rising from the sea."

What the Arctic regions are like, as also something
of Nansen's power of vividly describing them, may
be gathered from the following extract : — " To give
those who have not seen this world of ice an idea of
what it looks like is not easy, as it is so different from
anything else. It is a strange thing with this region
that when you are there you think it sometimes
monotonous perhaps ; but when you are away from
it you long to get back again to its white, vast
solitude.

" When you approach the ice-fields of the polar sea
you hear them afar off by the noise of the breakers
against the floes ; it sounds like the strange roar
of a distant earthquake or thunderstorm. Over the
horizon to the north you will also see a strange light ;
this is the white reflection which the ice throws on the
sky above. When you sail on you will after a while
begin to meet the white floes riding on the dark
water. It is along the margin of this ice that the
sealer hunts for the seal ; between these tremendous
floes he forces his way with his strong ship to his
prey. But many a hard struggle he has to fight here
when the elements are in tumult. Nothing more
foaming wild than a tempest in the winter-night in
the north can easily be imagined. When the storm
whistles over sea and ice, lashes snow and foam in your
face, and seizes you so that you cannot stand on
deck; when the waves rise into huge water-moun-
tains, between which the ship disappears, and is all
in foam ; when sea and ice meet, and the waves rise
like towers and break in over the floes like greenish-

SCIENCE, SPORT, AND EXPLORATION. 27

yellow waterfalls, and the huge floes are thrown
against each other and crushed into dust, while the
water foams and ice-blocks are thrown high against
the dark sky — then it may happen that you will feel the
wild horror of the polar sea. No stars, no northern
lights, no light of any kind over this furious uproar.
Heavy storm-charged clouds fly across the sky ; all
around you is blackness and darkness, noise and
tumult. It is the wild demons of nature in fight.
It thunders and roars, it hisses and whistles in every
direction — it is the Ragnarok which is coming ; the
world is shaking to its foundations.

" But in the middle of this wild fight of the sea and
the demons, between these tower-like waves, a small
frail work of man is riding, a ship with living men on
board. Woe to them if they now make a single
mistake; woe to them if they come too near one
of these floes or put the ship's bow between them
at the moment they strike together ; in the next
instant they will be crushed and disappear! But
through the noise words of command can be heard ;
punctually they are obeyed ; the sealer steers quietly
his way out into the sea. He is accustomed to such
a turmoil, and he knows that the world will still last
a while.

" But there is not only storm in the polar sea ;
indeed, it can be just as mild and peaceful there as a
day in spring at home, with bright sunshine and
glittering snow. When you come some distance into
the ice it is so as a rule, and that which most often
comes before my memory when I think of the polar
regions is not the storms, not the hardships, but this
strange peace, so far from the vortex of the world,

28 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

when from the bright blue sky the sun is pouring its
flood of h'ght over the white, snow-covered ice, out-
ward and outward to the horizon. It gHtters in the
snow and sparkles in the deep blue water ; it gleams
and glitters everywhere around, while cold blue tints
are reflected from the sides of the floes, and border
them with all tints of blue and green, clear as the
clearest crystal, far down into the cold, transparent
water. And in the sunshine the seals are lying in
thousands and thousands on the floes, enjoying life.
Some of them sleep, others are busy with their
toilette, and prune and scratch themselves ; others
again are playing, whilst some are in the water and
dive up and down, and the sun is shining on their
wet heads. The whole is a picture of the most
perfect, charming peace, and the memory never
wearies of recalling it to view.

"But when you penetrate farther into ice, and
farther northward, the open water gradually dis-
appears, and the sea is totally covered by immense
drifting ice-floes ; the whole world becomes one field
of white, snow-covered ice ; only now and then
between the floes a narrow strip of dark water can be
seen. Soon all life also disappears ; no seals any
longer — such as those keep near open water ; neither
any birds ; the only animal which you may perhaps
meet is a single lonely polar bear, but soon he also
disappears, and there is nothing left except yourself
and the endless ice in constant drift across the sea
towards the south, towards warmth and sun, where it
is soon destroyed. So extends the polar sea north-
ward and northward to the Pole.

" In the summer the sun is shining all day and

SCIENCE, SPORT, AND EXPLORATION. 29

night, and circulates round and round in the sky, and
never disappears until the autumn comes ; but then
begins the long, dark winter night, which at the Pole
itself lasts six months. Then the stars are constantly
shining over the desolate snow-fields. When the
moon comes it circulates round the sky and shines
day and night until it disappears again. But some-
times the northern lights begin their play, this great
mystery of the north ; then there comes life ; it
scintillates and burns ; sparkling lights and rays are
running to and fro over the whole sky, until they
disappear again, leaving the scene quiet and desolate
as before.

" In this dead, frozen world it is that the polar
explorer has to live. There he roams with sledge and
dogs in summer, and from thence he sends longing
thoughts in the dark winter night southward to the
dear ones at home, over whom the same stars are
twinkling in their cold peace." *

When ice-bound off East Greenland on this journey
of 1882, he brooded over plans for reaching and
exploring the mysterious coast which so many had
sought in vain, and he even asked the captain's
permission to be allowed to take a boat and attempt
to cross the intervening floes. This, however, the
captain could not permit, as he was out for sealing,
not exploring. The idea of penetrating inland also
crossed his mind about this time ; but it was not until
the autumn of 1883 that he conceived the idea of
crossing from shore to shore. In "The First Cross-
ing of Greenland " he tells us : — " One autumn even-

* The Strand Magazine, December, 1893.

30 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

ing in the following year, that is to say, 1883 — I
remember it still, as if it were only yesterday — I was
sitting and listening indifferently as the day's paper
was being read. Suddenly my attention was roused
by a telegram which told us that Nordenskiold had
come back safe from his expedition to the interior
of Greenland ; that he had found no oasis, but only
endless snowfields, on which his Lapps were said
to have covered on their ski an extraordinarily long
distance in an astonishingly short time. The idea
flashed upon me at once of an expedition crossing
Greenland on ski from coast to coast. Here was
the plan in the same form in which it was afterwards
laid before the public and eventually carried out."

In the autumn of 1882, Nansen was appointed cura-
tor of Bergen Museum, and soon enhanced his reputa-
tion by the publication of many scientific pamphlets.

During this curatorship he made numerous journeys
up the Hardanger and Sogne Fjords, which lie on
either side of Bergen. Around these, the two most
celebrated fjords of Norway, the grandest scenery
which that country possesses is to be seen. The
voyager up or down these magnificent fjords will
see hills towering skywards, and adamantine cliffs
descending sheer down into the clear blue sea.
Indeed, "for the lover of scenery, the yachtsman,
the sportsman, the student of archaeology, geology,
natural history, and botany, or for the tourist, pro-
bably no portion of northern Europe contains more
of general interest than the fjords and the fjelds of
the Hardanger."*

♦" In the Northman's Land" (Sampson Low, Marston & Co.).

SCIENCE, SPORT, AND EXPLORATION. 3 1

In the winter of 1886, Nansen crossed the moun-
tains from Christiania to Bergen, frequently passing
the night in a snowdrift. When nearing his destina-
tion he fell down some precipitous crags, and bruised
himself severely. In the following year an earnest
request reached him from the inhabitants of a village
near Bergen to " come and hunt some bears which
are carrying off our cattle."

In his various excursions carried on for science
and sport Nansen became very familiar with the
vast stretches of woodland, of rocky mountains, of
lakes, of rivers, of glaciers, and of snowfields that
go to make up his dear Norway. In winter he
could be seen on ski or skates, and in summer he
spent all spare hours in boating and shooting excur-
sions.

A friend of his tells me that Nansen spent three
summers in a little country place on the coast near
Bergen, examining the animals on the bottom of the
sea there.

In 1885, Nansen won the Bergen Museum gold
medal for a paper entitled " Contributions to a
Knowledge of the Anatomy and Histology of the
Myzostomida" (Bergen, 1885).

A memoir on the same subject was contributed in
1887 to the Jena Zeitschrift fiir Naturwissenschaft,
Band XXL

It was in 1887 that Nansen obtained his degree
as Doctor of Philosophy for his treatise on " The
Structure and Combination of the Histological
Elements of the Central Nervous System."

The biological work of Nansen is little known
outside the circle of specialists, and yet before he

32 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

set out on his attempt to cross Greenland he had
done good scientific work. When settled down at
Bergen he began the histological study of some
lower orders, which constitutes his claim to scientific
recognition. He commenced his research here with
an attempt to trace the secondary variations in the
myzostoma, a group of parasitic worms, by a close
microscopic examination of their structure and
organs. From this he took up the nervous system
of the invertebrates and subvertebrates on a broader
scale, and, in the course of his inquiries, visited in
the spring of 1886 the renowned marine laboratory
at Naples. Nansen frequently stated that he was
quite prepared to put up with the simplest of living
to enable him to get funds to prosecute his scientific
studies. In 1885, as we have seen, he had been
awarded the Joachim Friele gold medal for his
work on the myzostoma ; but he had actually taken
the medal in copper, and applied the value of the
gold to the furtherance of his travels and his task
at the Naples laboratory. This visit added greatly
to his scientific knowledge, and his country was
benefited by his travels, for so much was he im-
pressed with the importance of this, the first in-
stitution of its kind, that on his return home one
of his earliest tasks was to moot the establishment
of similar stations along the Norwegian coast, a work
that was carried out several years later.

Nansen next worked out and demonstrated the
law of the bifurcation of sensitive nerve roots, an
important contribution to histological science, which
gave him a prominent place among biologists.

Great, however, as was his devotion to science,

SCIENCE, SPORT, AND EXPLORATION.

33

Nansen was alive to other and more tender attrac-
tions, and when his tiipe came could go out to
conquer in that sphere also. Early in 1889, on a
ski expedition among the hills around Christiania,
he met Miss Eva Sars, the young lady who after-
wards became his wife, was engaged to her in August,
and they were married in September of the same
year.

NANSBN IN HIS KAVAK.

CHAPTER III.

FIRST CROSSING OF GREENLAND.

NANSEN held his appointment at Bergen
Museum until 1888, when, after six years*
deliberation, he started on his memorable
journey over the Greenland ice platfeau, and
traced on the map of that country a dotted line
which will never be erased. His great feat of cross-
ing the island from east to west established his
reputation as an explorer and scientist of the first
rank. Nansen was fully alive to the dangerous
nature of his expedition. He knew that the European
press had denounced his scheme as that of a mad-
man's ; that they prophesied for him and all who
accompanied the expedition a horrible and lingering
death from starvation among the ice-floes, or on the
snow-covered wastes of the inland ice : yet, in the
face of all opposition, he went, accompanied by
chosen men. Much ridicule was centred on his effort.
One Norwegian comic paper published the following
34

FIRST CROSSING OF GREENLAND. 35

advertisement: — "Notice. — In the month of June
next, Curator Nansen will give a snow-shoe display,
with long jumps, on the ice of Greenland. Reserved
seats in the crevasses. Return ticket unnecessary."

The first half of the year 1888 was perhaps the
busiest six months Nansen ever faced. "At the
beginning of December, 1887, he is back in Bergen.
At the end of January, 1888, he goes on snow-shoes
from Eidfjord in Hardanger, by way of Numedal, to
Kongsberg, and thence to Chrijtiania. In March he
is in Bergen again, lecturing on nature and life in
Greenland. One day, or rather night, we find him
camping on the top of Blaamanden, near Bergen,
to test his sleeping-bag, and a week later he is on the
rostrum in Christiania giving his first trial lecture for
his doctor's degree, on the structure of the sexual
organs in the myxine. On April 28th he defends
his doctorial thesis, * The Nerve Elements : their
Structure and Connection in the Central Nervous
System ; ' and on May 2nd he sets off for Copen-
hagen, on his way to Greenland." *

Nansen and his five companions — Sverdrup,
Dietrichson, Trana, Balto, and Ravna ; the first three
being Norwegian, and the other two " River-Lapps "
— all famed skilobers — were the first to cross the
inland ice, and his book, "The First Crossing of
Greenland," translated into many languages, made his
name famous throughout the world. In it, when we
at last get to his own work, we have a graphic
description of his perilous journey over the drift-
ing ice-floes off the east coast in his attempt to

♦ " Life of Nansen " (Longmans, Green & Co.).

36

FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

reach land, and details of the daring and heroic
crossing to the west coast, over boundless snowfields,
till the party finally reached Godthaab. During the
journey on the inland ice the cold was so intense
that even the woollen socks upon their feet were
frozen solid. They were storm-bound for days
together, and frequently the tempests racked their

SVERDRUP. DIETRICHSON. NANSEN.

COOKING UNDER DIFFICULTIES IN THE FIRST CROSSING

OF GREENLAND.

tents to pieces ; on the march the sledge ropes burnt
their shoulders, but, in spite of all opposition, " west-
ward" was the only order. There was fortunately no
choice of routes. It was death — or the west coast of
Greenland. At Godthaab they had to winter, owing
to the last vessel being unable to wait for them,
although opportunity was given them to send two

FIRST CROSSING OF GREENLAND. 37

letters home — one from Nansen to Herr Gam^l, of
Copenhagen, the other from Sverdrup to his father.
Nansen says : — " These two letters brought to Europe
the first news of our having reached the west coast of
Greenland, and contained all that was known of our
journey for six months. In one respect they hold, per-
haps, a somewhat unusual position, for their postage
came to no less than £17." It was the ship Fox, of
McClintock fame, that brought the letters to Europe.

They all returned to Norway in June, 1889, in the
best of health, a high tribute, indeed, to Nansen's
intelligent judgment.

As a writer, Nansen's treatment of his subject is
fascinating. This, " The First Crossing of Greenland,"
and his later important anthropological book, " The
Eskimo," which has been translated into English by
Mr. William Archer, sufficiently show. The latter
publication is the outcome of his winter's residence at
Godthaab, for he spent much of his time in wandering
amongst the natives, dwelling in their huts, taking
part in their dangerous hunting excursions on land
and sea, and becoming a proficient " kayaker " and
sledge driver. At considerable inconvenience and
sacrifice of his sensibilities — for the stench which
arises from the filthy surroundings of the Eskimo is,
to a refined European, appalling — Nansen lived their
life in his endeavour to obtain an accurate knowledge
of their habits. The Greenlanders are an extremely
interesting people, and in this book Dr. Nansen not
only gives an account of his own wanderings and
observations, but a general account of the life,
manners, morals, and numerous superstitions which
have survived the introduction of Christianity.

38 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

His journey produced a treasure-house of scientific
fact and thrilling adventure, and revealed to the world
this unparalleled and heroic feat, besides showing the
possibilities to come in the event of this brave servant
of science continuing his schemes of exploration.

On their triumphant return they became the heroes
of the day. Every town in Europe united in paying '
tribute to Dr. Nansen and his brave comrades for the
indomitable pluck and perseverance shown through-
out their hazardous and dangerous journey.

Nansen subsequently visited France, Germany,
and Great Britain, where he lectured to intensely
interested audiences on his adventures in the crossing
of the vast icy continent. He is well known to the
British public, and his striking figure was one of the
most prominent objects in the streets and drawing-
rooms of London in the summer of 1889. He visited
England again in 1892, and made many friends
wherever he went On his return from Greenland,
he became a member of a host of geographical and
scientific societies, and received many gold medals
and other distinctions. In the Proceedings of the
Royal Geographical Society (1891, page 294) we learn
that the Victoria medal of that Society was conferred
upon him in 1891 for the following reasons: — "The
Patrons of the Victoria medal, to Dr. Fridtjof Nansen,
for having been the first to cross the inland ice of
Greenland, a perilous and daring achievement, entail-
ing a journey of more than three months ; thirty-
seven days of which were passed at great elevations,
and in the climate of an Arctic winter, obliging him
to lead a forlorn hope with the knowledge that there
could be no retreat, and that failure must involve the

FIRST CROSSING OF GREKNI.AND. 39

destruction of himself and his companions, and call-
ing forth the highest qualities of an explorer ; for
having taken a series of astronomical and meteoro-
logical observations, under circumstances of extreme
difficulty and privation, during a march which required
exceptional powers of strength and endurance and
mental faculties of high order, as well as the qualities
of a scientific geographer for its successful accomplish-
ment ; and for his discovery of the physical character
of the interior of Greenland, as well as for other
valuable and scientific results of his expedition."
This aptly expresses Nansen's reasons for his crossing
of Greenland. Needless to remark the attempt was
not made for commercial purposes.

Dr. Nansen is an exceptionally accomplished
linguist, speaking several languages fluently. English
he both speaks and writes. During twenty-nine
lectures he delivered in the provincial towns of Great
Britain in the spring of 1892, and also in his forty
lectures on his voyage of 1893-96, delivered in the
months of February and March, 1897, he seldom
referred to his notes. " I have the MSS. beside me,"
he remarked, "because delivering the same lecture so
often I am apt to forget if I have touched on all points.
This would be the same if I lectured in Norwegian.
I really do not find it much more difficult to lecture
in luiglish than in my own tongue." Indeed, he has
a positive affection for English Ufc, which is fostered
by his love of ICnglish literature. In his library are
the works of Shakespeare, Tennyson, Huxley, J. S.
Mill, Herbert Spencer, and Darwin ; but his English
literary sympathies are by no means restricted to
these representatives of imagination and science, for

40 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

he will tell you that he is a great admirer of the
novels of George Eliot and George Meredith. He
will end, perhaps, by saying that, " If I were not a
Norwegian, I would be an Englishman rather than
belong to any other nation,"

Dr. Nansen's visits to England have been many, but
his stay has always been of short duration.

He is, of course, a zealous student and collector of
works on Arctic exploration, boasting, in fact, that he
has read all that has been published in the way of
first-hand information on this subject. He is also an
artist and photographer of no mean order, and his
collection of photographs taken in Greenland was the
subject of universal admiration during the lecturing
tour that followed his Greenland journeyings.

After this it will not sound surprising to say that
" a man so various " is also a keen politician. To this
aspect of his nature he has many opponents, the fact
that his views are democratic by no means diminish-
ing their number ; but, whether in or out of opposi-
tion, Nansen is a man to command respect.

Nansen makes friends wherever he goes. He left
many sad hearts among the Eskimo at Godthaab
when he departed homeward. In " The First Cross-
ing of Greenland " he relates : —

" The day before we started, one of my best friends
among the Eskimo, in whose house I had often been,
said to me, ' Now you are going back into the great
world from which you came to us ; you will find much
that is new there, and perhaps you will soon forget
us. But we shall never forget you.' "

Balto, the irrepressible Lapp, who accompanied
Nansen in the crossing of the inland ice, writes of his

FIRST CROSSING OF GREENLAND. 41

first meeting with the doctor : — " It was a most glori-
ous and wonderful thing to see this new master of
ours, Nansen. He was a stranger, but his face shone
in our eyes like those of the parents whom we had
left at home, so lovely did his face seem to me, as
well as the welcome with which he greeted us."

In explaining his fascination it would be idle to
ignore the physical splendour of the man.

A gentleman who met Nansen in 1888 says : — " I
had the good fortune to meet Dr. Nansen when he
was stopping in London as the guest of Professor
Fowler, Director of the Museum of Natural History
at South Kensington. This was not long after his
return from his walking tour in Greenland. The
impression he makes on one is that of youth, health,
strength, vigour, and enthusiasm. A student, and
devoted to science ; in physique, he is best described
as a good-natured, flaxen-haired, blue-eyed giant.
The tight-fitting suit of rough grey cloth he wore set
off his noble figure to advantage."

Seven years later the same writer remarks : —
" There could not in these modern days be a man of
more pronounced Viking type than Dr. Nansen. His
very name, Fridtjof, conjures up memories of the days
when the Vikings were the terror of Europe. Who
does not know Fridtjof's Saga, the great poem that
has so often been translated into English ? "

Nansen is thirty-six years of age, but he looks older
than his years, doubtless owing to the hardships he
endured in crossing the ice plateau of Greenland, He
is over six feet in height, and by constant physical
training he has made his muscular frame one of the
finest and most equably developed that any man of

42

FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

science ever possessed ; for it must not be forgotten
that in this athlete, whom few men could challenge
with success in his favourite sports, the habit of
scientific research is equally well developed. His
contributions to zoology and histology have earned
him a name, independently of his Arctic explorations.
He wears his fair hair falling straight back from his
high forehead. He has the deep blue Norwegian eye.
His firm mouth is surmounted by a small, fair
moustache. He is so tall and straight and well-
made that people turn round to look at him in the
street. Quickness and determination characterise the
man. The name that he gave to his ship, Frain
(forward), is his own motto. He made up his mind
not to look backward and count upon escape. He
did the same when he crossed Greenland in 1888-89.
He broke off all means of retreat. The men who
knew Greenland best said success was impossible.
He dared the deed and accomplished it.

On his return from Greenland, Nansen was appoin-
ted curator at Christiania University, which appoint-
ment he held until he set off on his polar voyage.

CHAPTER IV.

FRU NANSEN.

EVA SARS NANSEN is a member of one of the
best families in Norway. She is the youngest
daughter of the late Professor M. Sars, a
Norwegian naturalist of great eminence, and
was born in Christiania in 1858. It would, indeed,
be a matter of difficulty to find a more interesting
and distinguished family in the Scandinavian penin-
sula than that of the Sars. ¥vu Nansen's father was
the talented author of " P'auna Littoralis Norwegiae."
He devoted much attention to natural history, and
was the discoverer of a crinoid in the North Sea be-
longing to a species that was supposed to be extinct.
F"ru Nansen's mother, the best storj'-tellcr in
Norway, is a sister of the Norwegian poet, \Vclha\cn,
a contemporary of Vergeland. The Sars' sa/o// is a
centre of the intellectual world of the Norwegian
capital, whether artistic, scientific, or political, remind-

43

44 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

ing one of the Parisian centres of talent and wit in
the days of Louis Quatorze. The family consists of
four, two brothers and two sisters. Ernest, the eldest,
has won distinction in literature. He is classed
among Norway's most celebrated historians, and he
and the famous Bjornstjerne Bjornson are the chief
Radical leaders in Norway. Ossian, the younger
son, has trodden in his father's footsteps, is looked
upon as an authority in matters relating to natural
history, and is the present professor of zoology at the
University of Christiania. Fru Nansen's sister, like
herself, is endowed with great musical taste, and is
the wife of the well-known singer and teacher of
singing, Herr Lammers.

The musical training of Fru Nansen was the work
of Herr Lammers and his wife. For five years she
was an apt pupil, and when she went to Berlin to
continue her studies her artistic education was already
far advanced. For a whole winter she studied in the
German capital with Madame Artot, and gave special
attention to the title-parts in the operas of Mignon
and Carmen. Yet she never became an operatic
singer, as she was shy of making an appearance on
the stage in that capacity. On her return to Chris-
tiania she commenced to teach singing, and this useful
employment still occupies part of her time.

Her musical talent is great. She frequently appears
at concerts, and her assistance, highly appreciated
and frequently solicited as it is, is given readily, and
with a winning grace that enhances the charm of the
favour. Her first public appearance out of Norway
was in Stockholm in November, 1895, and from that
day her success as a public singer was assured. She

FRU NANSEN.
The principal Concert Singer in Norway.

FRU NANSEN. 47

felt she must make a career for herself during the
doctor's absence — that she must place herself on an
equal footing with him — and she has already suc-
ceeded in her desire. The tours which she has
taken through Sweden and Denmark (1895 and
1896) have been attended by conspicuous success.
The series of concerts she gave in Stockholm,
Copenhagen, Christiania, Bergen, and other towns in
the winter of 1895-96, were a splendid triumph.
Her charming manner, and the courage evinced at
her lonely lot, won the hearts of all, who felt for the
woman whose husband was risking his life in the
cause of science.

In manner Fru Nansen is more French than
Scandinavian, but at heart she is a thorough Nor-
wegian. She sings by choice the songs of her native
country, and their composers, Jansen and Grieg, are
among her warmest friends.

Like most Norwegian ladies, Mrs. Nansen works
hard. When not touring she employs her leisure in
music. Before marriage, Dr. Nansen and his fiancee
agreed that the modes of life of neither should be
materially changed ; that he should not abandon his
scheme of exploration, and that she should continue
her teaching.

In one respect they have leanings in common.
Mrs. Nansen is not only a distinguished singer, but
she is perhaps the most skilful lady skilober in
Norway. She has accompanied her husband in many
of his winter runs in the mountains and valleys of
their beloved Norway, and in many of his winter and
summer sports.

In "A Winter's Jaunt in Norway," Mrs. Alec B.

48 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

Tweedie writes : — " What a strange contrast the
Nansens are ! He is a great, big, tall, fair Norwegian,
with all the strength of the Viking race in his manly
bearing and earnest face. She is a jolly, bright little
woman, with dark hair, and all the merriment and
warm colouring of a more southern people, although
she, too, is pure Norwegian. She is able to accom^
pany Nansen on all his sports. She is very fond of
sailing, of which they do a great deal in the summer,
for the fjord of Christiania almost surrounds the
house, which is built on a promontory. In winter
they ski together, for Nansen thinks no sport or
anything else perfect unless accompanied by his wife.
He is very fond of joking and chaffing her too, and
when speaking about a visit we contemplated up
Nora Fjeld, on ski, a mountain about five thousand
feet above the sea, and lying between Christiania and
Bergen, he said, ' My wife knows Nora Fjeld well,
because there it was that I saw her dead-beat for the
first and only time.' "

It is not surprising to find that Mrs. Nansen should
have sought to accompany her husband in his great
polar expedition. The perils of the Arctic regions
had no terrors for her, and up to the time of the
launching of the Fram, Dr. Nansen's polar vessel, it
was actually the intention of the explorer to allow his
wife to form one of the party. At the last moment,
however, he was petitioned by Captain Sverdrup not
to do so. The other members of the crew, although
having every belief in Fru Eva's ability to withstand
the voyage, joined Sverdrup in his petition, and
accordingly Dr. Nansen deemed it prudent to leave
his wife behind. He was guided in his decision by

FRU NANSEN. 49

the possibilities of a nip in the ice, followed by a long
sledge journey, and by the consideration that a
woman, however courageous, could not but retard
the progress of the whole party. Eventually Fru
Nansen, too, became reconciled, and recognised that
" home " was woman's first concern.

The position of Fru Nansen during the doctor's
absence was not an enviable one. Month after
month, year after year passed without certain
information. Rumour after rumour came to hand.
One felt keenly for her during March, 1896, when
every mail from the northern frontier of Russia
might have brought accurate tidings of good or
evil. But she worked hard for herself and her
husband, her correspondence alone being a labour
of great magnitude. She has a staunch heart ; and
this, coupled with an inherent hatred of idleness,
will stand her in good stead when the time again
arrives for her spirit to be put to the test.

She has the courage that does not fly at an idle
rumour, and which enables her to reason even against
hope. That, at least, we glean from the jottings of
an irrepressible interviewer, whose article in the
Lokalanzeiger is quoted in the Daily News. He
says : —

" I asked Madame Nansen what impression the
news received had made on her — the rumour of
Nansen's successful return in March, 1896 — whether
she was overcome with astonishment, hope, or joy.
' No, not at all,' was the answer, ' for I did not
believe it. I regarded it as a canard, and it left me
perfectly composed and cool.' ' Do you not believe
in your husband's success, then ? ' ' Oh, I am per-

D

50

FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

fectly convinced that he will reach his goal and come
back, but that it would take place so quickly, so
easily, and so smoothly, this I did not believe.' ' It
would be most interesting to hear your precise
opinion,' I said. ' I am stormed with telegrams and
letters, but, to tell the truth, I understand nothing
about these difficult questions. I leave it to the

MY COMl'ORT AND MY JOV.

geographers and men of science, and I don't like
speaking about it. Only this much I can tell you.
I believe in my husband's return, but not now. It is
too soon. Besides, the statements are so vague.
There is nothing positive and decided in them.
They are all unauthentic reports. How could I
place any hopes in them ? ' Mrs. Nansen said this

FRU NANSEN, 5 1

in the most decided tone, and in her beautiful eyes
there sparkled such confidence that I can quite
understand this woman waiting for years without
losing hope and faith. I speak of the admiration
which the whole civilised world shows for her hus-
band, ' Yes, I know that great sympathy is felt for
him,' she answers, ' and this makes me strong. It is
my comfort, my greatest joy.' We are sitting at the
window, from which one has a magnificent view of
the lake, the fir woods, and the high mountains which
appear in the distance in a blue haze. I speak of the
exquisite scenery. * It is now rather monotonous,'
she answers in a sad voice, looking across the ice-
bound fjord ; * but in summer, when the lake is open,
you should see it then ! ' At this moment a lovely
little girl, of some five or six summers, enters the
room — Nansen's only daughter, Liv (life) — and looks
at me rather suspiciously for keeping her dinner
waiting. Her mother draws her to her, and strokes
her golden curls. ' This is also my comfort and my
joy during the long absence of my husband,' said
Madame Nansen, her eyes beaming with love and
pride."

NANSEN S HOME AT LYSAKER.

CHAPTER V.

nansen's home.

IN 1893, I had the pleasure of receiving an invita-
tion to visit Mrs. Nansen at Lysaker. It is
situated on Christiania Fjord. Here Dr. and
Mrs. Nansen have been visited by many Arctic
enthusiasts from all parts of Europe. The courtesy
of Mrs. Nansen is proverbial. My own experience
of it grew out of our kindred interests.

Our way to the house lay through beautiful
meadows and an odorous pine wood. The day was
perfect. As we lingered on the way, and wandered
from the path in wood and meadow, we wondered
at the doctor's leaving such a scene as this to
court unknown dangers. After practising our
amateur Norsk on the wayfarers, Godthaab Villa
was pointed out to us.
52

XANSEN S TIOAIE. 53

Our view gives but a faint idea of the lo\clincss
of its situation. The house is situated at the foot
of a hill, uniquely set in the midst of a wood, and
the promontor)- upon which it stands juts boIdI\- out
into the fjord. The selection of the site was made
by the doctor, who had a picturesque log-hut built,
and named it Godthaab Villa, to express his
gratitude for finding a haven of rest on the west
coast after his perilous journey across Greenland.
It was constructed after the old Norwegian stjde of
brown pine wood in trunks, and both the house and
furniture are carved in characteristic old dragons and
serpents' heads.

Fru Nansen received us most graciously, her
smiling face immediately dispelling any feeling of
strangeness. Apologising for her bad English
(quite unnecessarily, as we subsequently discovered),
she led the way to the drawing-room, a most original
and artistic apartment, filled with exquisite art
beauties and curiosities from all parts of the globe.
The whole house, indeed, is full of trophies and relics
from Nansen's Greenland and other expeditions.
From the window of this room we had a magnifi-
cent view down the fjord and right out to the sea.
It was a splendid day, and our hostess remarked that
she had seldom seen the view to better ad\"antage.

Crossing the drawing-room and passing along an
alcove, we were ushered into Dr. Nansen's room.
His study is a charming spot, and at once affords an
index to his tastes. It is furnished in thorough old
Norwegian style down to the very chairs and
hangings. The arms of the carved wooden chairs
are formed by the old Norse serpent twist. It

54 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

would be difficult in all Norway to find a more
typically Norwegian room. His beloved books were
still on the shelves — sacred to his own use. There
are relics from barbarous and semi-barbarous
countries on walls and floor.

One's interest centred in the polar bear skins,
victims of Nansen's gun when in the east Greenland
seas, and in the grand piano standing in the middle
of the apartment, on which Fru Nansen played to
her husband in the few hours that he devoted to
recreation. Perhaps the most surprising thing was
the enormous table, which was in harmony with the
large proportions of the study. This article, which
was made to the order of the explorer, resembles
a huge bench, except that its legs and sides are
curiously ornamented. The doctor when at home
requires it all for his papers. He is very systematic
— a desirable trait in the character of the leader
of an Arctic expedition — and confusion is altogether
absent from his study.

In one corner of the room was a quaint three-
cornered fireplace, quite in keeping with the walls
and furniture. As is the custom in Norway, the
Nansens use wood as fuel, coal being accounted a
luxury. Several oil paintings from the brushes of
Dr. and Mrs. Nansen adorn the walls, and the
original drawings and engravings used in " The First
Crossing of Greenland " have a prominent place.

In the alcove adjoining the drawing-room we saw
a fine life-size crayon portrait of Dr. Nansen, just
completed by a leading Norwegian artist.

We soon learned that it did not depress Fru
Nansen in the slightest degree to talk of her absent

nansen's home. 57

husband. She pointed out to us the place where she
had last seen him, and showed us two instantaneous
photographs taken at the time of his departure, the
first depicting Dr. Nansen gazing through a pair
of glasses at his wife from the bridge of the Fram
as the vessel steamed slowly down the fjord on
its way to the sea ; the second showing him in the
act of waving his hat to her in a last farewell.
These, as may be imagined, were so precious to her
that she would not on any account allow them to
leave her possession.

Dr. Nansen for his part had a souvenir of a most
enjoyable kind, in the shape of phonograms of several
songs sung by his wife, and the childish prattle of
his fair-haired child. These sounds, the offerings of
science to a scientific mind, would be a solace to him
in his dreary exile, reminding him of the loved ones
whom he had left.

" How long," we asked, "do you think your husband
will be away ? "

" Captain Sverdrup says two and a-quarter years if
good fortune attends him. They are provisioned for
six. . . . You should have seen the ship's deck," she
resumed ; " it was covered with provisions."

" It will be seen from the photograph," Fru Nansen
resumed, " how well they are stocked with provisions.
If the crew can only stick to the ship as she drifts
with the ice or current, they need have no fear of
starvation for five or six years to come."

We asked, " Where will the doctor write you from ? "

Fru Nansen replied, "From the New Siberian
Islands, if he touches there. I am not sure, however,
that they will obtain and forward his letter."

58^ FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

Then she resumed, " Not for a moment do I doubt
his return. Why, if I had not indeed the greatest
confidence in his success I should never have been
foolish enough to let him go. The Fram may be
crushed, but they have special boats in case of that
disaster. If they, too, are lost, then they have their
lighter boats and strong, portable silk tents and
sleeping-bags to place on the ice, in which to live as
they drift on or travel over the ice on their ski, for

a.

9^ v^.

^^"-^ -?--*** (k.^^ .eZ^*A ^

'»'C^ Ot.^^ ^tr^J *AJU .yy^u^y%,
■TiT ^A** A-^Coi. ^?t/iv KJ^^uJ^

^.iX. 2L' Z2 r^

FRU NANSEN'S acknowledgment of "LONDON STREET ARABS."

(as in the crossing of Greenland) these will form
a special feature of locomotion should the ship be
deserted."

We then dwelt upon his triumphant return, and
she seemed pleased indeed when we compared it to
the return of Stanley after the finding of Emin Pasha.
We spoke of the kindly interest that the people of
Great Britain were taking in the expedition, and of

NANSEN'S HOME. 59

the rush there would be for copies of his promised
book.

Then, after a pause, she proceeded, " I love your
England. I was there for a few weeks on my
wedding tour, and I should like to go again to learn
the language perfectly."

We informed her of Mrs. Stanley's artistic talent,
and she was greatly pleased by a description of that
lady's work. Such interest did she manifest, that on
reaching England we sent to her Mrs. Stanley's
book, " London Street Arabs," which contains a
collection of pictures from original drawings by the
author, and in reply, Fru Nansen expressed her
delight on receiving that " most charming book."

For a time Fru Nansen took up painting, and
studied under the well-known artists, Bergslien and
Eilif Peterssen. " But," she remarked, " I did not
continue my lessons, for I felt I would never make a
great painter."

Perhaps the most animated portion of our conversa-
tion was on the subject of languages. We remarked
that Norsk was readily learned, and Fru Nansen
rejoined, " I find German the easiest to learn, and
English next, but French ! — oh ! it is so very difficult
to me."

Fru Nansen is a fit companion, mentally and
physically, for the Viking who went to seek fame
in the chill North.

We left Godthaab Villa, its hostess and child, with
regret, and thought of the long, dreary, anxious days
of suspense before Mrs. Nansen, and of the inexpres-
sible, intoxicating joy of the moment when the news
reaches her of her husband's safe return.

NANSEN S LARGE BOAT.

CHAPTER VI.

HOW TO CROSS THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

THIS was the question that Dr. Nansen discussed
before an over-crowded meeting of the mem-
bers of the English Royal Geographical Society
in London, on the evening of the 14th of
November, 1892.

In his speech he first dealt with the scientific value
of Arctic and Antarctic exploration, and, after touch-
ing on past expeditions to the Arctics, he asked : —
" Why have all previous attempts failed ? "

" The reason is simple enough," he replied ; " the
expeditions were everywhere, at a greater or less
distance from the Pole, stopped by drifting floe-ice
which formed immense impenetrable masses, and in
most cases was carried down against the ships by
currents from the north. It was impossible to pene-
trate the ice, and to walk over it was almost equally
impossible, since it is moved by constant currents
from the north ; there was no choice left but to
60

HOW TO CROSS THE NORTH POLAR REGION. 6l

return. If we could only discover a land stretching
to the Pole the chances would be favourable enough.
The difficulties of reaching it would not then be much
greater than those of crossing Greenland. But we
know of no country which is likely to have such an
extension to the north. Greenland seems to end not
very far north of the latitude already reached, and
Franz Josef Land is probably only a group of islands.

" Many people think that the North Pole can be
reached by balloons or balloon ships, and that it will
be so reached one day. I do not deny the possibility
of this ; on the contrary, I regard it as very probable.
But the only way at present would be to entrust one's-
self wholly to the wind, and this is an uncertain way
so long as we have no knowledge of the wind-currents
of these regions. To go in a submarine boat under
the ice would be rather risky so long as submarine
navigation is as little developed as it is at present.

" But is there no other way to reach the North
Pole?

" I believe that if we take careful notice of the forces
which nature herself places at our disposal, and
endeavour to work with them, and not against them,
we shall find, if not the shortest, at all events the most
certain route. We have already seen that most polar
expeditions have been stopped by irresistible currents
from the unknown north, carrying immense masses of
thick floe-ice. From this fact we seem entitled to
draw a very simple conclusion, namely, that if cur-
rents run from these regions, currents must also some-
where run into them, and that if expeditions have
been carried by the ice southward from the unknown
regions, others may be floated northward into these

62 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

regions if they can only strike the currents on the
right side. Thus, then, we have the way already
indicated ; the problem is to find the right place.

" If we consider the experience of whalers and
sealers who have sailed for a long series of years
in the Arctic seas on both sides of the Pole, one
singular circumstance must strike us at once, namely,'
that ships caught in the ice on this side of the Pole,
near the Greenland Sea, are carried southward, and
that the crews run, as a rule, no great risk. Not so
on the other side of the Pole, north of Behring Strait;
ships caught in the ice there drift northward and often
disappear, some with few and others with many men
on board ; most of them probably are destroyed in
high unknown latitudes. These facts must lead the
thoughtful observer to the conclusion that there are
differences in the sea currents which may be utilised
in favour of a polar expedition. Let us, therefore,
examine the question more closely.

" The most important polar current is, without
doubt, that which runs southward along the east
coast of Greenland. This has a considerable speed,
and carries an immense quantity of water out from
the polar basin. It fills the whole opening between
Greenland and Spitzbergen, with the exception of a
narrow belt along the coast of the latter, and it runs
over the deepest known bottom in the Arctic regions ;
there are ascertained depths of 2600 fathoms. The
depth of the actual current itself cannot, however, be
so much. I do not think that we are entitled to
assume that there is any current of importance deeper
than 300 fathoms ; and in order to be within the
mark, let us say only 200 fathoms. It might be

HOW TO CROSS THE NORTH POLAR REGION. 63

expected that under this polar current another cur-
rent was running northward. From what we know
of the water, we seem, however, to be fully entitled to
say such cannot be the case. On the contrary, water
at a much greater depth probably comes from the
unknown north. The breadth of the polar current on
the surface is 250 nautical miles, and at the depth
mentioned it seems to be about 170 nautical miles.
To calculate the average speed of the current is very
difficult ; it probably runs more rapidly at the surface
than in its deeper parts, and, on the other hand, the
speed is nowhere constant during the whole year.
Sometimes, especially in the summer months, it is
very rapid, but at other times it seems to have a
much slower course. Taking everything into con-
sideration, I do not think we are entitled to estimate
the average speed of the whole current for the year
at more than two nautical miles a-day. By this cal-
culation we arrive at the conclusion that the polar
current between Greenland and Spitzbergen carries
southward betiveen 80 and 120 cubic miles of water
every twenty-four hours.

" Whence is all this water derived ? It cannot
originate at the Pole itself; the place of the water
that flows out from the polar basin must be supplied
by water running in. It is also evident that the
influence of a current so considerable as this cannot
be limited to a small area ; it must affect the polar
basin like an immense pump, sucking the water even
from the shores of Siberia and Behring Strait. This
is the more certain as the polar basin is found to be
unusually shallow wherever it has been sounded.
There are only a few currents known which run into

64 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

the polar basin. A small branch of the Gulf Stream
is known to run northward along the west coast of
Spitzbergen. This current is, however, too insignifi-
cant to be of much value in this connection ; to some
extent it certainly also rounds the north coast of
Spitzbergen, and returns southward again towards its
eastern coast. The main body of the Norwegian"
Gulf Stream passes eastward to the north of Norway,
and enters the polar basin north of Novaya Zemlya.
This current is considerable ; our knowledge of it is,
however, not sufficient to enable us to form any
certain idea about the quantity of water which it
carries along ; but according to the calculation of
Professor H. Mohn, in his important memoir on the
Northern Ocean, and according to information from
the sealers, I think we may assume that it carries at
least 60 to 70 cubic miles of water every twenty-four
hours into the polar basin. A third current running
into the polar sea is that which runs northward
through Behring Strait. This cannot be of great
importance, as the Strait is so narrow and shallow ;
but from the latest descriptions of the current we are
perhaps entitled to assume that at least 10 or 14 cubic
miles of water are here running northward daily.

" The currents certainly furnish the most important
supplies of water to the polar current along the east
coast of Greenland. Another addition comes from
the American, and especially from the Siberian rivers
that run into the polar sea. The drainage area of all
these rivers is very considerable, embracing nearly the
whole of Northern Asia, or Siberia, besides the prin-
cipal part of Alaska and British North America.
The rain and snow of this region are not, however,

HOW TO CROSS THE NORTH POLAR REGION. 65

very considerable ; and the whole quantity of moisture
falling over Siberia I have calculated to be no more
than about 626 cubic miles in one year, if the Russian
meteorological data on Siberia are correct. On
account of evaporation we cannot assume that more
than a certain part of this water reaches the polar
sea; perhaps not more that one cubic mile daily
during the year. This is not much, compared with
the size of the ocean currents ; but this addition is of
special importance, as it consists of fresh and com-
paratively warm water, which principally runs out
into the basin during the summer, and which for a
very long time keeps at the surface of the sea on
account of its lightness, and thus produces surface
currents running northwards from the Siberian coast.
This is also the reason why there is so much open
water along this coast every summer. To this stream
of fresh water the evaporation from the melting of
ice in the polar sea contributes very little. The
moisture of the air over the area draining into the
polar sea must consequently originate mainly in the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This constant addition
of fresh water must evidently be the principal reason
why the water of the polar current between Green-
land and Spitzbergen contains somewhat less salt,
even at considerable depths, than the water of the
North Atlantic seas.

" We thus see that the polar basin is daily receiving
a large inflow of water. As little evaporation takes
place from its ice-covered surface, there must neces-
sarily be a corresponding outflow, and the most
natural outlet is the broad and deep opening between
Spitzbergen and Greenland. According to what has

E

66 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

already been said, the water running out here seems
very nearly to correspond in quantity to the inflow
mentioned.

" Currents also run southward through Smith
Sound, Jones Sound, and Lancaster Sound, in the
Arctic Archipelago of North America ; but as these
sounds are very narrow and shallow, the body of'
water which their currents carry off is of little import-
ance in this respect. The current running southward
between Spitzbergen and Franz Josef Land is also
insignificant when compared to the east Greenland
current. By considering the contributions of water
already referred to which this last current probably
receives, it may be possible to form some idea of the
approximate course of this current through the
unknown regions. The waters of the North American
rivers form, very likely, a portion of the currents
through the Arctic Archipelago of North America ;
a small part of the current through Behring Strait,
perhaps, runs also in this direction. We have left
then, for the formation of the east Greenland polar
current, the Novaya Zemlya current, the Siberian
rivers, a part of the current through Behring Strait,
and the moisture falling over the polar basin.

" It seems quite natural that these sources should
converge, and to some extent unite to form the
Greenland current. We must expect, therefore, to
find the main body of the current which is formed
in this way lying somewhere to the north of the
middle of that extended area from which it receives
its converging sources, and this place must conse-
quently be somewhere in the neighbourhood of the
New Siberian Islands. Here we also have the mouth

HOW TO CROSS THE NORTH POLAR REGION. Qj

of the Lena River, which carries a considerable body
of comparatively warm water northward into the
polar sea. From this region the current must natur-
ally run in a northerly direction by the shortest route
to the outlet between Spitzbergen and Greenland, and
this must be to the north of Franz Josef Land, and
near to or across the North Pole. But the direction
of the current may perhaps, to some extent, be dis-
turbed by the winds. Unfortunately, we do not
know much of these in the Arctic regions ; from the
little we know it would appear, however, that the
winds should be favourable for such a current, and
that their average direction during the year is very
nearly the same as that which we have assumed for
the latter. This we can also conclude from the
observations made during the drift of the Jeannette.

" I have tried to convince you that from what we
know about the ocean currents and the winds along
the 'threshold of the unknown regions,' we are
entitled, in fact are obliged, to assume that these
regions are traversed by an ocean current. But is
there no direct evidence of the existence of such a
current? I think there is."*

Dr. Nansen here laid down the following facts as
supporting his theory : —

(i.) The course taken by the American vessel
Jeannette, which was caught in the ice to the
east of Herald Island (north of Behring Strait)
on the 6th of September, 1879, and drifted to
the north-west until she was crushed on the

* Extracted by gracious permission of the Royal Geogra-
phical Society.

68 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

13th of June, 1 88 1, north of the New Siberian
Islands, where she sank.

(2.) The finding on an ice-floe near Julianehaab,
on the south-west coast of Greenland, just
three years after ihe. Jeannette had sunk, of a
number of objects belonging to her or her
crew.

(3.) The finding of a " throwing-stick " or " harpoon-
thrower" of a peculiar shape (a handle used
by the Eskimo for throwing darts), on the
west coast of Greenland, near Godthaab,
which must have drifted from the west coast
of Alaska, the only place where throwing-
sticks of a similar kind occur ; also the amount
of Siberian driftwood which every year reaches
the coasts of Greenland.

(4.) The thickness of the ice carried southward
along the east coast of Greenland.

(5.) The samples of mud and dust taken from
ice-floes between Iceland and Greenland, on
being microscopically examined, lead to the
conclusion that they are partly mud carried
into the sea by the great Siberian rivers.
The diatom flora of some samples showed the
presence of species only to be found at Cape
Wankarema, near Behring Strait.

(6.) By examination of a great many specimens
of pumice found on the shores of Norway,
Spitzbergen, and Greenland, Backstrom, a
Swedish geologist, comes to the conclusion
that they consist of the group of minerals
called Andesites, and must have been carried
southward by the polar current, having most

HOW TO CROSS THE NORTH POLAR REGION. 69

probably originated from unknown volcanoes
in the polar regions, or from the great Andesitic
volcanic regions near the Behring Sea,

" From all these facts," continued Dr. Nansen, " we
seem fully entitled to draw the conclusion that a
current is constantly running across the polar region
to the north of Franz Josef Land, from the sea
north of Siberia and Behring Strait, and into the
sea between Spitzbergen and Greenland, and as we
have seen, the floe-ice is constantly travelling with
this current in a fixed route between these seas.
Since such is the case, the most natural way of
crossing the unknown region must be to take a
ticket with this ice, and enter the current on the side
where it runs northward — that is, somewhere near
the New Siberian Islands — and let it carry one
straight across those latitudes which it has prevented
so many from reaching.

" There are two methods of trying to attain the
result I long for. First, to build a strong ship, so
constructed that it can withstand the pressure of the
ice, and, living in this ship, to float across with the
ice ; or, second, to take only boats along, encamp on
an ice-floe, and live there while floating across. My
plan is based on the use of both these methods. . . .

" Our first goal will be the New Siberian Islands
or the mouth of the Lena River. I have been
uncertain whether I will go through the Kara Sea,
or will prefer the route from the side of Behring
Strait ; but think now that I shall take the former.
When we have reached the sea north of the Lena
Delta we shall have to wait for the right moment
to go northward along the western coasts of the

70 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

New Siberian Islands, and try to reach the farthest
possible point north in open water. This will
probably be in August or the first days of Sep-
tember, 1893. The current caused by the warm
water from the Lena River will certainly be a great
help to us, as it seems to be of great influence during
the summer, producing an extensive open sea, in-
which one of the boats from the Jeannette was even
wrecked. To be able to navigate the ship properly
through the ice I thought of using captive balloons.
By help of these we could easily in clear weather get
a splendid view over the surroundings, and see where
there is ice, and in what direction there is open
water ; we could then in a moment see what direction
to take as clearly as if we had it traced on a chart,
and should lose no time by trying in a wrong
direction. The great difficulty is that there is very
much fog in this region just on account of the warm
Lena water ; but a good clear day with balloon work
would then be the more valuable, and would make up
for a great many others with fog. A still greater
difficulty is, however, that the balloon equipment,
especially the steel cylinders with the compressed
hydrogen, are so heavy that I fear it would be
too difficult to carry them in our small ship, and
as they are also very expensive, I fear I shall have
to give them up.

" When we can get no farther we shall have nothing
left but to run into the ice at the most favourable
spot, and from there trust entirely to the current
running across the polar region. The ice will perhaps
soon begin to press, but it will only lift our strong
ship. While drifting we shall have plenty of time and

HOW TO CROSS THE NORTH POLAR REGION. 7 1

excellent opportunity to make scientific observations.
Probably we shall in this way, in the course of some
years, be carried near the Pole, or across it, and into
the sea between Spitzbergen and Greenland, where
we shall get into open water again, and be able to
return home.

" There is, however, a possibility that the ship, in
spite of all precautions, may be crushed in the ice ;
but if this happens the expedition will have another
resource. It will now be time to use the ice as
quarters instead of the ship, and we shall have to
remove all our provisions, coal, boats, etc., to an ice-
floe, and camp there. Besides the light, ordinary
boats, I have built two big boats for this purpose,
20 feet long, 9 feet broad, with flat bottom, and so
deep that we can sit and lie comfortably inside them.
They have a deck, and are so big that the whole crew
can live even in one of them. These boats will be
placed side by side on the ice, will be covered with
thick warm tents and snow, and will give us two good
warm saloons. Thus we can continue our journey.
There is certainly no reason why one should not be
able to live comfortably enough in this way if one is
only prepared for it. The only difference will be that
we have now got two small ships standing on the ice
instead of the big one lying between the floes. When
we emerge into open water on this side the Pole there
will not be any great difficulty in returning home in
our boats ; such a thing has been done many times
before.

" It is my convictiqn that the only difficulty will be
to get duly into the current north of Siberia ; when
this is fortunately done, we must be carried some-

72 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

where northward. There is no case in which a ship
has been nipped in the pack-ice without being carried
in some direction. Whether we will succeed or not,
I feel convinced that this is the way in which the un-
known regions will some day be crossed. To travel
in this manner is certainly no new fashion ; it has
been tried many times before. I need only remind -
you of Sir Leopold McClintock's drift with the Fox
during eight months in the winter of 1857-58, when
he drifted 1200 miles from the northern part of
Baffin's Bay down towards Labrador. Several years
later (1872) a party from the Polaris expedition
drifted on an ice-floe even a longer distance very
nearly along the same route. Along the east coast of
Greenland many such ice-drifts have occurred. I
may remind you of the whole fleet of whalers — about
twenty-eight in number — which in June, 1777, were
nipped between latitude 74° and 75° N., and which
drifted in the ice southward along the whole east
Greenland coast. The last ship was crushed in
October in latitude 61° 30' N., after having drifted a
distance of 1250 miles in one hundred and seven
days. Some of the men continued the drift on the
ice, rounded Cape Farewell, and reached at last the
Danish settlements on the west coast, the whole drift
being about i6cxd miles or more. In the winter of
1869 and 1870 the Hansa crew drifted on an ice-floe,
as you will remember, along the same coast, very
nearly the same route and the same distance as the
whalers in 1777, until they, after nine months, arrived
safely at a settlement west of Cape Farewell. During
our attempt to land on the east coast of Greenland, in
1888, we also, as will be known, had some little

HOW TO CROSS THE NORTH POLAR REGION. 73

experience in this drifting, and in 1882 I also tried a
little of it with a Norwegian sealer.

" In the sea between Novaya Zemlya and Franz
Josef Land the Austro-Hungarian expedition in the
Tegetthoff ^x\{\&6. for a period of one year and a-half ;
but as I have already mentioned, a striking difference
between this drift and those above-mentioned is that
it had no southern direction ; it went north-east, norths
and north-westward. In this respect the drift of the
Jeannette during two years from a point to the north
of Behring Strait is also most remarkable, as it went
in a north-westerly direction.

" It will thus be seen that drifting in the ice is no
new mode of travelling in the Arctic regions, neither
is it new to make discoveries in this way. During the
drift of the Tegetthoff \k\& most important Arctic dis-
covery of recent times was made — viz., Franz Josef
Land, and during the drift of the Jeannette several
islands were discovered. The only new feature in my
plan will be that I wish to be drifted, while these
previous expeditions drifted against their will.

" There is a possibility that we may be stopped by
unknown lands near the Pole, or that we may strike
an eddy or a side current, but we hardly run any great
risk in any of these cases. If, in the former case, we
should fail to get our ship afloat again, we should have
to leave her and strike out for the nearest current to
drift on again, or return homeward travelling over the
ice. When we only take care to travel with the
current and not against it there will certainly be no
special difficulty in doing this ; and if the distance
should be too great, we should leave all boats, taking
only light sledges, with necessary provisions, etc.,

74 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

beside canvas for boat-making, walk on until we reach
Spitzbergen or any other land where there is open
water. Here we would make boats of canvas, or, if
possible, of the skins of seals or walruses, like that we
made when we reached the west coast of Greenljand.
If we are caught by a side current this must at last
bring us somewhere ; it cannot for ever run in a ring-
round the Pole ; and wherever we come near the
coasts of the polar sea, we shall have no difficulty in
returning home. It may be possible that the current
will not carry us exactly across the Pole, but tJie
principal thing is to explore the unknown polar regions^
not to reach exactly that mathematical point in
which the axis of our globe has its northern ter-
mination.

" The only experience which can give us some
idea as to the time the current will require to drift
the expedition across is the drift of the relics from
the Jeannette, If we assume that they required one
year for the drift southward along the east coast
of Greenland from latitude 80° N., only two years
remain for the rest of the journey, and this requires
a speed of- no more than two nautical miles daily.
This does not seem too high a rate when we remem-
ber that the Jeannette drifted at the same speed
the last half-year of her drifting. It cannot, there-
fore, be considered improbable that we should reach
open water on this side of the Pole within two years
after our start from the Siberian side. One cannot,
however, expect that the course will be one straight
line forward during all this time. There will cer-
tainly come periods during which the drift is quite
stopped, or when we may even be carried back-

HOW TO CROSS THE NORTH POLAR REGION. 75

ward, and the route and time can thus be easily
lengthened ; but when we, as already mentioned,
take provisions for five or six years, we may consider
that we have an ample margin. This may, perhaps,
seem to many to be a long time, but there is a great
advantage in this route, and that is, that when the
expedition is once well begun, there will not be much
help in looking backwards ; our hope will lie on the
other side of the Pole, and such a knowledge is a
good help to got f ram, or forward.

" There are a great many things in our equipment
which ought also perhaps to be mentioned ; but, as

HANSEN'S SKI SLEDGE (LOADED).

this paper has already become so long, I shall only
mention a few of the most important points.

" To get fresh food we will shoot as much as
possible, and for this purpose we will carry light
sealing boats, as also Eskimo kayaks. ' The use of
these excellent light craft I learnt to appreciate in
Greenland ; they are very good to shoot and fish
from, can easily be carried long distances over the
ice, and can be used wherever there is a little
open water.

" To make excursions over the ice in case we shall
meet with land — which, of course, is very likely — we
will take dogs, sledges, ski, and snow-shoes with us,
besides full equipment for sledge travelling. I hope
to spend a great deal of time in this way by making

y6 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

excursions in all directions where anything of import-
ance may be expected. For entertainment during the
long winter nights, as well as for all kinds of scientific
work, a good library will naturally form a most
important part of our equipment.

" Our scientific equipment will be chosen with the
greatest care, and the best instruments accessible wilt
be taken. I shall not, however, tire you with an
enumeration of them ; they will naturally, to a great
extent, be much like what other Arctic expeditions
have had. I may only mention that I have also
got a pendulum apparatus and the necessary astro-
nomical universal instrument, in the hope that we
may get some opportunity of making pendulum
observations on northern latitudes, which is, of course,
of the greatest interest.

" One of the greatest difficulties we will have to
overcome will perhaps be the scurvy. It has been
very bad on many previous expeditions, and during
the long time we expect to be away, it is not
impossible that it might occur. I do no^t, however,
consider this to be very probable. I am examining
the question very closely, and all possible precautions
are being taken to avoid it. In our time science
ought to be able to produce an equipment as regards
provisions which will make scurvy an impossibility.
It is a ghastly enemy, that is true, as we do not know
its nature and origin. But it seems as if it almost
never occurs except in connection with badly-pre-
served meat, and especially salted meat, and I cannot
understand why, then, we should take such a thing
with us; there is plenty of other things to choose
from. Alcoholic drinks will, of course, not be taken.

HOW TO CROSS THE NORTH POLAR REGION. 'J^

" To live a healthy life in all respects is naturally
very important. Two of the principal conditions to
keep one's health are heat and light. In order to
produce the necessary heat, we live together in a
small room during the coldest season. We will
also have good warm clothes. Woollen ones I regard
as best for indoors, but in the open air skin or
canvas suits to put outside the woollen clothes
are necessary to protect one against the biting
wind and the snow-drift. To heat our saloon there
will certainly not be much wanted, even during the
severest cold. A few paraffin lamps or a small
paraffin stove will certainly be sufficient. There
will, of course, also be care taken to get good
ventilation. We thus run no risk, I think, of suffer-
ing from want of heat. With the light it is, however,
worse. Almost no organism can exist without that,
and therefore various illnesses occur during the long
Arctic nights. This it would seem difficult to avoid
in regions where the darkness lasts six months. I
believe, however, that we shall be able to overcome
this difficulty also by help of the wonderful electric
light. We shall have a dynamo for producing
electricity. Many will perhaps ask how we shall get
the necessary power to make it work. This cannot,
however, be difficult. On one hand we have the
wind. The meteorologists are certainly of opinion
that this will not, as a rule, be very strong in the cold
over the polar sea ; but a little we must find there
also, and if the sails of our windmill are made
sufficiently big, we do not want much to turn them.
But even when there is no wind at all we will be able
to produce power. We are thirteen men, strong, and

78 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

well picked, as I hope, and when a capstan is
arranged on deck we will be able to do work similar
to that which a horse does in its horse-mill on land.
In this capstan four men take their turn at a time ;
thus we will obtain good and regular exercise — some-
what monotonous perhaps — and will at the same time
be useful by producing electricity, so that we can'
have an electric arc-lamp burning eight hours a-day.
Everybody will understand what a blessing that must
be when one is surrounded by constant darkness.
When the sun begins to sink, to disappear behind the
horizon in the south for the last time, we begin to
walk in a ring in the darkness on the deck of our
ship, in order to produce a new sun. In this way we
will slowly move forward. I hope that you, ladies
and gentlemen, will sometimes send us a kind
thought while we go round in our mill there far
north in the solemn silence of the long polar
nisht."

CHAPTER VII.

nansen's arctic ship.

As soon as the Storthing in 1890 agreed to aid
Nansen, he made arrangements for the con-
struction of a suitable vessel. After several
models had been submitted to him by Mr.
Colin Archer, of Laurvik, he finally decided as to the
build. The work was proceeded with at once, and at
the expiration of over two years the vessel was ready
for sea.

The Fram {anglic^, forward) is the strongest vessel
of her size that has ever been built for Arctic explora-
tion. She was launched at Laurvik, a seaport of
Norway at the head of a small fjord on the east side
of Christiania Fjord, ninety-eight miles by rail, S.S.W.
of the capital, on the 26th of October, 1892, and was
christened by the doctor's wife, amid great acclama-

79

8o FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

tion from the friends and sightseers who had gathered
from afar to see this strange ship begin her career.
Those who were present at the launch say it was a
moment of deep emotion when, amid the booming of
guns and the cheers of the assembled people, the
curious vessel plunged into the waters of Rcekevik
Bay and rose again, slowly but proudly, to ride thern
in its freedom.

Two men deserve great praise in the construction
of the Fram — the designer, Mr. Colin Archer, and the
shipbuilder, Mr. Anders Olsen. Hardly any other
man in Norway could better guarantee a solid and
careful finish of the polar vessel according to the
approved model than Mr. Colin Archer. As a
designer of ships he has done much. A Norwegian
paper, speaking of his life's work, says : — " His is a
name of known and dear sound to pilots and yachts-
men all round the country. His life's aim has
especially been to improve the pilot boats during the
last twenty-five years. For what he has done in this
direction we owe him great thanks, in spite of inherited
Norwegian antipathy to anything new."

Mr. Archer is of Scotch descent. His youth was
passed in Laurvik, to which place his father removed
in 1827. When young he went to England, and,
later, to Australia, where he lived some time. For
the last twenty-eight years Laurvik has again been
his home.

The larger portion of this chapter is quoted by kind
permission of the Royal Geographical Society from
Nansen's lecture, " How can the North Polar Regions
be Crossed ? " A few additions and alterations were
necessary, as further light was thrown on the expedi-

naxsf.n's arctic ship. 83

tion after it started, although in the main the extracts
are strictly accurate. After dealing at some length
with his drift theory, the doctor continued : —

" I have built a wooden ship as small and as strong
as possible ; it is just big enough to carry provisions
for thirteen men for five or six years, besides the
necessary fuel ; her size is about 600 tons displace-
ment, with light cargo. She shall have an engine of
160 indicated horse-power, which will give her a
speed of six knots, with a consumption of 2^- tons of
coal in twenty-four hours. With sails alone she will
likely attain a speed of eight or nine knots under
favourable circumstances. She will consequently be
no fast vessel, nor a good sailer ; but this is of
relatively little importance on an expedition like ours,
where we shall have to depend principally on the
speed of the current and the ice-movement, and not
on that of the ship. A ship's ability to break her
way through the pack-ice does not at all depend on
her speed, but on her steam power and her shape ;
for it is naturally the thing of importance to get a
strong ship, and the most important feature in her
construction is that she shall be built on such lines as
will give her the greatest power of resistance to the
pressure of the ice. Her sides must not be perpendic-
ular, as those of ships generally are, but must slope
from the bulwarks to the keel ; or, to use a sailor's
expression, her ' dead rise ' must be made great, so
that the floes shall get no hold of her when they are
pressed together, but will glide downward along her
sides and under her, thus tending to lift her out of the
water. The sides of most ships used in the Arctic
seas have been almost straight up and down, in spite

84 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

of which defect they have stood the pressure of the
ice pretty well, and many of them have even been
lifted completely out of the water, and have for
longer or shorter times stood dry on the ice without
being damaged. This practically happens very often
with the small sealing vessels from the north of
Norway which catch seals and walrus in the sea-
round Novaya Zemlya and Spitzbergen. . . . Though
the Jeannette had a shape which in this respect was
very bad, and though she was an old and not very
strong ship, she managed to withstand the ice-pressure
for nearly two years (twenty-one months). It will
consequently be understood that a very slight altera-
tion of shape will give us a very strong ship, and one
which can scarcely be crushed by the floe-ice if it is
properly handled. For the same reason the vessel
ought to be as small as possible, as the lighter she is
the more easily she will be lifted by the ice, and the
less pressure there will be on her sides ; it is also
easier to make a small ship strong than a big one.
A small ship has other advantages, as it is more
convenient to navigate and to handle in the ice, and
it is easier to find good and safe places for it between
the floes.

"As great length is a weakness during the pressure
and twisting of the pack-ice, the ship ought also to be
as short as her necessary bearing capacity will allow.
The result of this in connection with the very sloping
sides is that our ship is disproportionately broad
compared with her length. Her breadth is about
one-third of the latter. Flat sides are avoided as
much as possible near the places which will be most
exposed to the attack of the ice, and the hull has

nansen's arctic ship. 85

plump and rounded forms. There are no sharp,
projecting corners ; every edge is broken and rounded.
Even the keel does not project very much ; it is
almost covered by the planking, and only three
inches are visible outside the ice-skin, and the sharp
edges are quite rounded. On the whole the ship will,
I hope, leave no place for the ice to catch hold of
Round and slippery like an eel, she will escape
its cold and strong grasp.

" The ship will be pointed at both ends, and on the
whole she resembles very much a Norwegian pilot-
boat, or, as I am told, a Scotch buckie boat, only that
she of course is carvel-built, and that the keel and
the sharp bottom are cut off. Her bottom is near the
keel, comparatively flat, in order that she shall have
something to rest on without being capsized in case
she should be completely lifted on to the ice. Both
stem and stern are considerably curved in order that
the ice shall get no hold there. The stem is also
much sloped, because it will then more easily force
the ice-floes under her when she is breaking her way
through the ice.

" The screw can be raised when necessary, and
protected from damage in a well. It can also easily
be changed if it is broken, and for that purpose we
shall carry two reserve screws. This is, as will be
known, an usual arrangement in modern sealers or
whalers ; but besides this, the rudder can also easily
be unshipped and raised through a well. This is,
I think, a fortunate and ingenious idea of the ship-
builder, Mr. Colin Archer, and is a very simple
arrangement. The rudder is, moreover, placed so
low that it will be entirely submerged even when the

86 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

ship is lightly loaded. This is so arranged in order
that the ice shall not be able to strike it, and thus
break it by even a sudden pressure or movement ; it
will, instead, meet the strong stern. The latter is the
Achilles heel of the sealers and whalers, where the ice
may very easily damage them by breaking the rudder.
During my last voyage with the Jason to the east
coast of Greenland we had such an accident, showing
how easily it may happen. When the rudder, then,
is not so arranged as in our ship, it takes a long time
to have it unhooked and another put on, especially
when you have no great crew. Our stern is, as usual,
furnished with two perpendicular stern posts, one a
propeller post, the other a rudder post, made of big
oak timbers about 27 in. broad. On both sides of
these are bolted very big and strong curved oak
timbers, running along the sloping stern upwards to
the deck, thus forming, in a way, a double stern.
Between them are the wells, through which the
screw and rudder can be lifted. This stern construc-
tion is very simple, and certainly exceedingly strong.
" The stem is, of course, also made very strong.
It is composed of three big oak baulks, one inside
the other, so that the thickness of solid oak is 50 in.
Inside the stem big and strong breasthooks of oak
and iron are placed to connect the ship's sides with
each other and with the stem. From these breast-
hooks stays go to the pawl-bit in order to strengthen
the stem and divide the pressure. Outside this
wooden stem comes an iron one, and outside this
again come transverse iron bars and plates, which go
some small distance backwards on each side to pro-
tect the wood against the ice.

nansen's arctic ship. 87

" Both the stem and the stern posts are, of course,
carefully attached to the keel by strong cross and
longitudinal iron clamps and wooden knees. When
I add that the stern is also protected by an iron
sheeting, it will, I hope, be understood that the two
extremities of our ship are pretty well protected.

" The keel is made of two big baulks of American
elm, 14 in. square. As is already mentioned, it will
be almost covered by the outer planking, so that
there will only be a projection of a few inches.
Above the frame timbers are placed two keelsons,
one ly in. and the other 12 in. in height, both bolted
together to the timbers and keel.

" The frame timbers are made of selected Italian
oak, which is very hard. Only naturally-curved
timbers are used ; such are much stronger than those
curved by the help of the axe. These timbers were
originally meant for some man-of-war, and were
thirty years ago bought for the Norwegian navy ;
they may thus be said to be well seasoned. The
thickness of the frame timbers is about 10 in. to
12 in. ; they are ranged in couples, squared, and
bolted together, all joints being bound with iron.
The pairs of frames are placed almost close together,
leaving only a space of i in. to 2 in. between each.
These spaces were left in order to give the very dry
timbers a little room in case they should swell when
they came into the water ; the spaces are, however,
filled with a mixture of pitch, tar, and sawdust, so
that if the outer plankings were shaved away the
vessel would still remain nearly water-tight.

"The ceiling consists of pitch-pine planks alter-
nately 4 in. and 8 in. in thickness. £t is twice care-

88 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

fully caulked with oakum to make it tight. The
planking consists of three layers : first, a 3 in. oak
layer, over which another of 4 in., and, finally, an
outer planking, or ' ice-sheathing,' of greenheart,
which increases in thickness from the keel towards
the water-line from 3 in. to 6 in. Greenheart is, as .
you will know, a very hard, strong, and slippery
wood, well fit to protect the hulk against the damage
of the ice, its only fault being that it is so heavy that
it sinks in water. Each layer was carefully caulked
with oakum and pitch in the ordinary way before the
next skin was placed on to it.

" The whole thickness of the sides of the ship is
thus 28 in. to 32 in. — a solid mass of pitch-pine, oak,
and greenheart, with a little pitch in between. It
will easily be understood that a ship's side of such
dimensions and material will alone have a great
power of resistance to the pressure of the ice. But
this power is, to a very essential degree, increased by
the many beams, stays, and strengthenings of every
kind placed inside the vessel. There are two decks,
an upper and lower one, each of 4 in. red pine. The
deck beams are of oak and pitch-pine, 10 in. or 11 in.
square. Numerous upright stanchions and stays are
placed as supports to the beams and the sides ; they
unite the beams of the two decks to each other and
to the ship's side. The principle of arrangements of
the stays is that they shall be placed as perpendicular
in the ship's side as possible, in order to strengthen
these against pressure from the outside, and to divide
the latter. For this purpose the perpendicular stays
between the beams of the two decks, and between
the lower deck beams and the keelsons, are also very

k

nansen's arctic ship. 89

well fitted. . . . The whole is like one coherent mass,
and the ship may almost be considered as if built of
solid wood.

"The beams of the lower deck are placed some-
what under the water-line, where the pressure of the
ice will be worst. In the after-part, above the engine,
we were obliged to raise the deck a little, in order to
give room for engine and boilers ; but instead the
beams are here supported by two sloping stanchions
on each side instead of one, so that also this part
must be considered as very strong. As the lower
deck was raised, we were also obliged to lift the
upper one in order to give room for cabins. These
are thus covered by a half-deck or poop, three or four
feet in height.

" The whole ship is divided into three rooms or
divisions, by two water-tight wooden bulkheads, so
that if the vessel, in spite of all, should happen to
spring a leak, there will still be two water-tight
divisions left to keep her floating. She is also fur-
nished with pumps, one of which will be a great
centrifugal pump, which may be driven by the
engine, and put into communication with all the
divisions, and thus empty the vessel in a short time
in case she should leak.

" The most important feature in the rig of a polar
vessel ought to be that it is as simple and as strong
as possible, and at the same time it should be light,
and make little resistance to the wind when the
vessel is steaming. For these reasons we have
chosen to rig her as a three-masted fore-and-aft
schooner, the sails of which are very easy to handle
from the deck, which also is of some importance

go FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

when you have a small crew not consisting of first-
rate sailors only. On the foremast there will also be
two loose yards for a square foresail and topsail.
The area of her sails will be about 650 sq. yds. The
undermasts are rather high and strong; the main-
mast is 82 ft. in length, and the topmast is 50 ft
On the top of this is the crow's-nest, which will thus
be at a height of about 105 ft. above the water. It
is of importance that the crow's-nest be placed as
high as possible, in order to get a wide view over the
ice.

" The quarters for officers and crew are so arranged
that the saloon is in the middle, on all sides sur-
rounded by the cabins, the galley, and the bunkers ;
thus, by help of these rooms, the saloon is well pro-
tected against the cold and moisture arising from
the ship's side. One of the greatest difficulties with
the life on board the vessels of most polar expedi-
tions has been that the moisture of the warm air in
the small cabins was condensed on the cold sides of
the ship, and was there frozen to ice. The mat-
tresses in the berths in these walls were therefore
very often transformed into as many lumps of ice.
To avoid a repetition of this has of course been of
importance to us. We have therefore located the
saloon as described in order that we may all live
there night and day, in case it should be necessary,
during the most severe cold. We shall thus follow
the same principle as the Eskimo, living many people
in a small room to make it warm ; we shall certainly
not then want much to heat it.

" But besides this, every precaution is taken to
isolate the walls and make them warm, and to pre-

nansen's arctic ship. 91

vent the moisture being condensed on them. The
ship's sides are, on the inner side, covered with tarred
felt ; then comes a thick layer of cork ; inside this a
wooden wainscot ; then a layer of felt a few inches
thick ; next comes a nearly air-tight layer of painted
canvas or linoleum ; and then another wainscot.
The air-tight canvas is there in order to prevent the
warm and moist air from inside penetrating into the
layers of felt and cork, and giving off moisture there,
thus transforming them into ice. This principle we
have followed, on the whole, also in the roof The
walls between the cabins and the saloon are made in
a similar way, and the roof and floor are very thick,
consisting of many layers. In the roof there is a
layer of reindeer hair a couple of inches thick, which
I think must be very effective as a heat insulator,
as the reindeer hairs are so very porous and elastic.
On the floors and walls may, of course, also be laid
bear-skins and carpets, to make them still warmer.
I hope you will get the impression that everything
is made to give us a snug and comfortable saloon
and cabin, fit for a climate such as we may expect.

"The principal dimensions of the vessel are as
follows : — Length of keel, 10 1 ft. ; length of water-
line, 113 ft. ; length over all, 128 ft. ; beam at water-
line amidships, excluding the * ice-sheathing,' 33 ft.;
greatest beam, excluding the ' ice-sheathing,' 36 ft. ;
depth moulded, 17 ft; the draught with light cargo
is 12 ft; the displacement is then about 530 tons,
but when, with heavy cargo, the draught is 15I ft,
the displacement will be about 800 tons. Her free-
board will then be only 3^ ft Such will probably be
the case when we leave the last place where we can

92 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

get coal, as we will, of course, then load her with as
much as she can carry. We will soon burn a good
deal in the engines and she will be gradually lifted
again.

"The hull, with boilers filled, weighs about 420
tons. With a displacement of 800 tons, she has
consequently a bearing capacity for 380 tons of coal
and cargo. Our equipment and provisions will not
likely weigh much more than 60 or 70 tons ; thus
300 or 320 tons bearing capacity will be left for coal
and fuel, and this is enough for about four months'
steaming with full speed. We shall not, however,
likely be able to make use of our engines more than
two months after we have been loaded with coal for
the last time. A great quantity will thus be left for
heating and cooking during the winters. For heating
purposes we shall also carry petroleum, which has the
advantage of giving light besides. For the cooking
we shall carry alcohol. . . . Fram will certainly be
the strongest vessel ever used in the Arctic regions.
She is built with great care, and I feel certain that
she can be crushed only in a quite extraordinary
combination of circumstances."

From the saloon you get direct to the berths.
Nansen (who occupies without a doubt the smallest,
darkest, and least comfortable), Sverdrup, Scott-
Hansen, and Dr. Blessing have each a separate
berth, while the remainder have two larger berths
between them.

Dr. Nansen said, " Let us have gay colours ; " and
gay they certainly were. Above the surface of the
water the Fram was painted grey, the gunwale is
green, the poop and great tanks for water and

nansen's arctic ship.

93

petroleum were painted scarlet Red, white, and
green, like a Heligoland flag, were the prevailing
colours on deck. The crow's nest is white, the
saloon is also white, the doors, etc., tastefully picked
out with red and green. Across the saloon, between
the two doors by which it is entered, is a wooden
couch, in shape and possibilities of comfort remind-

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lU^

1

-ilk

" ■■ r

.'Wj^^fi

;*

■1

r'

SALOON OF THE "FRAM."

I

ing one of the old-fashioned settle, and at each end
there are projecting sides carved to represent dragons*
heads, in the same style as that used by the Vikings
for the decoration of their ships and houses ; these
heads are artistically decorated with white, red, and
gold ; but, as if to bring one back to the realms
of utility, a large and practical-looking table stands

94 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

in front of the couch. To the left is a harmonium,
which can readily be turned into an organ and
played by turning a handle. Around the mizzen-
mast, which ascends through the middle of the
cabin, is arranged a settle, and there is also a stove
heated by steam. Several paintings, Norwegian
landscapes and portraits, by well-known artists,
have been given to the expedition, and are to be
seen in the saloon. An admirable portrait of Fru
Nansen and her daughter, by Werenskiold, the
celebrated Norwegian artist, is also hung on the
walls, while within the cabins are to be seen scenes
of " home life " and portraits of dear friends.

The expedition was fitted out most thoroughly.
Everything was carefully thought out during eight
years previous to sailing, and over ;^2 5,000 was
expended upon the ship and its outfit, the vessel
alone costing nearly ;^io,ooo. In all his equipment
Nansen showed a freshness of thought and skill in
arrangement that argued well for success.

That Dr. Nansen spared no energy to make every-
thing as nearly perfect as possible has been frequently
demonstrated, and I call to mind his remarks in
" The First Crossing of Greenland " regarding the
testing of the adaptability of his sledges. He
writes : — "I made numerous experiments and
changes, and even undertook a journey on ski over
the mountains from Bergen to Christiania before
I finally adopted the pattern we used." Such dili-
gence deserved to meet a due reward.

The Norwegian National Assembly granted a
considerable sum, the remainder needed being con-
tributed by private individuals, and amongst those

nansen's arctic ship. 95

whose liberality secured the admirable outfit were
King Oscar, ]\Ir. Fearnley, and ]Mr. Dick.

Dr. Nansen would not start until everything was
paid.

With reference to the grant of money made by
the Government to his expedition, Dr. Xansen
remarked, previous to sailing : — " M)- countrymen
are poor, but tney have been miost generous to me.
If I had made the expedition an international affair,
I could have obtained much money very quickly.
I even had money offered. But I was anxious to
make the expedition a national one. I thoroughly
believe in my power to accomplish my object, and
is it not natural that I should wish to give my
countrymen the first thought and the honour accruing
to a triumphant expedition ? Our success will be
due to their generous enterprise.'

Polar exploration, it might be well to explain
here, means far more than the facing of grave
danger or mapping out of the route. The leaders
of expeditions such as those of Nansen, Jackson,
Peary, and others, require a close acquaintance with
all the various and delicate instruments used for
thorough geographical survey work, and practical
knowledge of their use. " It is required of such
expeditions," says Mr. Herbert Ward, "to furnish,
in addition to a popular account of the voyage
with its attendant incidents, such accurate and
practical information as can be recorded by scien-
tists. The temperature of the soil, snow, and ice,
both on the surface, and at various depths, evapora-
tion, terrestrial magnetism, galvanic earth currents,
hydrographical and pendulum observations, records

96

FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

of observations on atmospheric electricity, the growth
and structure of the ice, the physical properties of
the sea-water, besides collections of specimens in
the departments of zoology, botany, and geology —
such are the subjects of inquiry and the nature of
the information required of a polar expedition. In
addition to compiling exhaustive data, the leader
in his reports has to conform to the accepted mode
of expressing the geographical facts that may be
acquired."*

* English Illustrated Magazine^ November, 1896.

1

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FIRST MEETING WITH THE ICE.

CHAPTER VIII.

"WE ARE THIRTEEN ALL TOLD."

DR. NANSEN dedicates " The First Crossing of
Greenland " to his " five comrades, in token of
gratitude and good fellowship." In the intro-
duction he says : — " My chief thanks are
nevertheless owing to my five comrades, to whose
combined efforts the successful result of our under-
taking is, of course, mainly due. Every one who has
conducted an expedition will know how ready the
world is to do the great injustice of heaping the
whole praise or blame for its success or failure on the
shoulders of the leader alone. And this injustice is
greater than usual in the case of an expedition like
ours, in which each member serves as one of a team

97 G

98 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

of draught cattle, and the result of which cannot,
therefore, be dependent on the efforts of a single
individual. My comrades, too, I must thank for the
terms of good fellowship on which we lived, and for
the many pleasant hours we spent together in spite
of uncongenial surroundings. On these hours I have
often dwelt with peculiar fondness in the course of'
my narrative. I have once more called to life many
a little incident which to others indeed may seem
trivial, but which has a special value to us."

The same spirit was shown by Nansen to his
companions on board the Fram.

At the conclusion of a great public banquet held
in honour of Nansen and his companions in the
Freemasons' Hall, in Christiania, a week before sail-
ing, Professor Mohn in an effective speech said : —
"Fridtjof Nansen and his brave companions will
all share the one cabin on the Fram; they will
all share the same dangers and hardships of the
voyage ; and when they all return, as I firmly
believe they will, they will all share equally the
honours and reward which their success will war-
rant."

Nansen himself remarked previous to sailing : —
" My object is a serious one. I would serve science.
I would show the world that my countrymen are not
behind any other nationality in courage and endur-
ance. My comrades are fine, honest men, all of them.
They are sailors ; they have the same spirit in this
enterprise as I myself have. We all leave wives
behind us, except our physician, and none of us will
gain riches."

Every one of his companions is a noted skilober.

tramn. . Vtttnin.

3lfRog»nie i Jlonlpofeftrtim.
SOME OF NANSEN's COMPANIONS.

WE ARE THIRTEEN ALL TOLD.

lOI

and much of the success of the expedition was based
upon this form of locomotion if the Frain had to be
deserted.

" We are thirteen all told," wrote Nansen.

"The Lucky Thirteen."

Fridtjof Nansen, .
Otto Neumann Sverdrup, .
Sigurd Scott-Hansen, .
Henrik Grave Blessing,
Theodor Claudius Jacobsen,
Peder Leonard Hendriksen,
Frederik Hjalmar Johansen,
Ivar Otto Irgens Mogstad, .

Bernhard Nordahl,

Anton Amundsen, .
Lars Pettersen,
Adolf Juell, .
Bernt Bentsen,

Leader.

Captain.

Scientist.

Physician.

Mate.

Harpooner.

Fireman.

Carpenter.
( Electrical Assistant
\ and Engineer.

Engineer.

Engineer.

Steward &" Sailor.

Sailor.

These men had the one saloon in common, where
all meals were taken and leisure hours spent. An
excellent library was on board containing mental
food for all sorts of readers — scientific, literary, or
otherwise. They had cards which, judging from
their besmeared appearance on their return, were
much in vogue, chess, draughts, and other games in
great quantity ; an organ, violin, and other musical
instruments. It was the officer's duty to make the
men comfortable and happy in the dark days. After
work, concerts, theatricals, readings, and lectures on
the work of the expedition, helped to keep their
thoughts off their solitary position, and from home,
and thus enabled them to pass the three dreary, dark

102 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

six months' winters in comparative comfort and
happiness.

As the Fram steamed away from Christiania shouts
of farewell reached her crew on all sides : —

" Long live our brave Nansen ! "

"Hurrah for Nansen's comrades ! Hurrah !"

" Come home again to us, all of you ! "

All Europe echoed that cry, and trusted that the
Pram's crew might return in health and safety to
their homes.

Nansen's companions in his arduous undertaking
were all Norwegians. The applications from abroad
to accompany the expedition were rejected. Among
the applicants were a French lady, tired of life,
and a little Swedish boy thirteen years old. But
the honour was to be Norway's only ! Some one
said (may he be forgiven !) it was a pity no
Swedes accompanied them, as should the ship run
short of provisions they might have been found
useful.

Conspicuous even among the taller and more
commanding figures in the party is Sverdrup, round-
shouldered, red-bearded ; indomitable will written on
his face ; the proved friend and comrade of Nansen.
Of all the crew he was the only one who took part
in the first crossing of Greenland. The two Lapps
of that expedition, Balto and Ravna, are reported to
be dead.

Otto Neumann Sverdrup was the captain of the
Fram, and Dr. Nansen's right-hand man. He was
born on the 31st of October, 1855, at his father's farm,
Haarstad, in Bindalen, Helgeland. Accustomed to

WE ARE THIRTEEN ALL TOLD.

103

ski from early childhood in his wanderings in the
forests and over the mountains around his home on
all sorts of errands, he soon became an active and
accomplished skilober. He was taught at home by
a private tutor, but a student's life was distasteful to

OTTO NEUMANN SVERDRUP,
The Captain of the Fram.

him, and at the age of seventeen he went to sea, and
led an active and a roving life in Norwegian and
American vessels. In 1878 he obtained a mate's
certificate, and a couple of years afterwards was
wrecked in a vessel on the west coast of Scotland,

104 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

when, chiefly owing to his bravery and presence of
mind, the crew were saved. In 1888 he joined
Nansen's party on its trans-Greenland journey, and
Nansen says of him : — " We never found him wanting
in either coolness or resource."

When Dr. Nansen finally decided on undertaking
the voyage to the Arctic regions — the two of them'
had frequently discussed the subject en route over
Greenland — Sverdrup willingly accepted the command
of the vessel, and devoted great thought and care to
its equipment.

His coolness in the face of danger was admirably
illustrated in his " night-watch " on the drifting ice-
floe off the east coast of Greenland, previous to that
historic crossing. They were rapidly drifting to the
open sea. The swell was so great that when down
in the hollow nothing could be seen but the blue sky.
Floes crashed together, breaking and splitting, and
large pieces of ice were thrown on to the floe, gliding
dangerously near to the boats and tent, which had
to be held down to keep them from being swept into
the sea. But although death stared them in the face,
Nansen ordered all to bed to rest, and prepare for a
final emergency. Sverdrup, as the most experienced
and cool-headed among them, was to take the first
watch, and turn the others out at the critical moment.
In two hours he was to be relieved. But faithful,
unselfish Sverdrup let his comrades sleep on through
the night, and in the midst of ever-increasing dangers.
The floe was swirled out to sea, rocking up and
down like a vessel in a storm. A huge wave
dashed on the floe, splitting it and threatening to
engulf the party ; Sverdrup stood ready to arouse

"WE ARK THIRTEEN ALE TOED. I05

the sleepers, but the danger was once more averted,
and the solitary "watch" again resumed his vigil.
When things got to the worst and death seemed
imminent, the iloe was suddenly seized by a counter
current, and they were fortunately hurried in towards
the land and safety.

That Dr. Nansen knew Sverdrup to be a capable
leader is illustrated by the fact that he left the Fravi,
in the midst of many perils, in the full charge of this
man, well knowing that if anything went wrong
with the vessel or her crew his own honour was at
stake. The safe return of the Fraiii, piloted yet
further north after Dr. Nansen left her in March,
1895, shows a consistenc}', courage, and skill which
has won for Sverdrup, in the minds of Arctic experts,
laurels but little second to those gained by his able
and accomplished chief

Next comes Lieutenant Sigurd Scott- Hansen,
leader of the meteorological, astronomical, magnetic,
and geodetic observation departments, in all of which
subjects he has had a special training. He was born
on the 24th of July, 1868, at Leith, Scotland, and is
a son of the Rev. Andreas Hansen, then chaplain to
the Scandinavian Seamen's Church, Edinburgh. He
was the youngest member of the expedition, }-et his
observations will vie in importance with an\- other
work executed during this remarkable vo\-age of
discovery. In 1873 he moved with his parents to
Norwa)-, his father being appointed to the living of
Etnc, Sondhordland, and subsequently, in 18S0, to
the perpetual curacy of Trinity Church, Christiania.
Sigurd was educated at Gjertsen's High School,
Christiania, and the Royal Naval College at Morten.

I06 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

He joined the latter institution in October, 1886,
after twenty-one months' service afloat. He was
appointed second lieutenant in the Royal Norwegian
Navy in 1889, promoted to first lieutenant in 1892,
and during his brief career has shown a remarkable
aptitude for scientific research. He is of small build
and of dark complexion, with a pair of blue, sparkling'
eyes, ever bright with intelligence and good nature.

Dr. Henrik Grave Blessing was physician and bot-
anist to the Fram. He is a native of Drammen,
where he was born on the 29th of September, 1866,
his father being at that time perpetual curate of
Stromso Church, and subsequently vicar of Sunde,
Telemarken. Young Henrik's education was under-
taken by his father until 1879, when he joined the
High School at Stavanger. In 1885 he proceeded
to the University at Christiania, which he entered as
a medical student, and, after passing his examinations,
he was appointed assistant in the skin diseases depart-
ment of the National Hospital in the capital. He
took the degree of M.D. in 1893. As a university
student he made a special study of botany, and subse-
quently of diseases of the skin, the knowledge of
which is of especial value in the Arctics, where the
dread disease of scurvy often breaks out, and with
fatal effect. From youth upwards Dr. Blessing
devoted all spare hours to skilobning, and, though of
short build, he is remarkably strong and healthy. In
bidding Mr. Herbert Ward good-bye as the Fram
left the Norwegian capital, Dr. Blessing said : — " This
is the greatest day of my life. The world is all before
me for the first time. ... I am as happy as I can
be. Good-bye."

"WE ARE THIRTEEN ALL TOLD. IO7

The mate of the Fram, Theodor Claudius Jacobsen,
was born on the 29th of March, 1855, at Tromso,
where he was educated until the age of sixteen, when
he went to sea. Three years afterwards, having
passed the examinations of the School of Navigation,
he joined the merchant service, and served in various
ships — among others, the English ship, Hawarden
Castle, which he left in New Zealand. There he
remained for two years, engaged as a workman, but
not liking his employment, he again took to the sea.
He first proceeded to New South Wales, thence to
San Francisco, and joined the United States gunboat,
Curwen. In 1883 he returned home, and has since
been chiefly employed in Arctic waters and sealing
expeditions as master of vessels belonging to the
British Vice-Consul at Hammerfest, Mr. George
Robertson. During the summers of 1891 and 1892
he served as ice-master, pilot, and harpooner to
H.R.H. Prince Henri de Bourbon in the cutter,
Fleur-de-lis, and the steam yacht of that name. On
his leaving the Prince's service the latter gave him
his own valuable gold watch in recognition of his use-
fulness and trustworthiness during their seal hunting
and other sporting tours in Spitzbergen and Novaya
Zemlya waters. Jacobsen proceeded on this expedi-
tion (1893-96) as ice-master and chief officer, and the
principal duties of navigation when among the ice-
floes fell on his experienced shoulders. His task was
a most difficult one, but the safe return of the Fram
shows how ably he seconded Sverdrup in piloting it
through such dangerous waters.

Peder Leonard Hendriksen, the harpooner of the
expedition, is a native of Balsfjord, near Tromso.

I08 FRTDTJOF NANSEN.

From early life he was engaged in the fisheries, until
at the age of nineteen he proceeded to the Arctic
regions, where he has been constantly employed as
harpooner in walrus and seal expeditions, and of late
years as master of a sealer. For fourteen summers
he was constantly engaged in hunting the seal,
walrus, and whale, and at times the polar bear.
How many of these creatures have fallen by his
hand it would be difficult to say. He became
renowned as the best hunter in the fleet, and over
fifty polar bears have fallen to his gun. He is a tall,
square-built man of exceptional physical powers,
which have often been severely tested. When off
Novaya Zemlya, in 1888, the schooner Enigheden,
of Christiansund, on which he was harpooner, be-
came a total wreck. The storm continuing, he was
compelled to remain on deck for several days, during
which he was literally encased in ice. He at last
managed to crawl ashore, and, report says, " was
able to thaw and dry his clothes." His herculean
strength has enabled him to endure all hardships,
and he entered on his latest voyage with an iron
constitution and strong resolve. His harpoon and
gun were the means of procuring fresh meat for the
explorers, which did much to keep scurvy at bay.
He has been described as " a giant in stature, with
immense broad shoulders and a jolly, round face."
He left a wife and four children at home, and very
warm indeed was the welcome he received on his
return to Norway.

Frederik Hjalmar Johansen was engaged as fire-
man and general utility man. As stoker, sailor,
hunter, land surveyor, etc., he acted the part of a

"WE ARK THIKTKEN ALL T(JLI)." lOQ

veritable jack-of-all-trades. No matter the task,
Johansen performed it well and good-humouredly,
diffusing good-fellowship on board the Fraiii, which
was, in the dreary Arctic winter months, accounted
a blessing. He was born on the 15th of May, 1867,
at Skien (the birthplace of Ibsen), where his father
was keeper of the Law Courts, and where he himself
was first educated. In 1886 he matriculated, and
in the following year passed the philosophical
examination at the University of Christiania. He
studied jurisprudence, and on his father's death
returned to Skien, filling the vacancy in the Courts
for a year, after which he entered the High Sheriffs'
and Police office in the same town. Johansen has
also passed the University College, and is a reserve
lieutenant in the Norwegian Army. He has devoted
much time to athletics, and is known throughout
Norway and France as the winner of several medals
for gymnastics. In Paris, competing in a celebrated
gymnasia, he made a clean somersault over forty-two
men, and alighted on his feet as right as possible, for
which remarkable feat he was presented with a gold
medal. He also holds gold and silver medals for
skilobning and marksmanship. He is a good-
tempered, handsome, muscular man, whose place in
Nansen's estimation is proved by his being chosen
as the leader's sole companion on the now famous
sledging journey taken on leaving their Arctic home
to reach the " farthest north."

Ivar Otto Irgens Mogstad v/as the carpenter, and
hails from Aure, Nordmore, where he was born on
the 7th of June, 1856. He passed an examination
with honours in P^orestry, and from 1882 until

no FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

embarking on the Fram, was head-keeper at the
Ganstad Asylum. He became quite an expert with
the rifle, and when only sixteen, shot his first bear.
In 1 88 1 he went as "huntsman" to Spitzbergen.
He is a most intelligent mechanic, and has devoted
much time to patents. When but a youth he took
out a patent for a time-machine, a device for register-'
ing the days of the year. Later, he invented a
mechanical potato-digger ; but his most useful patent
is the tourist's boat, a craft so constructed of sail-
cloth that it can be folded up and carried under
one's arm.

His employers give him most excellent testi-
monials. He is quick-witted, fearless, and full of
resource, just the man for emergencies. He is,
besides, a splendid violinist, and in that direction
alone was invaluable to his companions during their
voluntary but ofttimes monotonous exile.

Bernhard Nordahl was the electrical assistant and
fireman. He was born in Christiania on the 4th of
March, 1862. When fourteen years old he joined
the naval service as ship's boy, and advanced to the
rank of constable. Then he went to America and
worked in a mechanical factory for a year. In 1886
he got employment in the Norwegian Electrical
Bureau, where he remained for six years. Latterly
he was foreman of Hezerdahl & Co.'s electrical
department. Nordahl is an enthusiastic athlete, and
is a noted gymnast and skilober, and his face tells
you that he is beaming over with good health. He
left a wife and five children behind. Like Johansen,
he adapted himself to all tasks, and Nansen found in
him a man on whom he could place the utmost reliance.

"WE ARE THIRTEEN ALL TOLD. Ill

The chief engineer on board the Fram was Anton
Amundsen. He was born at Horten in 1854, where
he was educated, until at the age of fourteen he joined
the Naval Mechanical Engineering Works as appren-
tice, and as such, served with Corvette Nornen and
the Monitor Mjolner. In 1872 he served as fireman
and 3toker in the Navy, and in 1874 joined the
Technical School, and obtained his certificate as
engineer in the following year. Since that time he
has served in the various grades of engineer on board
numerous gun-vessels and torpedo-boats, full as they
are of intricate machinery, until 1891, when he was
promoted to the situation of chief engineer. In the
winter of 1892-93 he passed through the Naval
Engineering College, and quitted the naval service
" on leave " to take part in Nansen's Arctic Ej:pedition.
He is specially adapted for the important position he
had to fill on board the Fram, and plenty of employ-
ment, scientific and otherwise, was found for him
apart from that in the engine-room. His wife and
five children awaited his return in fear and trembling
through the dreary three years' absence, and as hope
became dim, the telegram announcing the Fram's
return and her crew's safety brought overwhelming
joy to their hearts.

The second engineer was Lars Pettersen, whose
birth took place at Lund, Sweden, of Norwegian
parents, in May, i860. He was educated at Lund
until 1875, when he was apprenticed to a smith at
Malmo, subsequently joining the engineering works
and locomotive factory at Trolhcetta. After serving
there and on the Swedish State railways for some
years, he came to Norway, and joined the sealing ship

112 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

Herta, of Sandefjord, proceeding with her to the
Arctic regions, north of Jan Mayen in 77° N. Since
1888 Pettersen has been employed in the torpedo
department of the Naval Arsenal at Horten. Voyag-
ing to the Arctic agreed with him so well that he
longed and longed. to go there again, and great was
his joy on becoming engaged as engineer to the'
Fram ; and meanwhile his situation at Horten was
left open for him. He is a married man, and left a
wife and two children at home.

The victualling manager was Adolf Juell. His
position would have been an extremely delicate one
had provisions run short on board the Fram.
Fortunately they returned to Norway with still three
years' provisions left, which they disposed of by
auction later on — mementoes of this unparalleled
journey. A stouter type of an Easterling than Adolf
Juell it would be difficult to find. He has beautiful
blue eyes, an open countenance, and a moustache
which any military officer would be proud of. He is
well-built and of a lively disposition — and such a
talker ! With his ready wit and good spirits, he had
all the conditions requisite to faithfully fill his position
as purser and steward on the Fram. He smilingly
remarked previous to sailing that he had got the
hottest job on board. He was born on the 26th of
December, i860, at the Farm, Braato, near Kragero,
and is the son of Claus Neilsen, shipowner and ship-
builder. He was instructed at home by a tutor, and
joined the merchant service in 1876. After gaining
a mate's certificate, he joined the United States
merchant service, and served for some time on the
lakes. In the autumn of 1880 he joined the Chicago

"WE ARE THIRTEEN ALL TOLD." II3

Small-pox Hospital, where he rendered valuable
service during the dreadful epidemic of 18S0-81.
Going- to sea again, he joined the l^ritish steamer,
Ahena, of the Atlas Line, as third mate. In 1885
he obtained command of a ship at Stockholm, which
he resigned, after two \-cars, to manage his mother's
estate and business at Kragero. He caiicelled the
name Xeilsen, and adopted that of Juell on obtaining
his certificate as master. He left a wife and four
children, who v.-elcomed him back in the best of health
and spirits — none the worse for his three years'
Arctic service.

Last on the list, and the last to join the FravK
comes a thoroughly typical Norwegian sailor, Bernt
Hentsen, a native of Tromsd, who was to kee[) the
Franis decks in good order, and take his spell at the
" wheel." He has had varied experiences — plenty of
ups and downs, which have made him a man of ready
resource in mom.ents of danger. He joined the Fraui
at the last moment, intending only to go as far as
Khabarova, but was there hired as the thirteenth of
the expedition. He is a man in his best years, a
strong and active sailor, with a good knowledge
of tlie caprices of the northern seas, and a ver)-
amiable comrade.

From a picked crew such as this — trul)- a " band of
brothers" — and under such a leader, much might be
hoped ; nor is it a matter for sur[)risc that the result"
achieved have even bettered expectation.

11

CHRISTIANIA.

CHAPTER IX.

THE DEPARTURE.

OF a deeply sanguine temperament is Norway's
celebrated traveller, Dr. Nansen, who at half-
past twelve o'clock on the 24th of June, 1893,
set off to find the North Pole. This task,
which has baffled the most courageous explorers, he,
at the time of starting on his difficult mission,
expected to accomplish in three years ; but at the
same time told his friends and well-wishers not to
be anxious concerning his welfare if he did not
return within twice that period.

As Nansen left Christiania, Dr. John Murray, the
well-known authority on Arctic and Antarctic explora-
tion, bade him good-bye, and said : — " I expect within
two years to welcome you on your return from the
Arctic ; " but he expressed some doubt if he should
again see the Fram. " I think you are wrong," was
Nansen's reply. "I believe you will welcome me on
this very deck, and, after my return from the Arctic,
114

THE DEPARTURE. II5

I will go to the South Pole, and then my life's work
will be finished." To another enthusiast he ex-
claimed : — " Ah ! they say we will never come back.
They say I am a dreamer, and that I shall fail.
Well, we shall see. I can say nothing in answer to
them. I would only ask people to give me time.
Nothing has surprised me more than the interest and
sympathy that have been shown to my expedition by
English people." We feel that this is the spirit which
deserves and is most likely to command success.

Dr. Nansen, on the morning of his departure,
telegraphed to the Times as follows : —

\To the Editor of the Times.]
"Sir, — We are just about to sail. Please grant
me the opportunity of publicly expressing our warm
appreciation for all the generous sympathy which
English people have displayed towards our expedi-
tion.— Yours faithfully,

" Christiania,

'* 24M /««(?, 10.50 A.M."

"Fridtjof Nansen.

From the King and Queen of Norway and
Sweden, Nansen received the following telegram at
the hour of sailing : —

" Pray receive, at the moment of your departure,
the Queen's and my own most sincere wishes for luck
on the voyage, which, if the result turns out as we
hope, will be a unique feat, and in any case will
show Norwegian men's courage. Our best wishes
to all on board."

To this Nansen replied : — " All of the expedition
send your Majesties their most humble thanks as

Il6 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

they depart for their polar voyage, determined on
doing their utmost for its success."

The departure is so well told by an eye-witness
that I cannot refrain from quoting his description
of what was truly a red-letter day in the history
of Norway and of the world : — " The day was
characterised by a cloudy sky, with cold wind and
drizzling rain — a sudden but very welcome contrast
to the tropical heat and drought which have existed
here for many weeks past. At an early hour
several members of Dr. Nansen's crew, all looking
remarkably fresh and cheerful, rowed off to their
ship, the Fram, which lay at anchor in a little bay
of the fjord, alongside an old barque-rigged training
ship, within 200 feet of the shore. Between seven
and eight o'clock the bay became crowded with
ferry steamers conveying passengers to business.
Each steamer in succession, in drawing near to the
FratHy slowed down ; hats and umbrellas were
waved, and volleys of hearty cheers greeted the
crew, who were all steadily at work in different
parts of the ship coiling ropes and clearing the
running gear. Towards eleven o'clock, the published
hour of departure, all was in readiness, but Dr.
Nansen had not yet arrived. The Arctic ship was
now surrounded by a host of small boats of every
description — kayak canoes, and shoe-shaped craft,
miniature gondolas, racing skiffs, naval gigs, yachts'
dinghys, and steam launches ; all more or less
decorated with bunting and with branches of silver
birch. Upon the quay, and by the shore, several
thousand spectators had gathered to witness the
sailing of the expedition. It was evident, by their

THE DEPARTURE. II7

earnest attention, that no sluggish indifference
clouded their imagination. As they gazed intently
at the bluff, broad - beamed Fram, it appeared as
though a thousand varied pictures of the vessel's
aspect in the barren ice-field a few months hence, and
of the thirteen venturesome Northmen, toiling and
enduring, passed before their eyes. As the time
passed, and the city clocks struck the hour of noon,
and there was still no sign of Dr. Nansen, the
murmuring crowd of spectators became silent. It
was clearly evident that their hearts were in
sympathy with the actors of an invisible scene,
wherein the bitter pangs of parting with wife and
babe formed the pathetic theme.

" Suddenly all eyes were directed towards a tiny
petroleum launch which came speeding towards the
Fram. There were two occupants ; in the bow stood
a sailor, boat-hook in hand ; in the stern sat Dr. Nansen.
A few moments later, when the launch dashed along-
side the Fram, and Dr. Nansen, looking haggard and
half-dazed, climbed upon his vessel, there was a dead
silence among the spectators ; no voice was raised
to greet or cheer him. A more impressive tribute
than this sympathetic silence could not have been
rendered.

" A few minutes after Dr. Nansen's arrival on board,
the anchor was weighed, and the Fram actually started
upon her voyage, followed by several yachts and
steam launches bearing numbers of Dr. Nansen's
friends, who were anxious to accompany the expedi-
tion upon the first few miles of the journey. As the
Fram steamed slowly down the fjord, three gun
salutes were fired from the various batteries, all of

Il8 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

which were promptly acknowledged by the defiant
barking of Dr. Nansen's favourite sledge dog. Half
an hour's slow steaming down the fjord brought the
Fram abreast of Dr. Nansen's home at Lysaker ; apd
here, for the first time, the sun beamed through a
rift in the dark rain clouds, and shone radiantly upon
the distant shore, revealing the figure of Mrs. Nansen,
clad in white, standing upon the rocks by the water
side.

" Almost immediately after passing Lysaker the
rain commenced to fall in torrents, and, in fact, it
continued to pour during the remainder of the day.
When about five-and-twenty miles from Christiania,
most of the steam launches took leave of the Fram,
amid a storm of hearty cheers and shrill steam-
whistles."*

A course was set for Laurvik, where the ship
arrived on Sunday evening, and after taking on board
the two large covered boats to be used in case of
disaster to the Fram, resumed her voyage. The next
port touched at was Bergen, at which place the doctor
had many friends.

Nansen wrote anent the departure : — " On the
24th of June we started on our expedition from
Christiania, and sailed northward along the beautiful
Norwegian coast. Everywhere people came from the
most distant places in order to see the strange ship
and her crew. Whenever we stopped in some little
place the deck was at once crowded with people who
wanted to see everything."

Off Melo, in longitude 13° 20' E., and latitude

* The Illustrated London News, 8th July, 1893.

TIIK nKPAKTT'RE. II9

66° 48', the Fram was sighted by the s.s. RoIIo, of
the Wilson h'ne, which carried a contingent of one
hundred and sixt\- passengers on a trip to the North
Cape. As the Rollo got even with the Frani, rockets
were fired off, and the foghorn blown., while the pas-
sengers from all parts of the ship again and again
cheered lustily. This had the effect of bringing
Dr. Nansen from below on to the deck, and then to
the bridge of his ship, where he returned those kindl}-
salutes by raising his hat, and afterwards by firing
two shots. He seemed much gratified by this hearty
farewell, the last he received, from English " lands-
men."

On the 2 1st of July the FraDi left Vardo, their
last harbour in Norwa}-, and sailed eastward across
the Barents Sea. Nansen himself wrote to The Strand
Magazine : — " We are now (as I write this) steering
eastward across the sea from Norway to Novaya
Zemlya, through fog, and against the wind. Yester-
day we had a short, sunn}- glimpse of Goose Land on
Novaya Zemlya, and were just steering in there when
the fog came again and shut us out from the world
around us. We were obliged to steer out to sea
again, and make for Yugor Strait, the most southern
strait which separates Nova}-a Zeml\-a, or rather
W'aigats, the most southern Island, from the Con-
tinent. Ilcrc we expect to meet a small vessel,
which 1 have sent from Norwa)', with fift\- tons of
coals. .\t: Khabarowi, in Yugor .Strait, a l\u.s;i;ui,
Tronthcim, is also waiting us, with more than thirt\-
sledge dogs. He had to tra\el from 'I'iunicn, in
Siberia, last winter to the Ostjaks to buy these dogs,
and had then to travel the long way from Siberia,

120 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

through the north of Russia to Pechora, and from
there he travelled with the dogs to Yugor Strait in
company with the Samoyedes, who go north in the
spring. I hope we shall find the dogs in good con-
dition, as well as Trontheim himself, who will possibly
accompany us on the expedition.

" When we have got our dogs and coal, and if the
Strait and the Kara Sea are open, we shall make our
way eastward along the Asiatic coast as quickly as
possible. The first part of the way through the Kara
Sea will perhaps be the worst, as the ice is often very
bad there. More easterly the water running out from
the rivers generally forces the ice a little from the
coast, leaving an open passage along the shore. We
shall have to pass Cape Chelyuskin, the most northern
point of the Continent, which has only once before
been passed by any vessel — viz., the Vega, on Nor-
denskiold's famous expedition. If we still find open
water, we shall go on eastward along the coast until
we reach the mouth of the Olenek River, to the east
of the Lena Delta. If we have time, I shall go in
there to take twenty-six sledge dogs which are wait-
ing for us. The reason why I want to get dogs
there also is that the dogs from East Siberia are
stronger and better than the West Siberian ones ;
therefore Baron Toll, who is now travelling in Siberia,
proposed this, and has now kindly arranged this depdt
for me ; it is he also who arranged with Trontheim
about these other dogs. If we get too many dogs,
it is of course easy to pick out the best ones of
the whole lot."*

* The Strand Magazine, December, 1893.

THE DEPARTURE. 121

Later, Nansen sent a telegram to the Times from
Novaya Zemlya, which contained more definite infor-
mation : — " The passage from Norway to Novaya
Zemlya was good, except for wind and fog. Goose
Land in Novaya Zemlya was sighted in the fog on
July 25th, and the vessel turned south, meeting
the first ice on the 27th, in latitude 69° 50' N., longi-
tude 50° E., about ten miles north of Kolguef Island.
We forced our way through, the Fram proving a
splendid ship in the ice, and arrived at Yugor Strait,
a distance of 250 miles from the point where the ice
was encountered, on July 29th. The vessel sent
out with coal has not arrived, but we have sufficient
coal, and we sail into the Kara Sea to-night. We
have got thirty-four splendid sledge dogs from Siberia
on board. The Yugor Strait has been open since
July 3rd, and there seems to be little ice in the
southern part of the Kara Sea, a favourable wind
having carried it northward. I consider our prospects
very favourable, and we shall make our way eastward
most rapidly along the coast. Unless the ice prove
unfavourable, we hope to reach the New Siberian
Islands before the end of August, and if this should
be accomplished, I look on our success as almost cer-
tain. If there is time, we shall call at the Olenek
River, and probably be able to send news from there.
— Nansen."

He arrived at Khabarova, on the Kara Sea, as we
have seen, on the 29th of July, and stayed there until
the 3rd of August. In the interval he employed his
time in completing the outfit and in observing the
conditions of the ice.

Nansen had a struggle to get through the Kara Sea,

T22

FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

which had much ice in it. The ship, according to
reports received from the Samoyedes, was twice driven
back by the enormous weight of ice in the sea, but
when last seen it was steaming full speed ahead into
the great unknown.

CHAPTER X.

THREE YEARS SILENCE,

IN a letter to his brother, Alexander, dated the
17th of July, 1893, Dr. Nansen acknowledged
freely his inability to state the time required to
effect his purpose. " I certainly do not know
how long I may be absent," he writes, " but, candidly
speaking, I do not consider that there is any chance
of our returning home in two years, provided we do
not return this coming autumn on account of the
unfavourable ice conditions. I do not think that
we, in any case, will get home in less than three
years, possibly four years may pass, or even five,
but you may depend upon it that return we will ;
of this there is not the shadow of a doubt, for no
expedition has ever been fitted out as ours. There
is, certainly, a possibility that we will not reach the
islands of New Siberia this year, but pass the winter
at some spot on the coast of Asia, in which case an
entire year will be lost, besides which it is ilbt easy to

123

124 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

calculate the length of time the drift will occupy, but
that in itself will take at least two years, of that I am
certain."

The last letter sent home was dated the 3rd
of August, and Nansen's first anxiety was to get
through the ice-laden Kara Sea and round the^
dreaded Cape of Chelyuskin, the northernmost
point of Asia, and which had but once before
been passed by the celebrated Arctic voyager, Baron
Nordenskiold, on his famous journey through the
north-east passage.

The following statement was made to a representa-
tive of Reuter's Agency on the 29th of December,
1893, by Dr. John Murray, in regard to the pro-
bable position of the Fram and her crew. He
said : — " In all probability we shall not hear any more
of Nansen for a long time to come. The last news
from him clearly indicates that he was able to push
his way through the Kara Sea early in August. By
the time he arrived in the Nordenskiold Sea he most
probably found the dogs an intolerable nuisance on
board his small ship, and very likely he had made up
his mind that they would be of little use to him
except in the improbable event of him finding a large
stretch of land towards the North Pole. Supposing
the expedition to be all well off Cape Chelyuskin,
there seems no reason why it should go south to
Olenek. Nansen had no intention of going as far
east as the New Siberian Islands, supposing an
opportunity offered of penetrating the ice to the
north-east of Cape Chelyuskin, and all reports tell of
open water in this direction during the past season.
The charges are that he is now fixed in the ice some-

THREE years' SILENCE. 1 25

where between the longitudes 120 and 130' E., and
latitudes 78' and 80' N. If so, he is then in the
most favourable position for progress next summer.
During the winter it is not likel\- that any great
advance will be made, but in the s[jring and
summer months it is believed that the drainage
from the Siberian rivers, and the v^-ind pressure on
the surface of the ice-floes, combine to set the
currents and ice from opposite the mouths of the
Lena across the Pole and down into the Norwegian
Sea between Spitzbergen and Greenland. If the
Frani is carried through the polar basin without
being crushed among the ice-floes she will have an
extraordinary run of good luck. It is possible, but
not probable, for I have no great faith in her being
lifted upon the ice, should she come in for a 'nip.'
But, supposing the vessel be crushed, Xanscn's
expedition is not at an end. In all probability he
will be able to save his boats, transfer his stores
to the ice-floes, and there construct comfortable
quarters. Should his supplies fall short, he will
always be able to fish up from underneath the ice
plenty of food in the form of minute crustaceans, by
means of two nets let down through holes in the ice.
Once, when frozen in between Spitzbergen and
Greenland, I procured enormous numbers of animals
in this wa}', which made an excellent soup. I pre-
sented the Nansen expedition with a large number
of silk nets for this purpose. Nansen may be five or
many more years in passing across the Arctic basin ;
he may fail altogether, but I shall be disappointed if
he be not heard of to the north of Spitzbergen during
the summer after next."

126 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

In the beginning of 1895, feeling anxious about the
Nansen expedition, I wrote to this great oceano-
grapher on the probable whereabouts of Dr. Nansen,
and in answer that renowned expert sent the follow-
ing most interesting reply, under date of the 28th
of February, 1895 : —

" From all I know of the physical conditions of the
north polar basin and of Nansen 's intentions, I should
think the probabilities are all in favour of the view
that he is at the present time comfortably housed on
board the Fram, or on ice-floes, somewhere within
100 miles of the Pole. He may possibly be heard of
during the latter part of the coming summer ; it is
more probable that nothing will be heard of him till
the summer of 1896. Should nothing be heard of
him by the close of the year 1897, I might then, but
not till then, entertain the idea that some disaster
may have overtaken the expedition. — Yours truly,
"(Signed) JOHN MURRAY."

Hardly a month of 1895 passed without rumours
of success or failure being bruited about.

First, considerable excitement was caused in March
by the report that a balloon from Nansen was sighted,
travelling in a south-easterly direction, near Langfjord,
in the north of Norway. But this balloon was entirely
a " mystery."

Next came the rumour from the Paris Figaro, on
the 15th of April, 1895. It appeared as follows in
most of our English newspapers : —

REPORTED DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH POLE.
"The Paris Figaro publishes a rumour that Dr.
Nansen has succeeded in his search for the North

THREE YEARS' SILENCE. 1 27

Pole. It is stated that he discovered that the Pole is
situated in a chain of mountains, and that he planted
the Norwegian flag there to mark the spot. The
temperature was two degrees above zero centigrade.
These statements, it is added, are confirmed in a
despatch received by the Crown Prince of Norway
and Sweden."

Though on the face of it a canard^ yet this rumour
caused much popular excitement and discussion for a
short period.

The first seriously considered report came from the
east of Greenland in July, 1895, ^.nd appeared in the
European Press as follows : —

" The steam sealer Hertka, of Sandefjord, Norway,
arrived home on the 17th August, from the Danish
colonial port, Angmansalik, in east Greenland, which
she left three weeks previously, and her master
reports that the director there informed him of the
Eskimo having seen a three-masted vessel, with a
short or broken foremast, drifting in the ice on two
different occasions. She was first observed towards
the close of July last (1895) by a party of natives
some thirty miles off" the Sermiligak Fjord in latitude
65° 45' N., longitude 36° 15' W,, and subsequently by
other Greenlanders off" Sermilik in latitude 65° 20' N.,
longitude 38° W. No smoke or signs of life could be
observed. A report of this nature has naturally
caused great excitement in Norway, the general
belief being that it must be the Fram with or without
the expedition on board."

From this date until the 13th of February, 1896,
the Press allowed the subject as to the whereabouts of
Nansen to rest.

128 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

Suddenly, the appearance of a telegram reporting
that Nansen was sighted in the vicinity of the New
Siberian Islands, on his return from the Pole, caused
the most intense excitement throughout the civilised
world. The startling rumour, emanating from an
obscure Russian source, was at first received in all
good faith ; but as each successive day passed without
bringing further news or confirmation, the truth in
the report here given {Tunes, 14th February, 1896)
became relatively less.

Dr. Nansen and the North Pole.

"St. Petersburg, February, 13th.

"A telegram from Irkutsk states that a Siberian
trader named Kuchnareff, who has acted as agent for
Dr. Nansen in Siberia, has informed the Prefect of
Kolimsk (northern Siberia) that he has received
intelligence that Dr. Nansen has reached the North
Pole, that he has found land in that region, and that
he is now on his way back.

" Later.

"The report that Dr. Nansen had reached the
North Pole was received by the Oriental Revieiv at
Irkutsk from the trader Kuchnareff through M.
Kandakoff, a police official of Kolimsk, who was
a member of M. Sibiriakoff's expedition. The intelli-
gence was sent by letter to Yakutsk and thence to
Kirensk. It was then forwarded by telegraph. A
more complete account has just been received from
Irkutsk, according to which it appears that the news
originally came from Ust Yansk, at the mouth of the
Yana. — Renter.

THREE YEARS SILENCE. 1 29

" Christiania, February 13th.

" The geographical authorities here do not consider
the news received from Irkutsk that Dr. Nansen had
reached the North Pole improbable, for the reason
that if the explorer is really on his way home,
Kolimsk would probably be the first station reached.
The relatives of Dr. Fridtjof Nansen have requested
the Norwegian News Agency to state that they
attach no credence to the Irkutsk telegram announc-
ing Dr. Nansen's discovery of the North Pole. —
Renter.

"Lloyd's agent at Bergen telegraphed yesterday
evening as follows : — ' St. Petersburg wires Dr. Nansen
reached North Pole, found land, now returning.' "

The first true news announcing the return of Dr.
Nansen and Lieutenant Johansen was received in
Christiania, on the 13th of August, 1896, and from
the information that has since been published, it is
abundantly evident that Nansen must for ever be
regarded as one of the greatest of Arctic travellers.

RBTURN OF THE "fRAM." ARRIVAL AT TROMSO, 20TH AUGUST,

18^6.

CHAPTER XI.

A TALK WITH DR. NANSEN, SEPTEMBER, 1 896.

THE landing of Dr. Nansen at Christiania is now
a matter of history, and very few words will
suffice concerning it. The Fram was met, far
down Christiania Fjord in the early hours of
the morning of the 9th of September, by a flotilla of
seventy passenger steamers and a small squadron of
the navy, which escorted the paintless Fram up the
fjord amidst the booming of the guns and the deafen-
ing hurrahs of the usually sober Norsemen. The
Fram having been moored in the Piperviken, Dr.
Nansen and his comrades were rowed in small boats
by the boys of the training ship, Christiania, to the
ship bridge, where the explorers were welcomed by
the representatives of the city amidst the deafening
cheers of the vast multitude. In acknowledging the
address of welcome presented by the Mayor of the
capital, Dr. Nansen made a characteristic speech,
130

A TALK WITH DR. NANSEN, SEPTEMBER, 1 896. 13I

every word of which was listened to with rapt atten-
tion : — " It is very difficult to express the feelings
which fill the hearts of my comrades and myself.
. . . We have done what we set out to do. . . . The
plans I made myself, but it is due to my brave com-
rades that these plans have been carried out Long
live Norway ! May it often be able to send out such
men as accompanied me."

Then came the triumphal progress to the Royal
Palace, when Dr. Nansen and his companions were
welcomed by the King and Crown Prince. Here
the explorer saw for the first time since she was six
months old his little daughter Liv, now over three
and a-half years old, who had been staying in the
palace by special invitation of the King. A grand
banquet closed the first day's proceedings, but the
festivities were prolonged over several days, perhaps
the most notable demonstration being that on Sun-
day, the 13th of September, which was set aside for
the Folkesfesten (the people's feast), about which
nothing has appeared in the English papers. It was
on this occasion that the great Norwegian novelist,
Bjornson, made a thrilling speech, filled with patriotic
sentiments and bristling with wit, which provoked
Dr. Nansen to one of the best oratorical efforts of th6
celebration.

Speaking of his departure from Norway, the
doctor said : — " I know we felt a responsibility
nearly too heavy to be borne. I well remember the
evening when we steamed northwards along our
beautiful coast ; there lay a couple of fishing boats
out on the sea, rocking themselves in the sunset on
the bright surface — an ideal scene of peace and com-

132 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

fort The fishermen raised themselves, bared their
heads reverently, and looked after the curious ship
which disappeared northward. It was then we felt
how near we were to the hearts of the Norwegian
people. We felt that we had taken part of their
heart with us on board, and if we betrayed our duty^
then we also betrayed the love which the Norwegian
people had given us to be with us on our voyage.
When I sent the last message to the Storthing pre-
vious to our departure — * That so far as our strength
reached, so far should it be used to the honour of
Norway ' — I did not tell more than the truth ; my
comrades would have fought as long as strength
lasted, as long as life was with them, for Norway's
honour ; and this also I will say, that the Norwegian
people have no need to be ashamed of the men they
sent with me. A more daring set of fellows have
never stood shoulder to shoulder. I say fearlessly
that no men have ever acted with greater faithfulness
and love to their fatherland, no men have ever more
faithfully discharged the duties which they took upon
themselves than those who went with me in the
Fram north of the polar circle."

Dr. Nansen then proceeded to speak of the single-
ness of purpose by which the crew of the Fram had
been actuated, declaring that only one wish prevailed,
and that was to justify the confidence and affection
which the Norwegian people had manifested at their
departure. He concluded : " I am certain of this,
that the more the distance grew between us and the
people of Norway, the greater became our love, the
deeper our respect for our country, and the stronger
our feeling of patriotism to Norway."

A TALK WITH DR. NANSEN, SEPTEMBER, 1896. 1 33

When Nanseo sat down, and the ringing cheers
of the assembled company had been with difficulty
silenced by repeated signs from Bjornson, the
president of the meeting, his companions were
called upon one after another to receive testimony
of the appreciation of the people for their splendid
work. It would be difficult to find a group better
suited for the special and arduous work, and equally
difficult to convey to the English mind the adequate
representations of the scene amid which this people's
banquet closed.

Next morning I had an interview with Dr. Nansen
at Lysaker.

When I arrived at Godthaab Villa the doctor
appeared, and after a hearty hand-shake, led me
into his drawing-room. He appeared in perfect
health, despite his three years' sojourn in the icy
north. He was a trifle paler than when I saw him
in 1893. He assured me, however, that the trials
and dangers he had gone through had but strength-
ened his physique.

"Are you pleased with the result of your journey ?"
was the first question I put

" Oh, yes ! " he replied with a smile. " The scientific
results, I believe, will be acknowledged of great value.
Professor Mohn and other scientific friends who are at
work tabulating my material are quite enthusiastic
over the observations made during our three years'
wanderings." Dr. Nansen then proceeded to talk
with me briefly on the main features of the voyage of
the Fram and of his walk when he left the ship,
and accompanied only by Lieutenant Johansen, he
attempted to penetrate farther north.

134 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

The plan of the expedition is divisable into three
parts : — (i) The journey in the Fram from Christiania
until March, 1895, when Nansen left her to go pole-
wards ; (2) Nansen and Johansen's wonderful
attempt to reach the Pole, and their heroic journey
south to Franz Josef Land ; and (3) The continued-
voyage of the vessel in charge of Sverdrup, and the
adventures of her crew from March, 1895, until reach-
ing home in August, 1 896. After leaving Vardo the
Fram had a good passage to Novaya Zemlya. She
first met the ice in latitude 60° 50' N., longitude 50°
E., about ten miles north of Kolguef Island, but
forced her way through in splendid style, and
arrived at Yugor Strait on the 29th of July. On the
evening of the 3rd of August they weighed anchor
and soon entered the dreaded Kara Sea. On the 6th
of August they were stopped by ice off Yalmal, and
went ashore for botanical and geological purposes.
Two Samoyedes here boarded the vessel, and these
were the last human beings the Franks crew saw until
the return home.

" Are you superstitious ? " was the next question I
put to the Doctor.

" No, not a bit of it ; but why do you ask ? " he said.

" Well," I replied, " there are thirteen in your crew
all told, and people look upon that as an ill-omen, and
some superstitious folk prophesied ill of your expedi-
tion because it consisted of thirteen. Moreover, the
false news of your expedition being homeward bound
was telegraphed from Irkutsk on a thirteenth (13th
February, 1896)."

" It certainly was a lucky number for us," he
replied. " None of my men were ill at any stage of

^. I

1

A TALK WITH DR. NANSEN, SEPTEMBER, 1 896. 1 37

the voyage, none of them gave me a moment's
anxiety ; besides, I arrived home on the 1 3th
August, 1896, and it was upon the 13th of the same
month that my ship escaped from the clutches of the
ice. So you see thirteen has no perils for me."

" Has any photograph of the thirteen men been
published ? " I asked.

"No, not yet," he replied. "The thirteenth man,
Bentsen, joined us at the last moment, and he is
superstitious to the extent that he manifests a strong
aversion to having his photograph taken."

I was, however, able afterwards to obtain a photo-
graph of the whole crew, from which the picture on
page 135 is taken; but it is singular to note that
though Bentsen consented to be one of the group
he did his best to prevent the photographer from
securing his features.

" The three years' hardships seem to have told but
little on you or your companions," I said.

" No," he replied ; " they are fine, strong men,
accustomed to ice work, and all have returned home
in perfect health, some indeed being stouter than when
they left home. We owe our thanks, however, to
Dr. Blessing for his patience, skill, and care, especially
in the winter months of darkness."

The men were glad to get home after the third
winter in these weird regions. They had had quite
enough of the darkness, the results of which were
shown in sleepless nights and shaky legs. They were
not absolutely ill, but felt weak and languid — full of
lassitude — and Dr. Blessing became very anxious
about their mental state. When the return of the sun
took place it was like a day of resurrection, and they

138 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

never looked behind from the moment its rays first
brightened their surroundings.

" Will you come to England to lecture ? " I asked
the Doctor.

" Yes ; but I cannot say when," replied Nansen.
"The secretary of your Royal Geographical Society,
has invited me to lecture to its members, and I have
consented, but I have not yet fixed a date."

Mrs. Nansen told me afterwards that she would
accompany her husband on his lecturing tour in
England, where she spent part of her honeymoon.

" I love your England, and so does my husband,"
she exclaimed with some fervour.

" What will become of the Fram ?" I asked the
Doctor.

" She will probably be kept at Horten ; I may
require her again soon, and cannot possibly have a
better ship for Arctic or Antarctic work."

" Will you again attempt to reach the North Pole ? "
I queried.

" I cannot possibly say yet," he replied ; " I think
so. But perhaps I shall endeavour to discover the
South Pole first, and then make a renewed attack on
the North Pole on my return from Antarctic regions.
I must, however, finish my work in connection with
the records of my recent expedition before making
definite plans for another voyage."

Continuing his brief narrative of the voyage. Dr.
Nansen spoke of the journey from Yugor Strait
through the Kara Sea, in the northern portion of
which they were fortunate in discovering an island,
on their eastern voyage, to the mouth of the Olenek
River, They reached this point on the 15th of

A TALK WITH DR. NANSEN, SEPTEMBER, 1 896. 1 39

September, but the shallowness of the water and the
lateness of the season kept them from going in. As
the winter was rapidly approaching they decided not
to call for the sledge dogs, as arranged, lest the ice
should close in and ^imprison them for the whole
winter. Three days later they were steaming along
the west of the New Siberian Islands.

On the 22nd of September Nansen and his com-
panions took a ticket with the ice, or, in other words,
made the Fram fast to a floe in latitude 78° 50' N.,
longitude 133° 37' E., and a few days later the ice
closed round and the ship was frozen in for the
(_, winter, for failure or success. What must Nansen's
feelings have been as he watched the ice-pack close
around his ship, bearing him perhaps to an early
grave, or, worse still, back to ignominy and the scorn
of his fellow-men ? Surely for this devotion to science
the names of Nansen and his faithful companions will
ever be set up as beacon lights to every youth whom
danger awaits or duty calls. They saw no land after
leaving the New Siberian Islands, but drifted north
and north-west during the autumn and winter.
Towards evening on Christmas day, 1894, latitude 83°
was reached in longitude 105° E., and, several days
later, latitude 83° 24' N., the most northerly latitude
until then reached by any explorer. It was during
this slow and tortuous drift that Dr. Nansen made his
greatest discovery of the voyage — the existence of a
wide, deep sea towards the Pole, having a relatively
warm temperature in its depth, a continuation of the
Arctic Sea, situated between Greenland on the one
hand, and Norway and Spitzbergen on the other. It
was previously supposed that the north polar sea was

140 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

a shallow basin with icy-cold water from top to
bottom. Dr. Nansen's voyage has not only upset this
theory, but has astonished the scientific world by
the remarkable discovery regarding its depth and
temperature.

The pressure upon the Fram during this drifting
was most severe, and I was allowed by a special
permit from Dr. Nansen, who had refused scores of
applications from curious sightseers, to make a close
examination of the ship as she lay in the Piperviken,
and can testify to the fact that she looks little the
worse for the expedition, except that the paint upon
her hull is now an unknown quantity. The way in
which she successfully withstood the ice-pressure has
naturally delighted the heart both of Dr. Nansen and
her builder. The crew felt " as safe as in a fortress ; "
and were sheltered within from the severity of the
Arctic winter. Twice only were they alarmed ; once
before Dr. Nansen left, and again a short time after
his departure. On the first occasion the ice-pressure
was most severe ; to use Dr. Nansen's words, " she
was firmly frozen in ice of more than 30 ft. measured
thickness." This floe was over-ridden by great ice
masses, which pressed against her port side with a
force which threatened to bury and crush her. Boats,
sledges, kayaks, and provisions were placed upon a
neighbouring floe in readiness for the worst, but " the
Fram was stronger than our faith in her," said
Dr. Nansen in his address to the Royal Geographical
Society (8th February, 1897), and the shout that went
up from the vast multitude testified to their apprecia-
tion of Nansen's foresight in constructing such a
vessel. The only disagreeable experience was the

A TALK WITH DR. NANSEN, SEPTEMBER, 1 896. I4I

crashing, creaking, and grinding of the ice as it closed
around the ship. The 'Fram; as previous chapters
explain, was so constructed as to rise in resistance
to the ice-pressure and thus escape damage, and it so
successfully accomplished this work that at times the
crew came on deck to find the ship lifted from nine
to twelve feet, and her bottom could be distinctly
seen resting upon the ice.

In my visits to the Fram I was fortunate enough
to meet several members of the crew, and I had a
long chat with the gallant skipper, Sverdrup, with
Jacobsen, and with Lieutenant Johansen, fair- haired,
clean-shaven, with a bright, good-humoured face.
As Johansen recounted Dr. Nansen's and his own
ice-tramp, his comrades crowded round and listened
with interest to all he told me ; one and all envied
him for being the chosen companion of Dr. Nansen
for that daring excursion. I also met Lieutenant
Scott- Hansen, the boy scientist, and Dr. Blessing,
who told me that, apart from his medical duties,
which were fortunately light, he aided Dr. Nansen
and Scott-Hansen in the scientific work, and took
some part in observing the Aurora and deep sea
observations. Although quite a young man, he is a
scientist and botanist of no mean order ; a man of
many parts. He employed some of his leisure in
occupations so diverse as stoking the furnace and
conducting an investigation into the action of the
blood. He was the only unmarried member of the
crew, and a romantic incident connected with him is
not without interest. Dr. Blessing had been engaged
to a fair Norwegian maiden before he became one of
Dr. Nansen's party. After his departure the young

142 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

lady naturally became very anxious to communicate
with her future husband, but although love laughs at
locks and bolts, it is not easy for Cupid to send his
messages to the ice-bound regions of the north, and
for a time even feminine resource was unequal to the
task of despatching a letter to Dr. Blessing, some^
where near the North Pole. One day, however, the
lady read of M. Andr^e's proposition for a balloon
voyage to the Pole, and she approached him with a
request that he would take a love missive in the
hope that it would reach the object of her choice.
Gallantry prevented M. Andr^e from refusing the
request of the young lady, and he took charge of the
letter, in the full belief that he would meet the
vessel, and be able to deliver the note to Dr. Blessing.
When finally the projected balloon voyage had to be
given up in consequence of the failure of favourable
southerly winds, M. Andree handed the letter to
the captain of a whaling vessel that was going
northwards, on the off-chance that it might fall in
with the expedition. Singularly enough the vessel
did encounter the Fram, with Dr. Blessing on board ;
the letter was delivered, and thus some time before
reaching the Norwegian coast, the young physician
saw the hand-writing of his fiancee, and read her
written protestations of love.

One afternoon, on board the Fram, I spent in
company with Hendriksen, the harpooner of the
expedition, a veritable giant, with broad shoulders,
and a pleasant, round, determined-looking face, and
whose exceptional physical powers were severely
tested on more than one occasion. He led the way
to the Frams saloon, and showed me through the

A TALK WITH DR. NANSEN, SEPTEMBER, 1 896. I45

cabin where the explorer slept during the voyage.
All the crew shared the saloon in common. He
displayed to my wondering gaze the rifles, hunting
knives, harpoons, and other implements, and I was
somewhat amused at the number of empty medicine
bottles in the physician's berth, showing that he had
not spared physic to the crew on the least sign of
indisposition. Ascending past the galley upstairs we
entered Dr. Nansen's and Captain Sverdrup's work-
rooms, furnished with an elaborate stock of scientific
and other instruments, and looked into the forehold,
yet filled with provisions.

Nansen had written to The Strand Magazine on
his outward journey: — " Of provisions we have plenty,
and in great variety ; much more so, I believe, than
most previous expeditions in the Arctic. Variety of
food is the most important thing in order to avoid
scurvy, which has destroyed so many well-equipped
expeditions. We have, of course, tinned meats in all
possible forms ; boiled, roast, and corned beef, ditto
mutton, rabbits, collops, Oxford sausages, cutlets,
pork, ham, bacon, etc. ; tinned fish and roe in various
forms ; tinned fruits, dried fruits, jams, marmalades,
blanc-mange, Bird's custard powder, ^%'g powder,
and baking powder; concentrated lime juice from
Rose & Co. ; rizine, peas, pea soups, lentil soup, bean
soup, Frame Food, Bovril, dried vegetables, biscuits ;
Cadbury's chocolate, steam-cooked and dried meal
and flour of various kinds, dried fish, dried potatoes ;
preserved milk, with sugar and without sugar ; com-
pressed tea, cheese, sugar, etc. ; and, above all, butter,
which is most important in the cold, where you
especially want fat. We carry six tons of butter.

K

146 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

"For sledge expeditions we have, of course,
specially concentrated and light foods, principally
consisting of dried meat with fat The Bovril Co.
has, on my suggestion, made a special food consisting
of these materials which is highly concentrated ; they
have called it ' emergency food.' For sledge expedi-
tions we shall also use biscuits and butter, steam-
cooked meal for porridge, milk, chocolate, dried fish,
dried fruits, dried cranberries, sugar, a little com-
pressed tea, and also some biscuits, to which I have
added a quantity of a German product called
Aleuronat powder, which principally contains albu-
men. I have added about thirty per cent, of this to
the biscuits, so that a certain number of them, with a
suitable quantity of butter, will be sufficient for one
man per day ; I believe a pound and a-half of
biscuits, or a little more, and half-a-pound of butter
will be an appropriate ration. For drinking we shall
have nothing except water, which we shall get by
melting snow. This water we may, however, mix
with lime juice and sugar, or with milk, or make tea,
chocolate, or soup of it, and thus we shall have
pleasant drinks. A good drink is also water mixed
with oatmeal. Spirituous drinks will not be allowed ;
tobacco will be distributed in very moderate rations
on board ship ; on sledge expeditions no tobacco, or
very little, will be allowed."

As to dress Nansen writes : — " Out of doors in the
winter when the winds are blowing we shall wear
weather-proof suits, made of light canvas, gabar-
dine, or similar stuff, which protects against the
snow-drift. When it is very cold we shall wear
fur suits, made principally of wolf and reindeer

A TALK WITH DR. NANSEN, SEPTEMBER, 1 896. 1 47

fur. To sleep in the snow or in our tents dur-
ing the sledge expeditions we have also sleeping-
bags made of the same material, in which we can
easily, and with comfort, stand a temperature of one
hundred degrees below zero.

" Our tents are made of raw silk and are exceedingly
light. Lightness is, of course, of the highest import-
ance, when everything must be carried on the sledges.
The tent floor is, however, of a somewhat heavier
stuff, as that has to keep out the moisture which is
easily formed when you sleep on the snow, with
nothing under you except a thin canvas or calico
layer. It is also well to have the tent floor rather
strong, as it can then be used as a sail on the sledge
when you have a favourable wind."

In the forehold Hendriksen showed me the sledges,
kayaks, ski, and cooking apparatus used by Dr. Nansen
and Lieutenant Johansen on their dangerous ice-
journey. The sleeping bag used by them on their
tramp was a particularly attractive novelty. It was
made from the skin of a polar bear shot by Dr. Nansen,
the fur being inside, and it must have been a warm
berth with the two men packed inside it. All the
Arctic equipment bore evidence of having been
severely tested in actual use ; the sledges especially
bore traces of hard pulling, being patched with much
care in many places. Their kayaks are about five
yards long, made of skins many times mended. In
these canoes they slept, breathing through air-holes.
Beside them lies the head of the walrus which pierced
one of the kayaks right through, also the skin of the
polar bear which nearly hugged Johansen to death.
There are, besides, the two ice-sledges on which the

148 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

kayaks and luggage were drawn ; the snow shoes,
quite black and worn out ; the bamboo sticks, the
saucepan, with the remains of the horrible soup ; and,
most important of all, a little box containing the
diaries.

I had some conversation with Captain Sverdrup
on the bridge of the Frain, and he assured me that
the three years he spent on board their " Arctic
home " were comparatively comfortable ones. Nansen
and Johansen had, in his opinion, the worst of it.
" An expedition like ours," he said, " is never free from
excitement or grave danger, and we had our share.
Our principal duties were to take regular scientific
observations, and this was an onerous and responsible
task, and we found plenty of physical exercise in
endeavouring to keep the ship free from ice. That
the dreaded Arctic disease, scurvy, did not show itself
is attributed to the nutritious food we had and the
readiness of all to partake of bear and seal flesh when
caught."

One night when most of the ship's company were
snug below, the dogs were suddenly heard barking
furiously. It was ship's carpenter Mogstad's watch,
so he went up on deck to see if anything unusual was
going on, but as he could see nothing he went down
below again, concluding that the dogs were just
barking for the sake of barking, as is their wont.
However, the noise was repeated at intervals, so he
went up on deck again, and taking a lantern saw
that several of the animals had disappeared and that
some others were overboard on the ice. Mogstad
called out for Hendriksen, and they both let them-
selves down on to the ice from the deck of the

A TALK WITH DR. NANSEN, SEPTEMBER, 1 896. I49

ship, which at the time was high above the ice sur-
face.

They walked off a little distance from the ship, to
see if they could find any tracks. As they wrere
searching about with no more formidable weapon
than a small lantern between them, all at once a polar
bear sprang up before them. Then there was a race
between the three, the two men and the bear, to the
ship. Mogstad, a bit more light-footed than his mate,
reached the Fram first, but fell down twice on to the
ice as he was climbing up her side. At the second
fall he could not help muttering to himself, " Now the
bear 's got you, my friend ! " But despair steadied
his nerves, and be managed to hoist himself safely up
behind the ship's bulwarks. He had hardly got on
board, however, when he heard his comrade call out
and saw that the bear had got hold of him, and had
bitten him. But Hendriksen, a big, powerful, resolute
fellow, dealt his assailant such a blow on the head
with the lighted lantern he was carrying that the
brute, half stunned and half scared, let go his prey,
and Hendriksen seized the opportunity to skip up the
ship's side. The bear revenged itself by carrying off
several of the dogs.

In a private letter from Lieutenant Johansen we
find a lively account of the feelings he and his fellows
experienced during their long isolation. "Although
far from all human kind," he says, " shut up in the
desolate polar ice, miles and miles away from any
secure port, and sometimes so crushed by the ice that
we thought of forsaking the ship, we had still in the
Fram a refuge free from care and full of quiet con-
templation. . . . We felt untroubled and free as rarely

150 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

before in all our lives. Once a polar bear, probably
plagued with ennui, paid us a visit. This queer,
restless animal, who wanders ceaselessly by night and
day, is a remarkable creature, and we valued its flesh
as an agreeable change from the monotonous tinned
meats."

"In what did your scientific work consist?" I
enquired of Dr. Nansen.

"That requires a little consideration," said the
Doctor. Then after a pause, "It consisted of exact
observations, and my expedition will be chiefly a gain
to meteorology and oceanography. We had to take
magnetic and meteorological observations on sea and
land, when we found any land. We had to observe
the temperature of the ocean at all depths and seasons
of the year, to sound, trawl, and dredge, and to study
the character and distribution of marine organism.
Yes, I hope our expedition will enrich the records of
astronomy, geology, botany, zoology, and kindred
subjects. During the whole drift I spent most of my
time in taking a series of exact observations in the
above subjects, but I was ably seconded in the work
by Lieutenant Scott- Hansen and Dr. Blessing, and
when I left the Fram the former took charge of the
scientific work." The depth of the sea along the track
of the ship ranged between 2000 and 2500 fathoms.

Dr. Nansen added that his favourite subject was
biology, which he studied earnestly during the first
.series of Arctic voyages, for he loved science first
and exploration second. He did not, however, have
much chance of biological research during the recent
voyage.

Lieutenant Johansen, who volunteered and was

A TALK WITH DR. NANSEN, SEPTEMBER, 1896. 151

chosen to accompany Nansen, told mc in regard to
their ice-journey, when it was decided that the Doctor
and himself should leave the vessel to explore the
north of their route and reach the highest possible
latitude, that they tried to start three times. The
first time, the sledge broke down at a short distance ;
the second start occupied three days, after which they
had to return and complete their stock of necessary
provisions. Their final start was on the 14th of
March, 1895, when the Fravi was at latitude 83° 59'
N., longitude 102° 27' E.

Nansen and Johansen had, in starting, twenty-eight
dogs, three sledges, and two kayaks for use in open
water. Dog food was calculated for thirty days, and
their own provisions for one hundred days. They
found travelling at first easy, and hope was bright,
and on the 22nd of March they reached latitude
85° 10' N. ; but the farther north they reached the
rougher the ice became, and the drift at times set
back their work, while the sledge dogs did not prove
as serviceable as they had hoped. On the 25th of
March, after great labour, they had but reached
latitude 85' 19' N., and four days after, latitude
85' 30' X. It was fatiguing work to drag the heavily-
laden sledges across the high, hummocky ice, with
the floes in constant movement, crushing and grinding
against each other. But these two brave men pressed
onward against increasing odds, on through blinding
snow-storms, and frequently face to face with death.
But the time came when human endurance could push
no farther, and on the 7th of April the ice became so
much worse that Nansen considered it unwise to
continue their course polewards, and they therefore

152 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

decided to go south to Spitzbergen, via Franz Josef
Land, where there was every possibility of a ship
being met with. They were then at latitude 86° 14'
N., and before finally turning south the doctor made
a long run on ski to see if there was any possibility
of finding smoother ice, but, as far as eye could reach
there stretched hummock beyond hummock " like a
sea of breakers."

On the return journey, in a south-westerly direction,
they travelled 430 miles in four months, and the only
land they found on the way consisted of a few ice-
capped islands, a little to the north-east of Franz
Josef Land. On the 26th of August they reached
land in latitude 81° 13' N., longitude 56° E., well
suited for wintering, and there they dwelt for 267
days, living on the blubber of the polar bear, seal, and
walrus, and utterly unaware that less than one hun-
dred miles away to the south-south-west there lay the
headquarters of the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition,
containing men who would have been delighted to
welcome them to their comparatively comfortable
home.

Dr. Nansen's winter hut was somewhat different
from Jackson's. It was built of turf, covered with
walrus skins. The roof was also of walrus skins,
supported on logs of driftwood. A bear skin served
for the door, and of another bear skin they made a
sleeping-bag. Although they spent their time sleep-
ing much and took little exercise, they were never at
all unwell. The temperature in the hut was seldom
below freezing point, and this was a comfortable
temperature to our explorers.

Of that memorable journey much has been written.

A TALK WITH DR. NANSEN, SEPTEMBER, 1 896. 1 53

Their escapes were almost miraculous, and danger
constantly stared them in the face. On one occasion,
while dragging their sledges along a narrow path,
the travellers were suddenly confronted by a polar
bear, but Johansen, who is a man of exceptional
physical strength, caught the intruder by the throat
and held him at arm's length while Dr. Nansen
despatched him with his rifle. On another occasion,
after an excursion inland, they returned to see their
canoes drifting from land with all their necessaries on
board. To reach the boats was a matter of life or
death, but without a moment's hesitation Dr. Nansen
sprang into the ice-cold water and swam after the
drifting canoes. He was chilled to the bone, but he
succeeded in his object, and brought the canoes
safely to the spot where his anxious comrade stood
watching the incident.

I cannot conceive a more daring act of courage
than that of Nansen's and Johansen's in leaving the
Fram with the certainty of remaining in the inhospit-
able regions for a year, perhaps two, and of never
regaining the ship. They had no winter clothing,
and provisions only for one hundred days. Yet they
departed cheerfully, laden with an exhaustless stock
of hope and charged with loving messages to wives
and to friends if those on board the vessel should
perish in the far north. The numerous messages
which Dr. Nansen brought back to Norway from
those on board the Fram were written on a single
sheet of paper in a microscopic hand, so as to
economise weight and space. Day after day, month
after month passed, and still they toiled on. The
little stock of food was almost exhausted and the

154 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

dogs were starving. And here a touching trait
of Dr. Nansen's character shows itself. He dared
not expend a cartridge in shooting one of the poor
beasts to make food for the other dogs, and some-
times for his companion and himself, and as he could
not bring himself to kill his own faithful dunxb
followers in cold blood, he killed Johansen's sledge
dogs, whilst Johansen killed his. In this manner
they struggled on until the dogs were all slaughtered.
Fortunately open water was reached soon after, and
bears, seals, walruses, and, at times, Arctic bears were
found, which furnished food until Dr. Nansen and his
comrade met the Jackson- Harms worth party.

The story of how Nansen and his comrade met
Mr. Jackson (17th June, 1896) is one of the most
dramatic incidents recorded in the romance of history.
It was a fortunate meeting, which Dr. Nansen
declares he shall ever regard with feelings of grati-
tude ; but had he not come across Mr. Jackson his
original plan of proceeding to Spitzbergen would
probably have been carried out with nothing more
than a few more hardships and a little longer delay.

Some think Nansen's work over-praised. May
I point out that during a period of two hundred and
eighty years previous to Nansen's departure the
efforts of a vast host of Arctic explorers — the bravest
of the brave — succeeded only in piercing 150 miles
nearer the Pole. Dr. Nansen, in less than two years
from the start, distanced all these previous explorers
efforts by 2CXD miles {reaching his farthest north on the
^th of April, 1895), and covering the last 150 miles in
six weeks. Such a deed speaks for itself

CHAPTER XII.

CONCLUSION.

" T T OME safe, after a fortunate expedition," ran
I — I the first telegram announcing Dr. Nansen's
-*- -*, return.

It is a popular fallacy that Dr. Nansen
started out solely to reach the North Pole. If this
had been so, no doubt the criticisms of those who say
that the voyage was a failure would be justified ;
but that view is inaccurate and unjust to Nansen,
What he went out to do was to explore the Arctic
basin, and, if possible, settle certain problems con-
nected with it. He said this in so many words in
his address to the English Geographical Society in
1892. Here is a typical sentence, and the italics are
Nansen's : — "It may be possible that the current will
not carry us across the Pole, but the principal thing is
to explore the unknown polar regions, not to reach
exactly that mathematical point in which the axis of
our globe has its northern termination." Bearing this

^1%

156 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

in mind, it is impossible to pronounce the expedition
a failure, even if there were no other discovery than
that of the deep sea in the polar regions.

Before leaving in 1893 Dr. Nansen made three
predictions regarding his venture. The first was
that 1896 would probably be the first year in which
it would be heard of The second was that if the
Frain were deserted the party would come home
by Franz Josef Land. The third was that if they
stuck to the ship she would, by the aid of the
drift, bring them out between Spitzbergen and East
Greenland. This is precisely what has happened.
Dr. Nansen has vindicated his theory of the polar
drift, though disappointed somewhat as to its
northerly limit, and discomfited those who main-
tained that in trusting to what they styled " supposed
currents," he was throwing away the lives of himself
and his party. All other performances pale in com-
parison with this feat of the Norwegian explorer.
It is not merely that he has gone some 200 miles
nearer the Pole than any of his predecessors, or
that he has made one of the most daring journeys
on record, but it is that he has established the truth
of his theory of Arctic currents, and has brought
back valuable scientific information. Its organiser
passed over an enormous part of the girth of the
eastern polar sea — covered almost the widest area
of the earth's surface that can be covered in a like
voyage, and they travelled at a pace which permitted
them to mark upon the chart accurately all the
districts traversed. There was no line of retreat, no
going back afid covering the same ground twice, as has
been the case in nearly every previous Arctic voyage.

CONCLUSION. 157

Nansen has made this unparalleled journey in
consequence of his simple plan of not opposing, but
siding with, the Arctic currents and floes. The result
is a most magnificent victory of science, and a proof
that scientific training, no less than courage, persever-
ance, and physical endurance, is necessary in an
Arctic explorer. This splendid success was owing,
as Professor ^lohn stated, " to the fact that Nansen
is a man of science, who, with his mastery of all that
had been done and the penetration of his genius,
could gain an insight into the unknown ; and that,
with unsurpassed practical sense, he knew how to
make the arrangements necessary to secure that his
journey, from beginning to end, should be a unique
success."

Nansen depicts the experiences and sufferings
met with in narratives which are notable both for
their accuracy and modesty. He treats as ordinary
incidents the freezing in of the Fravi ; her years
of solitude in the grip of the ice ; the fact that
he and Johansen, on their ski journey, were without
furs for several months in a temperature which
sank, at times, to the inconceivable cold of 62"
below zero (F.) ; and that for ten months they lived,
like the Eskimo and the Samoyedc, on blubber.
As for the task of gaining land by clambering
from one small ice-floe to another for thirteen con-
tinuous days, he merely mentions it ; and of the
severe winter spent at Franz Josef Land, he remarks
that it " passed well, and we were both in perfect
health." And when he was absolutely cut off from
any hope except the desperate one of getting south,
he points out the moral advantage of having " )io line

158 FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

of retreat." Of such stuff indeed are heroes made.
For his immense courage and fortitude, for his in-
calculable patience and scientific gifts, Nansen
deserves a place in the front rank of Arctic ex-
plorers. When I say this I do not forget the great
services rendered to mankind by Hudson, Davis,
Baffin, the Rosses, Franklin, Kane, McClintock,
Nordenskiold, Nares, Markham, Greeley, and the
rest of the great Arctic explorers, whose doings
aroused emulation in the mind of Fridtjof Nansen,
and who showed him the way through the pack-ice
to success and glory.

Dr. Nansen's work is admirably summarised in
the preface which Mr. William Archer contributes to
his own translation of the biography of Nansen : —
" What Nansen has done, in the teeth of scepticism
and discouragement harder to face, perhaps, than
the Arctic pack-ice and the month-long night, is to
lead the way into the very heart of the polar fast-
nesses, and to show how, with forethought, skill,
and resolution, they can be traversed as safely as
the Straits of Dover. While other explorers have
crept, as it were, towards the Pole, each penetrating,
with incredible toil, a degree or two farther than the
last, Nansen has at one stride enormously reduced
the unconquered distance, and has demonstrated
the justice of his theory as to the right way of
attacking the problem. Nor is this the crown of
his achievement. As the Duke of Wellington
' gained a hundred fights, and never lost an English
gun,' so Nansen has now come forth victorious from
two campaigns, each including many a hard-fought
fray, and has never lost a Norwegian life. We have

CONCLUSION. 159

only to read the tragic record of Arctic exploration
in the past to realise the magnitude of this exploit.
It is in no way lessened by the fact that Nansen has
profited by the hard-earned experience of his pre-
decessors. On the contrary, it is the chief glory of
this expedition that absolute intrepidity went hand
in hand with consu<mmate intelligence." *

A very charming glimpse into the home of Nansen,
such as it represented on the day (13th August) when
the telegram arrived which told of Nansen's safety,
is given by a friend and neighbour of Dr. and Fru
Nansen : — " Yesterday evening, about seven, my wife
and I were walking along the private path leading
to our own and the Nansen's houses, and which
belongs to them and us together. Little four-year-
old Liv Nansen met us, and chattered, * Mamma
has gone to town. Papa is coming home.' On
inquiries I learnt that Fru Nansen had just had
a telegram from her husband, telling her of his
arrival at Vardo. She started at once for Christiania
to tell her mother, and to hear more. I jumped
on my bicycle and went after her. The Karl-
Johannes Gade swarmed with people. The great-
est enthusiasm prevailed. All the cafes were crowded,
and in front of the newspaper offices, where the
telegrams were shown against the walls as they
arrived, the masses were fighting for a place whence
they could read them. Groups were parading the
streets singing national songs and shouting ' Hurrah.'
I was not in time to find Fru Nansen, but on return-
ing to my cottage near the fjord I noticed a procession

* "Life of Nansen" (Longmans, Green & Co.).

l6o FRIDTJOF NANSEN.

of fishing boats sail close to the shore. The fishermen
bared their heads, and shouted ' Hurrah ' three times
three.

"Below the balcony of my studio two children
are playing. It is little Liv and my five-year-old
Hjalmar. The two are inseparable. They are -in
love with each other as in the days of old were
Fridtjof and Ingebord. I can hear their discussion.
' My papa is as strong as a bear,' says Hjalmar.
' My papa is as strong as ' — the little girl hesitates
— *he is the strongest man in the world,' she says
with strong conviction. Little Liv's words contain
more truth than she is aware of

" My wife has just been telling me that she has
had a talk with Fru Nansen. She had gone across
to congratulate the hero's wife. Fru Nansen said,
' I was sitting at home yesterday afternoon, and
thought things very dull. A telegram was brought
to me. At first I hardly cared to open it.' ' Why ?
Were you afraid of bad news ? ' ' Oh, no ; but
I have had so many telegrams, and again and
again they contained nothing. One gets indifferent'
' Well ? ' ' Well, finally I opened it, of course, and
before I had realised what it contained I recognised
his style. To-morrow I start on my journey to meet
him.' ' What a wonderful thing it is for you, after
three anxious years ! ' ' Well, to tell the truth, I never
doubted that he would return ; and then there is
always so much to make life here interesting.' Her
eyes wandered to the golden head of little Liv, who
clung affectionately to her mother."

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F. Pollard, Author of " Florence Nightingale," etc.

Tamsin Rosewarne and Her Burdens : A Tale of

Cornish Life. By Nellie Cornwall.

Through Liife's Shadows. By Eliza F. Pollard, Author

of " Not Wanted," etc.

AWIMAli PICTURE-BOOKS.

^Anecdotes of Animals and Birds. By Uncle John.

With 57 full-page and other Illustrations by Harrison Weir, etc.
Fcap. 4to. 128 pages. Handsomely bound in paper boards, with Animal
design in lo colours, varnished. (A charming book for the Young.)

'^^Storles of Animal Sagacity. By D. J. D. A com-
panion volume to " Anecdotes of Animals." Numerous full-page
Illustrations. Handsomely bound in paper boards, with Animal subject
printed in 10 colours, varnished.

_— —^——^^ ————.— ^—^ '

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ONE SHILLING REWARD BOOKS.

Fully Illustrated, 96 pages. Crotvn 8wo. Cloth extra.

♦Carol's Gift ; or, " What Time I am Afraid I will Trust in
Thee." By Jennie Chappell, Author of " Without a Thought," " The
Man of the Family," " led's Trust," etc,

*Iiady Betty's Twins. By E. M. Waterworth, Author of

" Master Lionel," " Twice Saved," etc.
♦Raymond's Rival; or, Which will Win? By Jennie

Chappell, Author of " Losing and Finding," " Carol's Gift," etc.

Always Happy ; or, The Story of Helen Keller. By

Jennie Chappell, Author of " Ted's Trust ; or, Aunt Elmerley's
Umbrella," "Without a Thought," etc.

Arthur Egerton's Ordeal ; or, God's Ways not Our

Ways.. By the Author of " Ellerslie House," etc.

Birdie and her Dog, and other Stories of Canine

Sagacity. By Mi.ss Phillips.

Birdie's Benefits ; or, A Little Child Shall Lead Them.

By Ethel Ruth Boddy, Author of "Two Girls; or, Seed Sown
Through the Post."

Band of Hope Companion (The). A Hand-book for

Band of Hope Members : Biographical, Historical, Scientific, and
Anecdotal. By Alf. G. Glasspool.

S. W. PARTRIDGE &> CCS

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REW'RD BOOKS (eontinutd).

Brave Bertie. By Edith Kenyon, Author of "Jack's

Heroism," •* Hilda ; or, Life's Discipline," etc

Babes in the Basket (The) ; or, Daph and Her Charge.

With Ten Illustrations.

Children of Cherry holme (The). By M.S. Haycraft,

Author of " Like a Littl« Candle," " Chiac Cabin," etc.
Cared For ; or, The Orphan Wanderers. By Mrs. C E.
Bowen, Author of " Dick and his Donkey," etc

Chine Cabin. By Mrs. Haycraft, Author of " Red Dave,"

" Little Mother," etc
Dulcie Delight. By Jennie Chappell, Author of " Her

Saddest Blessing," " For Honour's Sake," etc.

Frank Burleigh; or, Chosen to be a Soldier. By L.

Phillips.

Frank Spencer's Rule of Life. By J. W. Kirton,

Author of " Buy Your Own Cherries."

Grrannie's Treasures, and How They Helped

Her. By L. E. Tiddeman.

Hazelbrake Hollow. By F. Scarlett Potter, Author of

" Phil's Frolic," etc. Illustrated by Harold Copping.
Harold ; or, Two Died for Me. By Laura A. Barter.
How a Farthing Made a Fortune ; or, " Honesty is

the Best Policy." By Mrs. C. E. Bowen.

How Paul's Penny became a Pound. By Mrs.

Bowen, Author of " Dick and his Donkey."

Jack the Conqueror ; or, Difficulties Overcome. By the

Author of " Dick and his Donkey."

Jemmy Lawson ; or, Beware of Crooked Ways. By E.

C Kenyon, Author of "Jack's Heroism."

Jenny's Geranium ; or, The Prize Flower of a London

Court.

Jim's Discovery; or, On the Edge of a Desert. By

T. M. Browne, Author of " Dawson's Madge," etc.

liittle Bunch's Charge ; or, True to Trust. By Nellie

Cornwall, Author of " Tamsin Rosewame," etc.

Losing and Finding; or, The Moonstone Ring. By

Jennie Chappell, Author of "Who was the Culprit ?" etc.

Little Woodman and his Dog Caesar (The). By

Mrs. Sherwood.

Little Bugler (The) : A Tale of the American Civil War.

By George Munroe Royce. New Edition.
Marjory; or, What Would Jesus do? By Laura A. Barter,

Author of " Harold ; or. Two Died for Me."

Marion and Augusta; or. Love and Selfishness. By
Emma Leslie, Author of " EUerslie House," " The Five Cousins," etc.

CATALOGUE OF NEW &* POPULAR WORKS, ii
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REWARD BOOKS {continiud).

Mother's Chain (The) ; or, The Broken Link. By Emma

Marshall, Author of " Fine Gold ; or, Ravenswood Courtenay," etc.
Nan ; or, The Power of Love. By Eliza F. Pollard, Author of

" Avice," " Hope Deferred," etc.
Old Goggles ; or, The Brackenhurst Bairns' Mistake. By

M. S. Haycraft, Author of " The Children of Cherryholme," etc.
Our Den. By E. M. Waterworth, Author of " Master

Lionel, that Tiresome Child."

Ronald Kennedy ; or, A Domestic Difficulty. By Evelyn

Everett-Green, Author of " Everybody's P>iend," etc.

Recitations and Concerted f*ieces for Bands of Hope,

Sunday Schook, etc. Compiled by James Weston, Author of " Bible
Pictures and Stories," " Sunny Hours," etc.

Sweet Nancy. By L. T. Meade, Author of " Scamp and

I," " A Band of Three," etc.
Twice Saved ; or, Somebody's Pet and Nobody's Darling.
By E. M. Waterworth, Author of " Our Den,' " Master Lionel," etc.

Temperance Stories for the Young. By T. S.

Arthur, Author of " Ten Nights in a Bar Room."

Three Runaways. By F. Scarlett Potter, Author of

•• Phil's Frolic," " Hazelbrake Hollow," etc.

Una Bruce's Troubles. By Alice Price, Author of

" Hamilton of King's," etc. Illustrated by Harold Copping.

Under the Blossom. By Margaret Haycraft, Author

of " Like a Little Candle ; or, Bertrand s Influence," etc

Wait till it Blooms. By Jennie Chappell, Author of

" Her Saddest Blessing," etc.
Who was the Culprit 7 By Jennie Chappell, Author
of " Her Saddest Blessing," " The Man of the Family," etc.

POPOLAR SHILLING SERIES.

Crown 8f o, well printed on good paper ^ and bound in attractive and
tasteful coloured paper covers. Fully Illustrated,

Louie's Mappied Life. By

Sarah Doudnev.

Living: it Down. By Laura M.

The Stpait Gate.
The Bettep Part.
Mapk Desbopoughs

By
Annie
Vow. ~ / S.

Grandmothep's Child, I Swan.

and Fcr Lucy's Sake.

A Way in the Wilderness.

By Maggie Swan.
Cousin MaPy. By Mrs. Oliphant.
Easrlehupst Toweps. By Mrs.

Emma Marshall.

Without a Thought. ) Ry.^
Hep Saddest Blessing. |c)^p"peu

Fine Gold ; or, Ravenswood
Courtenay. By Emma Marshall,

Tht above can also be had in fancy chth, pric* I*. 6d.

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PICTURE BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.

Fcap, ifto. With Coloured Covers, and Full of Illustrations.

*FolIovir the Drum : Pictures and Stories for Cheerful and
Glum. By Uncle Jack, Author of " Bright Beams and Happy Scenes,"
etc. Four full-page coloured and numerous other illustrations.

*Ofr and Auray : Pictures and Stories for Grave and Gay.
By C. D. M., Author of " Brightness and Beauty," etc. Four full-page
coloured, and numerous other Illustrations.

Bible Pictures and Stories. Old Testament. By D. J. D.,

Author of " Pets Abroad," etc. With Forty-four full-page Illustrations.
Coloured paper boards, is. ; cloth gilt, is. 6d.

Bible Pictures and Stories. New Testament. By

James Weston and D. J. D. With Forty-five beautiful full-page
Illustrations by W. J. Webb, Sir John Gilbert, and others. New
Edition. Fcap, 4to. Illustrated boards, is. ; cloth, extra, is. 6d.

Bright Beams and Happy Scenes: A Picture

Book for Little Folk. ByJ. D. Four full-page coloured and numerous
other Illustrations. Coloured paper cover, is. ; cloth, is. 6d.

Brightness and Beauty : A Picture Story Book for the

Young. By C. D. M. Four full-page coloured and many other
Illustrations. Coloured paper cover, is. ; cloth, is. 6d.

Holiday Hours in Animal Land. (New Series.)

By Uncle Harry. Four full-page coloured and numerous other

Illustrations. Coloured paper cover, is. ; cloth, is. 6d.
Merry Moments. A Picture Book for Lads and Lasses.

By C. D. M. Four full-page coloured and many other Illustratioos.

Coloured paper cover, is.; cloth, is. 6d.
Mirth and Joy : A Picture Story Book for Little Readers.

By J. D. Four full-page coloured and numerous other Illustrations.

Coloured paper cover, i s. ; cloth, i s. 6d.

BOOKS BY REV. DR. NEWTOV.

New and Cheap Edition. 1 60 pages. Crown '6vo. Prettily bound in
cloth boards, is. each.

Bible Jewels. | Bible Wonders.

Rills from the Fountain of Life.
The Giants, and How to Fight Them.

Specially suitable for Sunday School Libraries and Rewards,

CHEAP REPRINTS OF POPULAR STORIES FOR THE YOUNQ.

Crown ?ivo. 160 pages. Illustrated. Cloth boards, ta. each.

Ellerslie House : A Book for Boys. By Emma Leslie.
Manchester House : A Tale of Two Apprentises.

By J. Capes Story.

Like a JLittle Candle; or, Bertrand's Influence.

By Mrs. Haycraft.

Violet Maitland ; or, By Thorny Ways. By Laura M. Lane.
Martin Redfern's Oath. By Ethel F. Heddle.
Dairyman's Daughter (The). By Legh Richmond.

CATALOGUE OF NEW ^ POPULAR WORKS. 13

Sttm oach.

NINEPENNY SERIES OF ILLU8TRATHD BOOKS.

^ pages. Small Crown 8vo, lUusirated. Handsome Cloth Covers.

•Paul, A Little Mediator. By Maude M. Butler, Author of

"The Story of Little Hal," etc.
*A Flight iflrith the Sisralloiars. By Emma Marshall*

Author of " The Mother's Chain," etc.

Boy's Friendship (A). By Jesse Page.

BeFs Baby. By Mary E. Ropes, Author of " Talkative
Friends," etc.

Benjamin Holt's Boys, and What They Did for

Him. By the Author of " A Candle Lighted by the Lord."
Ben's Boyhood. By the Author of " Jack the Conqueror,"

etc.
Ben Owen : A Lancashire Story. By Jennie Perrett.
Cousin Bessie : A Story of Youthful Earnestness. By

Clara Lucas Balfour.

Dawson's Madge ; or. The Poacher's Daughter. By T.

M. Browne, Author of " The Musgrove Ranch," etc

Five Cousins (The). By Emma Leslie.

Foolish Chrissy ; or, Discontent and its Consequences. By

Meta, Author of " Noel's Lesson," etc.

For Lucy's Sake. By Annie S. Swan.

Giddie Garland; or, The Three Mirrors. By Jennie
Chappell.

Grandmother's Child. By Annie S. Swan.

Into the Light. By Jennie Perrett.

Jean Jacques : A Story of the Franco-Prussian War. By

Isabel Lawford.

John Oriel's Start in Life. By Mary Howitt.

Little Mother. By Margaret Haycraft.

Left with a Trust. By Nellie Hellis.

Letty ; or. The Father of the Fatherless. By H. Clement,
Author of " Elsie's Fairy Bells."

Love's Golden Key; or, The Witch of Berryton. By

Mary E. Lester.

Master Lionel, that Tiresome Child. By E. M.

Waterworth.

Man of the Family (The). By Jennie Chappell.
Mattie's Home ; or, The Little Match-girl and her Friends.
Rosa; or, The Two Castles. By Eliza Weaver Bradburn.
Sailor's Lass (A). By Emma Leslie.

14

S. W. PARTRIDGE &* CO.'S

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WEW SERTE9 OF SIXPENNY PI0TORE-B00K8.

Crtmm quarto. Fully Illustrated. Handsomely bound in paprr boards,
with design printed in Eight colours.

*Under the Uinbrella,Piotures and Stories for Rainy Days.

^Rosie Dimple's Pictures and Stories for Tiny

Folk.
^Playful Pussies' Book of Piotures and Stories.
^Little Snowdrop's Bible Pioture-Book.

This Ntvo Series of Picture Books surpasses, in excellence of illustration
and careful printing, all others at the price.

THE "RED DAYE" SERIES.

New and Enlarged Edition, with Coloured Frontispieces. Hand'
sotnely bound in cloth boards.

Mother's Boy. By M.B.Manwell.

A Great Mistake. By Jennie

Chappell.

From Hand to Hand. By C.

J. Hamilton.
That Boy Bob. By Jesse Page.

Buy Youp Own Cheppies. By

J. \V. Kirton.

Owen's Foptune. By Mrs. F.

West.

Only Milly ; or, A Child's King-
dom.
Shad's Christmas Gift,
(ipeyeliffe Abbey.

Red Dave ; or, What Wilt Thou

have Me to do ?

Happy's Monkey: How it Helped
the Missionaries.

SnOWdPOps ; or. Life from the

Dead.

Dick and his Donkey ; or, How

to Pay the Rent.

Hepbept's First Year at Bram-

ford.

Lost in the Snow; or, The

Kentish hisherman.

The Peaply Gates.

Jessie Dyson.

Maude's Visit to Sandybeaeh.

Fpiendless Bob, and other Stories.

Come Home, Mothep.
Sybil and hep Live SnowbalL
Only a Bunch of Cheppies.
Daybpeak.

Bpight Ben : The Story of a
Wotner's Boy.

THE MARiaOLn SERIES.

An entirely new and unequalled series of standard stories, printed on
good laid paper, /mperialivo. 12^ pages. Illustrated covers with
vignetted design printed in EIGHT colours. Price 6d. each, nett.

•Pride and Prejudice. By

Jane Avsten.

*From Jest to Earnest. By E.

p. Roe.

•The Wide, Wide World.

Susan Warner.

By

CATALOGUE OF NEW &* POPULAR WORKS. 15

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MEW rOURPEMMY SERIES

»f Cloth-bound Books for tJu Young, With Coloured Frontispieets.

64 pajits. Well Illustrated.

Poppy; or, School Days at
bamt Bride's.

Carrie and the Cobbler.
Dandy Jim.
A Troublesome Trio.
Peppy's Pilgrimagre.

Nlta ; or, Among the Brigands.

THE TINY UBRARY.

Books printed in
Little ChPissle, and other Stories.

Harry Carlton's Holiday.
A Little Loss and a Big

Find.

What a LiUle Cripple Did.

Bobby.

Matty and Tom.

Handsonu Cloth Covers.

The Crab's Umbrella.
Sunnyside Cottage.
Those Barringrton Boys.
Two Lilies.
The Little Woodman and

His Dog Caesar.

Robert's Trust.

for

large type. Cloth.

The Broken Window.
John Madge's Cure

BelflshnesB.

The Pedlar's Loan.
Letty Young's Trials.
Brave Boys.
Little Jem, the Rag Merchant.

CHEAP "PANSY" SERIES.

Ifnperial 2ivo.
Five Colours.

64 pages. Many Illustrations. Cover printed in

*Spun From Fact.
♦A Sevenfold Trouble.
*A Young; Girl's Wooing.
From Different Standpoints.
Those Boys.

Echoing and Re-echoing.
Christie's Christmas.
Wise to Win ; or, The Master
Hand.

Mrs. Solomon Smith Looking

On.

Links In Rebecca's Life.

Chrissy's Endeavour.

Three People.

Interrupted.

The Pocket Measure.

Little Fishers and their Nets

A New Graft on the Family

Iree.

The Man of the House.
Tip Lewis and His Lamp.

Also la others uniform in style and price. Full list on application.

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THE PRETTY " OIFT-BOOK " SERIES.

With Coloured Frontispiece, and Illustrations on every page. Paper
boards, Covers printed in Five Colours and Varnished, ^d. ; cloth
boards, 4</. each.

My Pretty Picture Book.
Birdie s Picture Book.
Baiby's Delight.

Mamma's Pretty Stories.
Tiny Tot's Treasures.
Papa's Present.

Pretty Bible Stories.

Baby'^s Bible Picture Book.

Ethel's Keepsake.

Out of School.

Pictures for Laughing Eyes.

Cheerful and Happy.

i6 S. W. PARTRIDGE 6- CO:S CATALOGUE.

ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY PERIODICALS.

Threepence Monthly.
THE OSBORNE.

An Entirely New Magazine of tact and Kiction for General Home Reading.
Stories and Articles by S. R. Crockett, Lady J tune, Sarah Doudney, John Strange
Winter, Mary Beaumont, C. J. Mansford, L. T. Meade, Evelyn Everett-Green,
H. D. Lowry, Marv Kernahan, Dr. A. H. japp, Isabella Fyvie Mayo, A. E. Bonser,
\V. Jerrold, etc. Illustrated by the best artists. First number ready October asrd.

One Penny Monthly.
THE BRITISH WORKMAN.

An Illustrated Paper containing brightly-written Articles and Stories on
Religion, Temperance, and Thrift, short Biographical Sketches of Selt-made
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The Yearly Volume, with Coloured paper boards, clcth back, and full of
Engravings, is. 6d. each ; cloth, zs. 6d.

One Halfpenny Monthly.
THE BAND OF HOPE REVIEW.

The Leading Temperance Periodical for the Young, csntaining Serial and
Short Stories, Concerted Recitations, Prize Competitions, etc

The Yearly Volume, with Coloured Cover and full of Engravings, cloth
back, IS. ; cloth gilt, as. each.

One Penny Monthly.

THE CHILDREN'S FRIEND.

The Oldest and Best Magazine for Children. Excellent Serial and Short
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The Yearly Volume, Coloured paper boards, cloth back, is. 6d. ; cloth, as. ;
gilt edges, zs. 6d.

One Penny Monthly.

THE INFANTS' MAGAZINE.

Full »f charming Pictures and pleasant Rhymes to delight the little ones.
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The Yearly Volume, in Coloured paper boards, cloth back, is. 6d. ; cloth,
2S. ; gilt edges, 3s. 6d.

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A beautifully Illustrated Magazine for the Home Circle, containing Serial and
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The Y^early Volume, with numerous Engravings, Coloured paper boards,
cloth back, is. 6d. ; cloth, as. ; gilt edges, as. 6d.

i

One Penny Monthly.

THE FRIENDLY VISITOR.

AN ILLUSTRATED GOSPEL MAGAZINE FOR THE PEOPLE.
Contains striking Gospel Stories and Articles, in large type, beautifully
Illustrated. An invaluable help to District Visitors, Mission worlcers, etc
The Yearly Volume, Coloured Cover, cloth back, is. td. ; cloth, as. ; gilt
edges, as. 6d.

8 6-9, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.