menu_book Chapter 3

file three of farthest north volume one this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by sharon risk it all farthest north by friedchof nansen volume one chapter one introduction part two let us now enquire whether further reasons can be found to show why this current flows exactly in the given direction if we examine the ocean soundings we at once find a conclusive reason why the main outlet must lie between spitzbergen and greenland the sea here so far as we know it is at all points very deep there is indeed a channel of as much as two thousand five hundred fathoms depth while south of spitzbergen and franz joseph land it is remarkably shallow not more than one hundred sixty fathoms as has been stated a current passes northwards through bering strait and smith sound and the sounds between the islands north of america though here indeed there is a southward current are far too small and narrow to form adequate outlets for the mass of water of which we are speaking there is therefore no other assumption left than that this mass of water must find its outlet by the route actually followed by the polar current the channel discovered by the jeanette expedition between wrangell land and the new siberian islands may here be mentioned as a notable fact

it extended in a northerly direction and was at some points more than eighty fathoms deep while at the sides the soundings ran only to forty or fifty fathoms it is by no means impossible that this channel may be a continuation of the channel between spitzbergen and greenland in which case it would certainly influence if not actually determine the direction of the main current if we examine the conditions of wind and atmospheric pressure over the polar sea as far as they are known it would appear that they must tend to produce a current across the pole in the direction indicated from the atlantic to the south of spitzbergen and franz josef land a belt of low atmospheric pressure minimum belt extends into the siberian arctic sea in accordance with well-known laws the wind must have a preponderating direction from west to east on the south side of this belt and this would promote an eastward flowing current along the north coast of siberia such as has been found to exist there

the winds on the north side of the minimum belt must however blow mainly in a direction from east to west and will consequently produce a westerly current passing across the pole towards the greenland sea exactly as we have seen to be the case it thus appears that from whatever side we consider this question even apart from the specially cogent evidences above cited we cannot escape the conclusion that a current passes across or very near to the pole into the sea between greenland and spitzbergen this being so it seems to me that the plain thing for us to do is to make our way into the current on that side of the pole where it flows northward and by its help to penetrate into those regions which all who have hitherto worked against it have sought in vain to reach my plan is briefly as follows i propose to have a ship built as small and as strong as possible just big enough to contain supplies of coals and provisions for twelve men for five years a ship of about one hundred seventy tons gross will probably suffice its engine should be powerful enough to give a speed of six knots but in addition it must also be fully rigged for sailing

the main point in this vessel is that it be built on such principles as to enable it to withstand the pressure of the ice the sides must slope sufficiently to prevent the ice when it presses together from getting firm hold of the hull as was the case with the jeannette and other vessels instead of nipping the ship the ice must raise it up out of the water no very new departure in construction is likely to be needed for the jeanette notwithstanding her preposterous build was able to hold out against the ice pressure for about two years that a vessel can easily be built on such lines as to fulfil these requirements no one will question who has seen a ship nipped by the ice for the same reason too the ship ought to be a small one for besides being thus easier to manoeuvre in the ice it will be more readily lifted by the pressure of the ice not to mention that it will be easier to give it the requisite strength it must of course be built of picked materials a ship of the form and size here indicated will not be a good or comfortable sea-boat but that is of minor importance in waters filled with ice such as we are here speaking of

it is true that it would have to travel a long distance over the open sea before it would get so far but it would not be so bad a sea-boat as to be unable to get along even though sea-sick passengers might have to offer sacrifices to the gods of the sea with such a ship and a crew of ten or at the most twelve able-bodied and carefully picked men with a full equipment for five years in every respect as good as modern appliances permit of i am of opinion that the undertaking would be well secured against risk with this ship we should sail up through bering strait and westward along the north coast of siberia towards the new siberian islands as early in the summer as the ice would permit arrived at the new siberian islands it will be advisable to employ the time to the best advantage in examining the conditions of currents and ice and to wait for the most opportune moment to advance as far as possible in ice-free water which judging by the accounts of the ice conditions north of bering strait given by american whalers will probably be in august or the beginning of september

when the right time has arrived then we shall plough our way in amongst the ice as far as we can we may venture to conclude from the experience of the janet expedition that we should thus be able to reach a point north of the most northerly of the new siberian islands the sea de long notes in his journey that while the expedition was drifting in the ice north of bennett island they saw all around them a dark water sky that is to say a sky which gives a dark reflection of open water indicating such a sea as would be at all events to some extent navigable by a strong ice-ship next it must be borne in mind that the whole jeannette expedition travelled in boats partly in open water from bennett island to the siberian coast where as we know the majority of them met with a lamentable end nordenskjold advanced no farther northwards than to the southernmost of the islands mentioned at the end of august but here he found the water everywhere open it is therefore probable that we may be able to push our way up past the new siberian islands and that accomplished we shall be right in the current which carried the jeanette the thing will then be simply to force our way northwards till we are set fast

next we must choose a fitting place and moor the ship firmly between suitable ice-floes and then let the ice screw itself together as much as it likes the more the better the ship will simply be hoisted up and will ride safely and firmly it is possible it may heel over to a certain extent under this pressure but that will scarcely be of much importance henceforth the current will be our motive power while our ship no longer a means of transport will become a barrack and we shall have ample time for scientific observations in this manner the expedition will as above indicated probably drift across the pole and onwards to the sea between greenland and spitzbergen and when we get down to the eightieth degree of latitude or even sooner if it is summer there is every likelihood of our getting the ship free and being able to sail home should she however be lost before this which is certainly possible though as i think very unlikely if she is constructed in the way above described

the expedition will not therefore be a failure for our homeward course must in any case follow the polar current on to the north atlantic basin there is plenty of ice to drift on and of this means of locomotion we have already had experience if the jeanette expedition had had sufficient provisions and had remained on the ice-floe on which the relics were ultimately found the result would doubtless have been very different from what it was our ship cannot possibly founder under the ice pressure so quickly but that there would be time enough to remove with all our equipment and provisions to a substantial ice-flow which we should have selected beforehand in view of such a contingency here the tents which we should take with us to meet this contingency would be pitched in order to preserve our provisions and other equipments we should not place them altogether on one spot but should distribute them over the ice laying them on rafts of planks and beams which we should have built on it this will obviate the possibility of any of our equipments sinking even should the floe on which they are break up

the crew of the hansa who drifted for more than half a year along the east coast of greenland in this way lost a great quantity of their supplies for the success of such an expedition two things only are required that is good clothing and plenty of food and these we can take care to have with us we should thus be able to remain as safely on our ice-floe as in our ship and should advance just as well towards the greenland sea the only difference would be that on our arrival there instead of proceeding by ship we must take to our boats which would convey us just as safely to the nearest harbour thus it seems to me there is an overwhelming probability that such an expedition would be successful many people however will certainly urge in all currents there are eddies and backwaters suppose then you get into one of these or perhaps stumble on an unknown land up by the pole and remain lying fast there how will you extricate yourselves

to this i would merely reply as concerns the backwater that we must get out of it just as surely as we got into it and that we shall have provisions for five years and as regards the other possibility we should hail such an occurrence with delight for no spot on earth could well be found of greater scientific interest on this newly discovered land we should make as many observations as possible should time wear on and find us still unable to get our ship into the set of the current again there would be nothing for it but to abandon her and with our boats and necessary stores to search for the nearest current in order to drift in the manner before mentioned how long may we suppose such a voyage to occupy as we have already seen the relics of the chenette expedition at most took two years to drift along the same course down to the eightieth degree of latitude

where we may with tolerable certainty count upon getting loose this would correspond to a rate of about two miles per day of twenty-four hours we may therefore not unreasonably calculate on reaching this point in the course of two years and it is also possible that the ship might be set free in a higher latitude than is here contemplated five years provisions must therefore be regarded as ample but is not the cold in winter in these regions so severe that life will be impossible there is no probability of this we can even say with tolerable certainty that the pole itself is not so cold in winter as it is for example in the north of siberia an inhabited region or on the northern part of the west coast of greenland which is also inhabited meteorologists have calculated that the mean temperature at the pole in january is about minus thirty three degrees fahrenheit minus thirty six degrees c while for example in yakutsk it is minus forty three degrees fahrenheit minus forty two degrees c and in verkhayansk minus fifty four degrees fahrenheit minus forty eight degrees c

we should remember that the pole is probably covered with sea radiation from which is considerably less than from large land surfaces such as the plains of north asia the polar region has therefore in all probability a marine climate with comparatively mild winters but by way of a set-off with cold summers the cold in these regions cannot then be any direct obstacle one difficulty however which many former expeditions have had to contend against and which must not be overlooked here is scurvy during a sojourn of any long duration in so cold a climate this malady will unquestionably show itself unless one is able to obtain fresh provisions i think however it may be safely assumed that the very various and nutritious foods now available in the form of hermetically closed preparations of different kinds together with the scientific knowledge we now possess of the foodstuffs necessary for bodily health will enable us to hold this danger at a distance nor do i think that there will be an entire absence of fresh provisions in the water we shall travel through

polar bears and seals we may safely calculate on finding far to the north if not up to the very pole it may be mentioned also that the sea must certainly contain quantities of small animals that might serve as food in case of necessity it will be seen that whatever difficulties may be suggested as possible they are not so great but they can be surmounted by means of a careful equipment a fortunate selection of the members of the expedition and judicious leadership so that good results may be hoped for we may reckon on getting out into the sea between greenland and spitzbergen as surely as we can reckon on getting into the chenette current off the new siberian islands but if this chenette current does not pass right across the pole if for instance it passes between the pole and franz josef land as above intimated what will the expedition do in that case to reach the earth's axis yes this may seem to be the achilles heel of the undertaking for should the ship be carried past the pole at more than one degree's distance it may then appear extremely imprudent and unsafe

to abandon it in mid current and face such a long sledge journey over uneven sea-ice which itself is drifting even if one reached the pole it would be very uncertain whether one could find the ship again on returning i am however of opinion that this is of small import it is not to seek for the exact mathematical point that forms the northern extremity of the earth's axis that we set out for to reach this point is intrinsically a small moment our object is to investigate the great unknown region that surrounds the pole and these investigations will be equally important from a scientific point of view whether the expedition passes over the polar point itself or at some distance from it in this lecture i had submitted the most important data on which my plan was founded but in the following years i continued to study the conditions of the northern waters and received ever fresh proofs that my surmise of a drift right across the polar sea was correct

in a lecture delivered before the geographical society in christiania on september twenty eighth eighteen ninety two i alluded to some of these enquiries i laid stress on the fact that on considering the thickness and extent of the drift ice in the seas on both sides of the pole one cannot but be struck by the fact that while the ice on the asiatic side north of the siberian coast is comparatively thin the ice in which the jeannette drifted was as a rule not more than from seven to ten feet thick that on the other side which comes drifting from the north in the sea between greenland and switzbergen is remarkably massive and this notwithstanding that the sea north of siberia is one of the coldest tracts on the earth this i suggested could be explained only on the assumption that the ice is constantly drifting from the siberian coast and that while passing through the unknown and cold sea there is time for it to attain its enormous thickness partly by freezing partly by the constant packing that takes place as the floes screw themselves together i further mentioned in the same lecture that the mud found on this drift-ice seemed to point to a siberian origin

i did not at the time attach great importance to this fact but on a further examination of the deposits i had collected during my greenland expedition it appeared that it could scarcely come from anywhere else but siberia on investigating its mineralogical composition dr tornabalm of stockholm came to the conclusion that the greater part of it must be siberian river mud he found about twenty different minerals in it this quantity of dissimilar constituent mineral parts appears to me he says to point to the fact that they take their origin from a very extensive tract of land and one sots naturally turned to siberia moreover more than half of this mud deposit consisted of humus or boggy soil more interesting however than the actual mud deposit were the diatoms found in it which were examined by professor cleve of upsala who says these diatoms are decidedly marine i e take their origin from salt water with some few fresh-water forms which the wind has carried from land the diatomus flora in this dust is quite peculiar and unlike what i have found in many thousands of other specimens

with one exception with which it shows the most complete conformity namely a specimen which was collected by kelman during the vega expedition on an ice-floe off cape von caram near bering strait species and varieties were perfectly identical in both specimens cleve was able to distinguish sixteen species of diatoms all these appear also in the dust from cape von caram and twelve of them have been found at that place alone and nowhere else in all the world this was a notable coincidence between two such remote points and cleve is certainly right in saying it is indeed quite remarkable that the diatomus flora on the ice-floes off bering strait and on the east coast of greenland should so completely resemble each other and should be so utterly unlike all others it points to an open connection between the seas east of greenland and north of asia through this open connection i continued in my address drift-ice is therefore yearly transported across the unknown polar sea on this same drift-ice and by the same route it must be no less possible to transport an expedition

when this plan was propounded it certainly met with approval in various quarters especially here at home thus it was vigorously supported by professor mohn who indeed by his explanation of the drift of the chanette relics had given the original impulse to it but as might be expected it met with opposition in the main especially from abroad while most of the polar travellers and arctic authorities declared more or less openly that it was sheer madness the year before we set out in november eighteen ninety two i laid it before the geographical society in london in a lecture at which the principal arctic travellers of england were present after the lecture a discussion took place which plainly showed how greatly i was at variance with the generally accepted opinions as to the conditions in the interior of the polar sea the principles of ice navigation and the methods that a polar expedition ought to pursue the eminent arctic traveller admiral sir leopold mcclintock opened the discussion with a remark i think i may say this is the most adventurous programme ever brought under the notice of the royal geographical society

he allowed that the facts spoke in favor of the correctness of my theories but was in a high degree doubtful whether my plan could be realized he was especially of opinion that the danger of being crushed in the ice was too great a ship could no doubt be built that would be strong enough to resist the ice pressure in summer but should it be exposed to this pressure in the winter months when the ice resembled a mountain frozen fast to the ship's side he thought that the possibility of being forced up on the surface of the ice was very remote he firmly believed as did the majority of the others that there was no probability of ever seeing the fram again when once she had given herself over to the pitiless polar ice and concluded by saying i wish the doctor full and speedy success but it will be a great relief to his many friends in england when he returns and more particularly to those who have had experience of the dangers at all times inseparable from ice navigation even in regions not quite so far north admiral sir george naras said the adopted arctic axioms for successfully navigating an icy region are that it is absolutely necessary to keep close to a coast-line

and that the farther we advance from civilization the more desirable it is to insure a reasonably safe line of retreat totally disregarding these the ruling principle of the voyage is that the vessel on which if the voyage is in any way successful the sole future hope of the party will depend is to be pushed deliberately into the pack ice thus her commander in lieu of retaining any power over her future movements will be forced to submit to be drifted helplessly about in agreement with the natural movements of the ice in which he is imprisoned supposing the sea currents are as stated the time calculated as necessary to drift with the pack across the polar ice is several years during which time unless new lands are met with the ice near the vessel will certainly never be quiet and the ship herself never free from the danger of being crushed by ice-presses to guard against this the vessel is said to be unusually strong and of a special form to enable her to rise when the ice presses against her sides this idea is no novelty whatever but when once frozen into the polar pack the form of the vessel goes for nothing she is hermetically sealed too and forms a part of the ice-block surrounding her

the form of the ship is for all practical purposes the form of the block of ice in which she is frozen this is a matter of the first importance for there is no record of a vessel frozen into the polar pack having been disconnected from the ice and so rendered capable of rising under pressure as a separate body detached from the ice block even in the height of summer in the event of the destruction of the vessel the boats necessarily fully stored not only for the retreat but for continuing the voyage are to be available this is well in theory but extremely difficult to range for in practice preparation to abandon the vessel is the one thing that gives us the most anxiety to place boats etc on the ice-pack ready for use involves the danger of being separated from them by a movement of the ice or of losing them altogether should a sudden opening occur

if we merely have everything handy for heaving over the side the emergency may be so sudden that we have not time to save anything as regards the assumed drift of the polar ice narez expressed himself on the whole at variance with me he insisted that the drift was essentially determined by the prevailing winds as to the probable direction of the drift the fram starting from near the mouth of the lena river may expect to meet the main pack not farther north than about latitude seventy six degrees thirty minutes i doubt her getting farther north before she is beset but taking an extreme case and giving her sixty miles more she will then only be in the same latitude as cape chelyuskin seven hundred thirty miles from the pole and about six hundred miles from my supposed limit of the effective homeward carrying ocean current after a close study of all the information we possess i think the wind will be more likely to drift her towards the west than towards the east with an ice-encumbered sea north of her and more open water or newly made ice to the southward the chances are small for a northerly drift

at all events at first and afterwards i know of no natural forces that will carry the vessel in any reasonable time much farther from the siberian coast than the chanat was carried and during the whole of this time unless protected by newly discovered lands she will be to all intents and purposes immovably sealed up in the pack and exposed to its well-known dangers there is no doubt that there is an ocean connection across the area proposed to be explored in one point however narrows was able to declare himself in agreement with me it was the idea that the principal aim of all such voyages 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 sir alan young says among other things dr nonson assumes the blank space around the axis of the earth to be a pool of water or ice i think the great danger to contend with will be the land in nearly every direction near the pole most previous navigators seem to have continued seeing land again and again further and further north

these chanette relics may have drifted through narrow channels and thus finally arrived at their destination and i think it would be an extremely dangerous thing for a ship to drift through them where she might impinge upon the land and be kept for years with regard to the ship's form sir alan young says i do not think the form of the ship is any great point for when a ship is fairly nipped the question is if there is any swell or movement of the ice to lift the ship if there is no swell the ice must go through her whatever material she is made of one or two authorities however expressed themselves in favor of my plan one was the arctic traveller sir e inglefield another captain now admiral wharton director of the hydrographic department of england in a letter to the geographical society admiral sir george h richard says on the occasion of my address i regret to have to speak discouragingly of this project but i think that any one who can speak with authority ought to speak plainly where so much may be at stake

with regard to the currents he says i believe there is a constant outflow i prefer this word to current from the north in consequence of the displacement of the water from the region of the pole by the ice-cap which covers it intensified in its density by the enormous weight of snow accumulated on its surface this outflow takes place on all sides he thinks from the polar basin but should be most pronounced in the tract between the western ends of the parry islands and spitzbergen and with this outflow all previous expeditions have had to contend he does not appear to make any exception as to the tegethof or janet and can find no reason for believing that a current sets north over the pole from the new siberian islands which dr nansen hopes for and believes in it is my opinion that when really within what may be called the inner circle say about seventy eight degrees of latitude there is little current of any kind that would influence a ship in the close ice that must be expected it is when we get outside this circle round the corners as it were into the straight wide channels where the ice is loose that we are really affected by its influence

and here the ice gets naturally thinner and more decayed in autumn and less dangerous to a ship within the inner circle probably not much of the ice escapes it becomes older and heavier every year and in all probability completely blocks the navigation of ships entirely this is the kind of ice which was brought to nara's winter quarters at the head of smith sound in about eighty two degrees thirty minutes north and this is the ice which markham struggled against in his sledge journey and against which no human power could prevail he attached no real importance to the jeanette relics if found in greenland they may well have drifted down on a floe from the neighborhood of smith sound from some of the american expeditions which went to greeley's rescue it may also well be that some of de long's printed or written documents in regard to his equipment may have been taken out by these expeditions and the same may apply to the other articles he does not however expressly say whether there was any indication of such having been the case in a similar letter to the geographical society the renowned botanist sir joseph hooker says dr nansen's project is a wide departure from any hitherto put in practice for the purpose of polar discovery and it demands the closest scrutiny both on this account

and because it is one involving the greatest peril from my experience of three seasons in the antarctic regions i do not think that a ship of whatever build could long resist destruction if committed to the movements of the pack in the polar regions one built as strongly as the fram would no doubt resist great pressures in the open pack but not any pressure or repeated pressures and still less the thrust of the pack if driven with or by it against land the lines of the fram might be of service so long as she was on an even keel or an ice of no great height above the water-line but amongst floes and bergs or when thrown on her beam ends they would avail her nothing if the fram were to drift towards the greenland coast or the american polar islands he is of opinion that supposing a landing could be effected there would be no probability at all of salvation assuming that a landing could be effected it must be on an inhospitable and probably ice-bound coast or on the mountainous ice of a paleocristic sea

with a certainly enfeebled and probably reduced ship's company there could in such a case be no prospect of reaching succour putting aside the possibility of scurvy against which there is no certain prophylactic have the depressing influence on the minds of the crew resulting from long confinement in very close quarters during the many months of darkness extreme cold inaction nui constant peril and the haunting uncertainty as to the future been sufficiently taken into account perfunctory duties and occupations do not avert the effects of these conditions they hardly mitigate them and have been known to aggravate them i do not consider the attainment of dr nonson's object by the means at his disposal to be impossible but i do consider that the success of such an enterprise would not justify the exposure of valuable lives for its attainment in america general greeley the leader of the ill-fated expedition generally known by his name eighteen eighty one to eighty four wrote an article in the forum august eighteen ninety one in which he says among other things

it strikes me as almost incredible that the plan here advanced by dr nonson should receive encouragement or support it seems to me to be based on fallacious ideas as to physical conditions within the polar regions and to foreshadow if attempted barren results apart from the suffering and death among its members dr nonson so far as i know has had no arctic service his crossing of greenland however difficult is no more polar work than the scaling of mount st elias it is doubtful if any hydrogopher would treat seriously his theory of polar currents or if any arctic traveller would endorse the whole scheme there are perhaps a dozen men whose arctic service has been such that the positive support of this plan by even a respectable minority would entitle it to consideration and confidence these men are admiral mcclintock richards collinson and nares and captain markham of the royal navy sir allan young and lee smith of england coldaway of germany pyre of austria norganschold of sweden and melville in our own country

i have no hesitation in asserting that no two of these believe in the possibility of nonson's first proposition to build a vessel capable of living or navigating in a heavy arctic pack into which it is proposed to put his ship the second proposition is even more hazardous involving as it does a drift of more than two thousand miles in a straight line through an unknown region during which the party in its voyage lasting two or more years we are told would take only boats along and camp on an iceberg and live there while floating across after this general greeley proceeds to prove the falsity of all my assumptions respecting the objects from the genet he says plainly that he does not believe in them probably some drift articles were found he says and it would seem more reasonable to trace them to the porteus which was wrecked in smith sound about one thousand miles north of yulian

it is further important to note that if the articles were really from the jeannette the nearest route would have been not across the north pole along the east coast of greenland but down kennedy channel and by way of smith sound and baffin bay as was suggested as to drift from the porteus we could not possibly get near the pole itself by a long distance says greeley as we know almost as well as if we had seen it that there is in the unknown regions an extensive land which is the birthplace of the flat-topped icebergs or the paleochristic ice in this glacier covered land which he is of opinion must be over three hundred miles in diameter and which sends out icebergs to greenland as well as to franz joseph's land the pole itself must be situated as to the indestructible ship he says it is certainly a most desirable thing for dr nonson his meaning however is that it cannot be built dr nonson appears to believe that the question of building on such lines as will give the ship the greatest power of resistance to the pressure of the ice-flow has not been thoroughly and satisfactorily solved although hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent for this end by the seal and whaling companies of scotland and newfoundland

as an authority he quotes melville and says every arctic navigator of experience agrees with melville's dictum that even if built solid a vessel could not withstand the ice pressure of the heavy polar pack to my assertion that the ice along the siberian coast is comparatively thin seven to ten feet he again quotes melville who speaks of ice fifty feet high etc something we did not discover by the way during the whole of our voyage after giving still more conclusive proofs that the fram must inevitably go to the bottom as soon as it should be exposed to the pressure of the ice he goes on to refer to the impossibility of drifting in the ice with boats and he concludes his article with the remark that arctic exploration is sufficiently credited with rashness and danger in its legitimate and sanctioned methods without bearing the burden of dr nonson's illogical scheme of self-destruction from an article greeley wrote after our return home in harper's weekly for september nineteenth eighteen ninety six he appears to have come to the conclusion that the jeanette relics were genuine and that the assumption of their drift may have been correct mentioning melville doll and others as not believing in them

he also allows that my scheme has been carried out in spite of what he had said this time he concludes the article as follows in contrasting the expeditions of de long and nansen it is necessary to allude to the single blemish that mars the otherwise magnificent career of nansen who deliberately quitted his comrades on the ice-beset ship hundreds of miles from any known land with the intention of not returning but in his own reported words to go to spitzbergen where he felt certain to find a ship six hundred miles away the long and ambler had such a sense of honor that they sacrificed their lives rather than separate themselves from a dying man whom their presence could not save it passes comprehension how nansen could have thus deviated from the most sacred duty devolving on the commander of a naval expedition the safe return of brave captain sverdrup with the fram does not excuse nansen sverdrup's consistency courage and skill in holding fast to the fram and bringing his comrades back to norway will win for him in the minds of many laurels even brighter than those of his able and accomplished chief

one of the few who publicly gave to my plan the support of his scientific authority was professor supon the well-known editor of peterman's mittelungen in an article in this journal for eighteen ninety one page one ninety one he not only spoke warmly in its favor but supported it with new suggestions his view was that what he terms the arctic windshed probably for the greater part of the year divides the unknown polar basin into two parts in the eastern part the prevailing winds blow towards the bering sea while those of the western part blow towards the atlantic he thought that as a rule this windshed must lie near the bering sea and that the prevailing winds in the tracks we proposed traversing would thus favor our drift our experience bore out professor supon's theory in a remarkable degree End of file 3