Farthest North Volume II Part 22

"They were all quite enthusiastic about the vessel. I do not believe there is a man on board who does not love the Fram. Sverdrup declared that a 'stronger and finer ship had never been built, and was not to be found in the wide world!'"

On my way to the fjord I met five of our comrades. Nordahl hurried at once on board with the glad tidings, while the rest of us settled down with the telegraph manager around a smoking cup of coffee, which tasted delicious. A better welcome we could not have had. But it did not end with the coffee or with the telegraph manager. Soon the popping of champagne corks sounded successively in the houses of the store-keeper and local magistrate, while the telegraph manager sent message upon message announcing our arrival to Dr. Nansen, his Majesty the King, the Norwegian Government, and to relations and friends.

At 10 A.M. we weighed anchor and set off to meet Nansen and Johansen at Tromso, pa.s.sed to the north of Skjaervo, and steamed south. Off Ulfstinden we met the steamer King Halfdan, with 600 pa.s.sengers on board, coming from Tromso to meet us. We accepted the offer to take us in tow, and at 8.30 P.M. the Fram glided into the harbor of Tromso, accompanied by hundreds of flag-covered boats, and was received with cheers and hearty welcome.

Next day, August 25th, at 4 P.M., Sir George Baden-Powell's steam-yacht Otaria, with Dr. Nansen and Johansen on board, arrived. After a separation of seventeen months, our number was again complete, and the Norwegian Polar Expedition was once more united.

CONCLUSION

By Dr. Nansen

What, then, are the results of the Norwegian Polar Expedition? This is a question which the reader might fairly expect to find answered here; but the scientific observations brought back are so varied and voluminous that it will be some time yet before they can be dealt with by specialists and before any general estimate of their significance can be formed. It will, therefore, be necessary to publish these results in separate scientific publications; and if I now attempted to give an idea of them, it would necessarily be imperfect, and might easily prove misleading. I shall, therefore, confine myself to pointing out a few of their more important features.

In the first place, we have demonstrated that the sea in the immediate neighborhood of the Pole, and in which, in my opinion, the Pole itself in all probability lies, is a deep basin, not a shallow one, containing many expanses of land and islands, as people were formerly inclined to a.s.sume. It is certainly a continuation of the deep channel which extends from the Atlantic Ocean northward between Spitzbergen and Greenland. The extent of this deep sea is a question which it is not at present easy to answer; but we at least know that it extends a long way north of Franz Josef Land, and eastward right to the New Siberian Islands. I believe that it extends still farther east, as, I think, may be inferred from the fact that the more the Jeannette expedition drifted north, the greater depth of sea did they find. For various reasons, I am led to believe that in a northerly direction also this deep sea is of considerable extent. In the first place, nothing was observed, either during the drift of the Fram or during our sledge expedition to the north, that would point to the proximity of any considerable expanse of land; the ice seemed to drift unimpeded, particularly in a northerly direction. The way in which the drift set straight to the north as soon as there was a southerly wind was most striking. It was with the greatest difficulty that the wind could head the drift back towards the southeast. Had there been any considerable expanse of land within reasonable distance to the north of us, it would have blocked the free movement of the ice in that direction. Besides, the large quant.i.ty of drift-ice, which drifts southward with great rapidity along the east coast of Greenland all the way down to Cape Farewell and beyond it, seems to point in the same direction. Such extensive ice-fields must have a still larger breadth of sea to come from than that through which we drifted. Had the Fram continued her drift instead of breaking loose to the north of Spitzbergen, she would certainly have come down along the coast of Greenland; but probably she would not have got close in to that coast, but would have had a certain quant.i.ty of ice between her and it; and that ice must come from a sea lying north of our route. On the other hand, it is quite probable that land may exist to a considerable extent on the other side of the Pole between the Pole and the North American archipelago. It appears to me only reasonable to a.s.sume that this mult.i.tude of islands must extend farther towards the north.

As a result of our expedition, I think we can now form a fairly clear idea of the way in which the drift-ice is continually moving from one side of the polar basin north of Bering Strait and the coast of Siberia, and across the regions around the Pole, and out towards the Atlantic Ocean. Where geographers at one time were disposed to locate a solid, immovable, and ma.s.sive ice-mantle, covering the northern extremity of our globe, we now find a continually breaking and shifting expanse of drift-ice. The evidence which even before our expedition had induced me to believe most strongly in this theory is supplied by the Siberian drift-wood that is continually being carried to Greenland, as well as the mud found on the ice, as it could scarcely be of other than Siberian origin. We found several indications of this kind during our expedition, even when we were as far north as 86, furnishing valuable indications as to the movement of the ice.

The force which sets this ice in motion is certainly for the most part supplied by the winds; and as in the sea north of Siberia the prevailing winds are southeasterly or easterly, whereas north of Spitzbergen they are northeasterly, they must carry the ice in the direction in which we found the drift. From the numerous observations I made I established the existence of a slow current in the water under the ice, travelling in the same direction. But it will be some time before the results of these investigations can be calculated and checked.

The hydrographic observations made during the expedition furnished some surprising data. Thus, for instance, it was customary to look upon the polar basin as being filled with cold water, the temperature of which stood somewhere about -1.5 C. Consequently our observations showing that under the cold surface there was warmer water, sometimes at a temperature as high as +1 C., were surprising. Again, this water was more briny than the water of the polar basin has been a.s.sumed to be. This warmer and more strongly saline water must clearly originate from the warmer current of the Atlantic Ocean (the Gulf Stream), flowing in a north and northeasterly direction off Novaya Zemlya and along the west coast of Spitzbergen, and then diving under the colder, but lighter and less briny, water of the Polar Sea, and filling up the depths of the polar basin. As I have stated in the course of my narrative, this more briny water was, as a rule, warmest at a depth of from 200 to 250 fathoms, beyond which it would decrease in temperature, though not uniformly, as the depth increased. Near the bottom the temperature rose again, though only slightly. These hydrographic observations appear to modify to a not inconsiderable extent the theories. .h.i.therto entertained as to the direction of the currents in the northern seas; but it is a difficult matter to deal with, as there is a great ma.s.s of material, and its further treatment will demand both time and patience. It must therefore be left to subsequent scientific publications.

Still less do I contemplate attempting to enter here into a discussion on the numerous magnetic, astronomical, and meteorological observations taken. At the end of this work I merely give a table showing the mean temperatures for each month during the drift of the Fram and during our sledging expedition.

On the whole, it may probably be said that, although the expedition has left many problems for the future to solve in connection with the polar area, it has, nevertheless, gone far to lift the veil of mystery which has. .h.i.therto shrouded those regions, and we have been put in a position to form a tolerably clear and reasonable idea of a portion of our globe that formerly lay in darkness, which only the imagination could penetrate. And should we in the near future get a bird's-eye view of the regions around the Pole as seen from a balloon, all the most material features will be familiar to us.

But there still remains a great deal to be investigated, and this can only be done by years of observation, to which end a new drift, like that of the Fram, would be invaluable. Guided by our experience, explorers will be in a position to equip themselves still better; but a more convenient method for the scientific investigation of unknown regions cannot easily be imagined. On board a vessel of this kind explorers may settle themselves quite as comfortably as in a fixed scientific station. They can carry their laboratories with them, and the most delicate experiments of all kinds can be carried out. I hope that such an expedition may be undertaken ere long, and if it goes through Bering Strait and thence northward, or perhaps slightly to the northeast, I shall be very much surprised if observations are not taken which will prove of far greater scope and importance than those made by us. But it will require patience: the drift will be more protracted than ours, and the explorers must be well equipped.

There is also another lesson which I think our expedition has taught--namely, that a good deal can be achieved with small resources. Even if explorers have to live in Eskimo fashion and content themselves with the barest necessaries, they may, provided they are suitably equipped, make good headway and cover considerable distances in regions which have hitherto been regarded as almost inaccessible.

Mean Temperatures (Fahr.) for every Month during the Drift of the "Fram"

Months 1893 1894 1895 1896

January -- -32.3 -28.1 -35.3 February -- -32.1 -34.2 -30.5 March -- -35.1 -30.6 - 1.7 April -- - 6.1 -19.7 - 0.6 May -- +13.8 +10.2 +12.6 June -- +29.3 +28.0 +28.9 July -- +32.4 +32.5 +31.8 August -- +30.2 +27.3 +34.1 September +29.1 +17.1 +14.9 -- October - 1.1 - 8.5 - 6.2 -- November -11.6 -23.4 -23.6 -- December -20.6 -30.8 -27.2 --

Continuous Periods of Temperature under -40

Years Dates January February March November December

1894 11 to 12 3 to 7 5 to 15 14 to 15 8 to 10 14 to 15 11 to 19 17 to 19 -- 17 to 18 27 to 29 23 to 24 25 to 26 -- 30 to 1 [93]

1895 14 to 18 9 to 10 19 to 23 20 to 23 7 to 8 23 to 26 13 to 16 26 to 28 -- -- -- 18 to 22 -- -- --

1896 29 [94] to 18 4 to 9 4 to 5 -- -- -- 11 to 20 -- -- --

The Mean Temperature of the Twenty-four Hours for these Periods

Years January February March November December

1894 -36.8 -48.5 -47.9 -- -40.7 -39.1 -43.4 -45.8 -42.3 -37.3 -40.5 -38.6 -40.2 -- -42.7

1895 -41.1 -41.4 -39.8 -- -- -46.3 -43.1 -37.7 -41.1 -39.5 -- -42.2 -- -- --

1896 -45.8 -41.1 -35.7 -- -- -- -43.2 -- -- --

NOTES

[1] He did not return, after all.

[2] We had used for this purpose our pure grape-spirit.

[3] The word svalkelem, which has throughout been translated "gangway,"

means rather a sort of port-hole. As the svalkelem, however, was the means of exit from and entrance to the ship, "gangway" seemed the most convenient expression for it.

[4] The crossbars on the sledge that connect the perpendicular supports of the runners with each other.

[5] The sledge runners were connected in front by a bow, consisting of three or four pieces of rattan cane lashed together; it is to this bow the hauling-lines are fastened.

[6] This odometer had been made on board, shortly before starting, out of the works of an old anemometer. The odometer was fastened behind the last sledge, and indicated fairly correctly the distance covered by us.

[7] They were 12 feet long, 1 foot 9 1/2 inches broad, and rode about 5 inches above the snow.

[8] Compare my description of "finsko," in The First Crossing of Greenland, pp. 47 and 48.

[9] I had also had prepared a large quant.i.ty of pemmican, consisting of equal parts of meat-powder and vegetable fat (from the cocoanut). This pemmican, however, proved to be rather an unfortunate invention; even the dogs would not eat it after they had tasted it once or twice. Perhaps this is accounted for by the fact that vegetable fat is heavily digested, and contains acids which irritate the mucous membranes of the stomach and throat.

[10] It was not advisable, for many reasons, to cross the lanes in the kayaks, now that the temperature was so low. Even if the water in them had not nearly always been covered with a more or less thick layer of ice, the kayaks would have become much heavier from the immediate freezing of the water which would have entered, as they proved to be not absolutely impervious; and this ice we had then no means of dislodging.