When he was twenty he made a voyage into the Northern seas for the
purpose of studying animal life in high latitudes.

When he returned he was made Curator of the Natural History Museum in
Bergen, Norway. A curator is a person in whose charge the valuable
collections in a museum are placed. He is the caretaker or custodian of
all the priceless treasures the museum contains.

Six years later Nansen made a trip across Greenland on snow-shoes.

There had long been a theory that in the interior of Greenland there
were fertile spots capable of cultivation.

Nansen proved that Greenland is covered with a huge ice-sheet, and is,
in fact, one vast glacier which rises slightly toward the interior, the
surface of the ice-cap being only occasionally interrupted by mountains
which protrude from the ice.

Nansen believed that an Arctic explorer should be able to live the same
life as the natives of the land he was exploring, and during his winter
in Greenland he lived much with the Eskimos, sleeping in their rude huts
of stone and dirt, and joining in their hunts on land and sea.

He learned many useful lessons of these people. One was how to make and
manage a kayak, or Eskimo boat, which he declares to be the handiest,
lightest, and absolutely best small boat constructed.

It was the knowledge that he gained during this Greenland winter that
enabled him to get one hundred and ninety-five miles nearer the North