The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 56, December 2, 1897 - A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls by Various
page 17 of 31 (54%)
page 17 of 31 (54%)
|
was obliged to turn back. All his dogs were dead and he had but two
weeks' provisions left, so he turned his face south. His surmises about the _Fram_ proved correct; she drifted south, and eventually reached Spitzbergen. The immediate scientific advantages of Nansen's trip are that he found the Pole was covered by sea, and that no land existed there, as so many persons had believed. He found that the Polar Sea, far from being shallow, as had also been supposed, was a wide sea of vast depth. He explored many of the lands that lie in the Polar Sea, and made observations that will be of immense value to geologists and botanists. Greatest of all, he proved that it is possible for men to undertake the perils and hardships of an Arctic expedition without loss of life or health. The first of his achievements was the proof that there is a current from Asia to America, in which the _Fram_ drifted for three years, not, it is true, carrying him to Greenland, as he had expected, but none the less taking him across the frozen sea, and landing his vessel at Spitzbergen. Next to it come the ease and comfort with which this tremendous undertaking was accomplished. During all these long years he did not lose a man, nor indeed were any of his companions sick; the doctor of the expedition had to study diseases of dogs to keep his hand in, so little work was there for him |
|