The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-11-29
FRIDTJOF NANSEN


years old, Nansen never received more
than pence a month pocket money,
and in every other respect. was the boy
ish inclination to self-indulgence
checked and combatted. On the other
hand, everything that could develop
manliness, self-reliance and courage
was fostered with the greatest care and
attention. Fridtjof was taught to swim
when he was years old and was near
ly drowned at the first lesson. Not long
afterwards he was able to save the life
of his brother, who was drowning in
the icy river at the bottom of the Frozen
park, the first act of a long series of
life-saving acts, which alone should
commend him to the affection and graf
itude of his fellows. Johansen, his
companion on the ice foes, has
described in conversation, one of the
last of these acts of heroiSm. Il was
ahead of Nansen, who was out of
sight," he said, when huge Polar
bear got on to me and knocked me
down with a blow OF his paw. Nan
SEN" ! cried, If you don't shoot this
second I'm done for" The instant af-
ter I heard the crack of his rifle and the
bear went over. He added, the blow
did me more good than harm, for it
cleared some of the filth off my face
He tells this story as a proof of the
splendid alertness and promptitude and
too, but, as is his way, to show what a
fine, cool-headed companion he had in
Johansen. There is not a more cour-
ageouS, level-headed fellow in the world
than this giant by my side. You ought
to have heard the tone in which he
said 'Nansen, if you don't shoot at
once just as though he were asking
me the time of day" Here, as on
every occasion, one finds Nansen depre-
n in 70 Of
another. One may allude in this con-
nection to the attitude he has all along
maintained towards the scheme of
Professor Andree, whom many have
described as his rival. It has been one
of sympathetic interest, of hope for his
success. combined with the opinion that
the result TO be expected was not a.
great one.
In what. good stead his physical
training has stood him in his life, has
been proved a hundred times over since
he first began his adventurous life He
has carried human endurance beyond
any known limits. His book on his
life in crossing Greenland reads like a
fairy story, or would so read, had he
not every proof of its entire Veracity.
The story of his life after he left the
Fran will read more strangely. There
were days and days of absolute stary-
alton. There We're days and nights
where neither he nor his companions
could crawl into their sleeping-sack.
When food was to be had it was no
Christian diet, and water was a lux
ury. Already in Greenland he had
shown what a man can do in straits
and who has forgotten his accounts
OF the dish of raw horse meat which
turned the stomachs of the Lapps who
accompanied him, or of the cooker
Whlcn served for ale purposes and
which was licked clean by the tongue
of BALTIC. One commends these actions
OF endurance and privation disregarded
and overcome to the gentlemen who
write about the degeneration of the
human race, to the pessimists who
curlously enough, look to this very
Norway for the light.
More than these qualities which have
been described is, however. needed to
carry to successful issue such an
enterprise as has made Nansen world
famous. 1t is the quality of being able
to work out in each minute detail the
plan that IS to be followed, of leaving
nothing TO chance. of foreseeine everv-
thing with mathematical nrecision,
the quality. in fact, which carried Ma
poleon so far, till, neglecting it. he fell
Before Nansen left Norway his cal
CITATIONS had been made with sucb
scientific accuracy that he was able
TO hand to friend a chart on which
was indicated the route that the Fran
would take. 1t indicated almost ex-
actly the route that the Fran did take
as far as the ship was able to pro
gress.
He is a deep thinker-one need but
look at his massive head to believe that
and it has been suggested that it is