The sun., 1897-02-22
NANSENS DISCOVERIES.
TIE SCIENTIFIC RESULTS OF HIS
NORTH POLAR WORK.
Esperts Are Carefully stusyirE the Largo
Amount efD.ts ne brought Hene--Land May
Extene Enr Toward the Pole ON the Areri-
ean stde-Ceming Antarctic Exploration.

Amount ofData He Brought Heme--Land May
Extens vnr Toward the Pole the Aneri-
60. side-Cem,ns Antarctic Exploration.
LONDON, Feb. lo.-Some weeks, perhaps
months. must clapse before the scientific results
Of the Nansen polar expedition are formulated
and made known. Nsnsen's party brought back
with them n great deal OF raw material. so TO
speak. which is being carefully worked over,
analysed. and classified by naturalists, meteor
ologists. and other experts who are better able
than the explorers themselves to make the best
use OF It. The results as far as Nansen himself
can Judge Of them. however. are set forth In q
report which he submitted In manuscript on
Monday to the Royal Geographical Society In
London. These results the explorer described
in his public lecture delivered in the Albert
Hall the same evening in only half n dozen sen.
tences, in which he pointed out that he and his
companions had seen that the polar region was
a deep sea instead Of the shallow sea which was
supposed. They had seen there no land in
the north. and that probably the pole itself was
situated In the deep sea basin, and that deep sea
basin was filed with comparatively warm and
salt water That sea was always covered with
ice, which was always In motion. The immova-
BILE mantle OF ice with which the northern end
OF the globe was supposed to be covered had
vanished: everything was in motion. The entire
ocean was moving In some way from one end to
the other. Tho whole thing example Of
the vici.situdcs common to natures round. and
that Ice was rs restless and inconstant as human
theories.
This brief reference may suffice for popular
London audience, but all who are really inter
ested in the subject OF Arctic exploration will
gain much greater satisfaction from the perusal
Of Sansen's more serious report to the Geograph.
ical Society. That report Is fully outlined In the
following summary:
II will begin with that branch Of science with
which this society is particularly concerned
that is to say, geography. When due regard is
taken to the manner in which this expedition
planned and carried out, Il is not in the nature
OF things to expect that any great geographical
discovery. as the term is understood, would be
the result. Our expedition was calculated to be
sea expedition pure and simple, which was to
drift with the drif, ice and, rather than other.
wise. keep clear OF all land. The discovery OF
new lands can. therefore. hardly be said to have
been our object, and We were fortunate enough.
| had almost said. not to discover any. say
fortunate for the reason that such new lands
might easily have prevented the successful issue
OF the expedition, as they would have stopped
the drift OF the Ice. But negative results are
also outcome, and think may say that
the expedition has contributed not little to
the increase OF our knowledge OF the distribution
OF lana ana sea III the TtklOne nearest tnt pOlc.
Without comparison, the most important
geographical discovery made during our voyage
was that concerning the polar basin itself. As
will generally be admitted. this had hitherto
been considered TO be a very shallow sea, where
IL might be expected TO ind islands and land in
any part This was pointed out In this society
during the discussion that took place before my
departure. The reason Of this assumption was
the fact that so far as the sea had been examined
hitherto, IL was everywhere shallow. In the sea
south OF Franz Josef Land and SpitLbergcn
5S ,hS was ,s depth Of c. as much ny s,.s as iS9
iSie had t been 'Gei foaind. Then % the cxpeditions
his sea had always discovered new land.
Thus the Austro Hungarian TegethoT expedi-
tion discovered Franz Josef Land during Its
drift. and the Jeannette expedition discovered
Henrietta Island. Jeanette Island. and Bennett
a1d In The psn ;e' s
mel might run across the unknown Polar basin.
uniting the Atlantic Ocean with the track where
.@een sp.tsberyen and Greenland was very deep
| that the Jeannette seems to havefound an in.
crease in the depth northward or possibly only
either there only of
less. and | then thought that these facts might
RoweWsr.T i .mssined % the Polar % Sasn % taken ns as
1 whole, TO be shallow. We found Just such a
channel or groove as ! had sprmised the sea in
| latitude T9' y, north OF the New Siberian
Islands, suddenly becoming deeper and sinking
! to a depth OF |. 900 TO 1000 fathoms, and this
depth was reserved during the entire drift OF
| the Fran northwest and west as far 40 north Of
Spitzbergcn.
granted that the Polar basin. considered as a
whole. Is deep sea which forms a continuation
the northern part OF the Atlantic Ocean. 0t how
far this deep sea extends to the east II Is difficult
as as "a far r as as to the north Of the New siberian %
Islands. but it Is only reasonable 10 suppose that
the Jeanette every time the drift set her north.
ward or eastward the depth OF the sea was
found to increase. What. then, Is II reasonable
TO suppose with regard TO the distribution Of
land aud sea in the yet unknown Polar Sea
think we may with safety say that little or no
rrst, IL is not reasonable that such n deep sea
should only be a narrow channel. II appears to
account alone should be inclined 10 think that
II extends good way north Q, that part OF the
1rnyeTsed By a In a sdsi,on ii to tsis saw
During our sledge journey north OF the Fran 8
route. the ice appeared to be drifting with great
found further south. There was a great deal OF
movement in the lanes. and a. different times
we were carried away In different directions
with some rapidity-so rapidly. in fact, that it
sometimes seemed a. IL we had been given up,
helpless, to the violence OF the wind and cur
There Ia one thing which causes me to think
that We are right in suPpo.ing the Polar sea to
is the drift Ice itself. II the Fran had continued
ber drift in the ice instead OF working herself
out OF IL north OF SO ", there Ia no room for
doubt but that she would at this moment Ia
drifting southwark In some place In the vicinity
OF the east coast of Greenland. She would have
come toward known waters with the drift ice
which Is carried down by the east Greenland
Polar current, and which we know so well from
Scoresby's description OF H.. II was the same
drift ice which We had struggled with
sonable to suppose that the Fran would
have drifted in close under the east coast
OF Greenland. In the inner Polar basin, whore
the Fran drifted the ice there, az in the interior
Of the inland ice, Ia very slow in Its movement.
BY degrees, however. as II approaches its outlet,
the movement augments, the ice streams on
with greater and greater speed southwark, until
II at last comes south to warm waters, where II
10 broken up by waves and wind, and melts in
the warm water. II Is in the same manner that
the oishoots OF the inland ice stream out through
the ice valleys and the ice fiords, and down into
the warmer strata OF air there to melt and
finally fall into the sea, where, broken on, they
float away In the form OF icebergs. A certain
breadth OF ice belt in the Polar stream Of tho
east coast OF Greenland must consequently an
swer to considerable broader and more extended