tion until they reached Franz Josef
Land, late in August. There they built a hut of stones and killed bears
for meat for the winter. In May, 1896, they resumed their southward
journey, when fortunately they met the Englishman Jackson, who was
exploring the Archipelago.

Meanwhile the _Fram_, after Nansen left her, continued her tortuous
drifting across the upper world. Once she approached as near as 85 deg. 57'
to the Pole--only fifteen miles less than Nansen's farthest. At last, in
August, 1896, with the help of dynamite, she was freed from the grip of
the ice and hurried home, arriving in time to participate in the welcome
of Nansen, who had landed a few days earlier.

Franz Josef Land, where Nansen was rescued by Jackson, has served as the
base of many dashes for the Pole. It was from its northernmost point
that the illustrious young member of the royal family of Italy, the Duke
of the Abruzzi, launched the party captained by Cagni that won from
Nansen for the Latin race the honor of the farthest north, 86 deg. 34', in
1901.

This land, which consists of numerous islands, had been named after the
Emperor of Austria-Hungary by Weyprecht and Payer, leaders of the
Austrian-Hungarian polar expedition of 1872-74, who discovered and first
explored the Archipelago.

It was from Spitzbergen that Andree, with two companions, sailed in his
balloon toward the Pole, in July, 1897, never to be heard from again,
except for three message buoys dropped in the sea a few miles from the
starting-point.

The Northeast Passage was first achieved in 1878-1879 by Adolph Erik
Nordenskjold. Step by step energetic explorers, principally Russian, had
been mapping the arctic coasts of Europe and Siberia until practically
all the headlands and islands were well defined.

Nordenskjold, whose name was already renowned for important researches
in Greenland, Nova Zembla, and northern Asia, in less than two months
guided the steam whaler _Vega_ from Tromsoe, Norway, to the most
easterly peninsula of Asia. But when barely more than 100 miles from
Bering Strait, intervening ice blocked his hopes of passing from the
Atlantic to the Pacific in a single season and held him fast for ten
months.

No resume of polar exploration is complete without mention of Wm.
Barents (1594-96) who, for the Dutch of Amsterdam, made three attempts
to accomplish the Northeast Passage around Nova Zembla; Wm. Baffin, who
discovered Baffin Bay and Smith Sound (1616); W