rth possible before the winter set in,
and was finally frozen into the ice where he supposed the current must
be which was to bear him across the North Pole.

To his infinite joy, he found, after weeks of uncertainty, that he was
actually drifting with the ice, and that his theory was correct.

He did not go as directly north as he had hoped, and on March 14th,
1896, after nearly three years of patient drifting, he made up his mind
that the _Fram_ had gone as far north as she would go, and that
henceforth she would take a southerly course.

He was but three hundred and fifty miles from the Pole, and he
determined to make an effort to reach it himself, with the aid of his
dogs and kayaks.

He therefore left the _Fram_, and, with but one man to bear him company,
he made a dash for the Pole.

He succeeded in covering ninety-five miles of the unknown ocean, and
reached within two hundred and sixty-one miles of the Pole, but here he
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
to do.

The story of the voyage reads like the journal of a quiet family at
home, it is so peaceful and uneventful. It te