ross the unknown region, that drift might also be enlisted in
the service of exploration--and my plan was laid. Some years, however,
elapsed before, in February, 1890, after my return from my Greenland
expedition, I at last propounded the idea in an address before the
Christiania Geographical Society. As this address plays an important
part in the history of the expedition, I shall reproduce its principal
features, as printed in the March number of Naturen, 1891.

After giving a brief sketch of the different polar expeditions of
former years, I go on to say: "The results of these numerous attempts,
as I have pointed out, seem somewhat discouraging. They appear to
show plainly enough that it is impossible to sail to the Pole by any
route whatever; for everywhere the ice has proved an impenetrable
barrier, and has stayed the progress of invaders on the threshold of
the unknown regions.

"To drag boats over the uneven drift-ice, which moreover is constantly
moving under the influence of the current and wind, is an equally
great difficulty. The ice lays such obstacles in the way that any one
who has ever attempted to traverse it will not hesitate to declare
it well-nigh impossible to advance in this manner with the equipment
and provisions requisite for such an undertaking."

Had we been able to advance over land, I said, that would have been the
most certain route; in that case the Pole could have been reached "in
one summer by Norwegian snow-shoe runners." But there is every reason
to doubt the existence of any such land. Greenland, I considered,
did not extend farther than the most northerly known point of its
west coast. "It is not probable that Franz Josef Land reaches to the
Pole; from all we can learn it forms a group of islands separated
from each other by deep sounds, and it appears improbable that any
large continuous track of land is to be found there.

"Some people are perhaps of opinion that one ought to defer the
examination of regions like those around the Pole, beset, as they
are, with so many difficulties, till new means of transport have been
discovered. I have heard it intimated that one fine day we shall be
able to reach the Pole by a balloon, and that it is only waste of time
to seek to get there before that day comes. It need scarcely be shown
that this line of reasoning is untenable. Even if one could really
suppose that in the near or distant future this frequently mooted idea
of travelling to th