Nansen hopes for and believes in. ... It is my opinion
that when really within what may be called the inner circle, say
about 78 deg. of latitude, there is little current of any kind that would
influence a ship in the close ice that must be expected; it is when
we get outside this circle--round the corners, as it were--into the
straight wide channels, where the ice is loose, that we are really
affected by its influence, and here the ice gets naturally thinner,
and more decayed in autumn, and less dangerous to a ship. Within the
inner circle probably not much of the ice escapes; it becomes older
and heavier every year, and in all probability completely blocks the
navigation of ships entirely. This is the kind of ice which was brought
to Nares's winter quarters at the head of Smith Sound in about 82 deg.
30' north; and this is the ice which Markham struggled against in
his sledge journey, and against which no human power could prevail."

He attached "no real importance" to the Jeannette relics. "If found
in Greenland, they may well have drifted down on a floe from the
neighborhood of Smith Sound, from some of the American expeditions
which went to Greely's rescue." "It may also well be that some of
De Long's printed or written documents in regard to his equipment
may have been taken out by these expeditions, and the same may apply
to the other articles." He does not, however, expressly say whether
there was any indication of such having been the case.

In a similar letter to the Geographical Society the renowned botanist
Sir Joseph Hooker says: "Dr. Nansen's project is a wide departure
from any hitherto put in practice for the purpose of polar discovery,
and it demands the closest scrutiny both on this account, and because
it is one involving the greatest peril...

"From my experience of three seasons in the Antarctic regions I do not
think that a ship, of whatever build, could long resist destruction if
committed to the movements of the pack in the polar regions. One built
as strongly as the Fram would no doubt resist great pressures in the
open pack, but not any pressure or repeated pressures, and still less
the thrust of the pack if driven with or by it against land. The lines
of the Fram might be of service so long as she was on an even keel or
in ice of no great height above the water-line; but amongst floes and
bergs, or when thrown on her beam-ends, they would avail her nothing."

If the Fram were to drift towar