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Bull + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Fridtjof Nansen + A book for the young + +Author: Jacob B. Bull + +Translator: Mordaunt R. Barnard + +Release Date: November 15, 2011 [EBook #38026] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRIDTJOF NANSEN *** + + + + +Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net/ for Project +Gutenberg (This file was produced from images generously +made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="front"> +<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first"></p> +<div class="figure xd20e111width"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt= +"Original front cover with text: Fridtjof Nansen by Jacob B. Bull, illustrated, D.C. Heath & Co. Publishers, Boston." +width="508" height="720"></div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first"></p> +<div class="figure xd20e117width"><img src="images/titlepage.gif" alt= +"Original Title Page." width="474" height="720"></div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first"></p> +<div class="figure xd20e124width" id="map"><a href= +"images/maph.gif"><img src="images/map.gif" alt= +"Map showing Nansen’s route." width="720" height="472"></a> +<p class="figureHead">Map showing Nansen’s route.</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="titlePage"> +<div class="docTitle"> +<div class="mainTitle">Fridtjof Nansen</div> +<div class="subTitle">A Book for the Young</div> +</div> +<div class="byline">By<br> +<span class="docAuthor">Jacob B. Bull</span><br> +Translated<br> +By the<br> +<span class="docAuthor">Rev. Mordaunt R. Barnard</span><br> +Vicar of Margaretting, Essex<br> +One of the translators of Dr. Nansen’s “Farthest +North”</div> +<div class="docImprint">Boston, U.S.A.<br> +D. C. Heath & Co., Publishers<br> +<span class="docDate">1903</span></div> +</div> +<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first xd20e166"><span class="sc">Copyright, 1898,<br> +By D. C. Heath & Co.</span></p> +<p>The illustrations on pages 85, 95, 125, are from Dr. Nansen’s +book entitled “Farthest North: Being the Record of a Voyage of +Exploration of the Ship Fram, 1893–1896; etc.” Copyright, +1897, 1898, by Harper & Brothers. <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"xd20e174" href="#xd20e174" name="xd20e174">iii</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="toc" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">Contents.</h2> +<table class="tocList"> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum">Chapter</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="5"></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">Page</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum">I.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="5"><span class="sc"><a href= +"#ch1">Nansen’s Boyhood—Education and +Character</a></span></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">1</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum">II.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="5"><span class="sc"><a href= +"#ch2">Youthful Adventures</a></span></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum">III.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="5"><span class="sc"><a href= +"#ch3">Mountain-climbing in Winter</a></span></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">29</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum">IV.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="5"><span class="sc"><a href= +"#ch4">Preparing for the Greenland Expedition</a></span></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">35</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum">V.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="5"><span class="sc"><a href= +"#ch5">Sledging across Greenland</a></span></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">51</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum">VI.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="5"><span class="sc"><a href= +"#ch6">Nansen’s Marriage—A Strange +Wedding-trip</a></span></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">73</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum">VII.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="5"><span class="sc"><a href="#ch7">The +Fram—Setting out for the Pole</a></span></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">82</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum">VIII.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="5"><span class="sc"><a href="#ch8">The +Ice Pressure—Hunting the White Bear</a></span></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">94</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum">IX.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="5"><span class="sc"><a href= +"#ch9">Farthest North</a></span></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">109</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum">X.</td> +<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="5"><span class="sc"><a href= +"#ch10">Nansen Meeting Dr. Jackson in Franz Joseph Land</a></span></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">123</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p><span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd20e286" href="#xd20e286" name= +"xd20e286">v</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">Illustrations.</h2> +<ul> +<li> <span class="tocPagenum">Page</span></li> +<li><span class="sc"><a href="#map">Map of Nansen’s Polar +Route</a></span> <span class= +"tocPagenum"><i>Frontispiece</i></span></li> +<li><span class="sc"><a href="#p003">Store Fröen, Nansen’s +Birthplace</a></span> <span class= +"tocPagenum">3</span></li> +<li><span class="sc"><a href="#p021">Nansen at Nineteen</a></span> + <span class="tocPagenum">21</span></li> +<li><span class="sc"><a href="#p043">Otto Sverdrup</a></span> + <span class="tocPagenum">43</span></li> +<li><span class="sc"><a href="#p047">Camp on the Drift Ice</a></span> + <span class="tocPagenum">47</span></li> +<li><span class="sc"><a href="#p056">East Greenland +Esquimaux</a></span> <span class= +"tocPagenum">56</span></li> +<li><span class="sc"><a href="#p064">Sledging Across +Greenland</a></span> <span class= +"tocPagenum">64</span></li> +<li><span class="sc"><a href="#p068">On the Way To Godthaab</a></span> + <span class="tocPagenum">68</span></li> +<li><span class="sc"><a href="#p085">Crew of the Fram</a></span> + <span class="tocPagenum">85</span></li> +<li><span class="sc"><a href="#p095">The Fram in an Ice +Pressure</a></span> <span class= +"tocPagenum">95</span></li> +<li><span class="sc"><a href="#p110">Nansen and Johansen Leaving the +Fram</a></span> <span class= +"tocPagenum">110</span></li> +<li><span class="sc"><a href="#p125">Meeting of Nansen and +Jackson</a></span> <span class= +"tocPagenum">125</span></li> +</ul> +<p><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb1" href="#pb1" name= +"pb1">1</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="body"> +<div id="ch1" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="super">Fridtjof Nansen.</h2> +<h2 class="main">Chapter I.</h2> +<div class="argument"> +<p class="first">Nansen’s Birthplace and Childhood +Home.—Burgomaster Nansen, his Ancestor.—His Boyhood and +Education.—Early Love of Sport and Independent Research.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">In West Aker, a short distance from Christiania, there +is an old manor-house called Store Fröen. It is surrounded by a +large courtyard, in the middle of which is a dovecot. The house itself, +as well as the out-houses, is built in the old-fashioned style. The +garden, with its green and white painted fence, is filled with +fruit-trees, both old and young, whose pink and snow-white blossoms +myriads of bumblebees delight to visit in springtime, while in autumn +their boughs are so laden with fruit that they are bent down under a +weight they can scarcely support.</p> +<p>Close by the garden runs the Frogner River. Here and there in its +course are deep pools, while in other places it runs swiftly along, and +is so shallow that it can readily be forded. All around are to be seen +in winter snow-covered heights, while far away in the background a +dense pine forest extends beyond Frogner <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb2" href="#pb2" name="pb2">2</a>]</span>Sæter,<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e398src" href="#xd20e398" name="xd20e398src">1</a> +beyond which again lies Nordmarken, with its hidden lakes, secret +brooklets, and devious paths, like a fairy-tale. And yet close by the +hum of a busy city life with all its varied sounds may be heard.</p> +<p>It was in this house that, on Oct. 10, 1861, a baby boy, Fridtjof +Nansen, was born.</p> +<p>Many years before this, on Oct. 9, 1660, two of Denmark’s most +powerful men were standing on the castle bridge at Copenhagen eyeing +each other with looks of hatred and defiance. One of these, named Otto +Krag, was glancing angrily at Blaataarn (the Blue Tower) with its +dungeons. “Know you that?” he inquired of his companion, +the chief burgomaster of the city. Nodding assent, and directing his +looks toward the church tower of “Our Lady,” in which were +hung the alarm bells, the latter replied, “And know you what +hangs within yonder tower?”</p> +<p>Four days later the burghers of Copenhagen, with the burgomaster at +their head, overthrew the arrogant Danish nobles, and made Frederick +III absolute monarch over Denmark and Norway.</p> +<div class="figure xd20e413width" id="p003"><img src="images/p003.jpg" +alt="Store Fröen." width="720" height="561"> +<p class="figureHead">Store Fröen.</p> +</div> +<p>It needed unyielding strength and indomitable courage to carry out +such an undertaking, but these were qualifications which the +burgomaster possessed, and had at an early age learned to employ. When +but sixteen he had set out from Flensborg on an expedition to the White +Sea in a vessel belonging to his uncle, and had then alone traversed a +great portion of Russia. Four <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb4" href= +"#pb4" name="pb4">4</a>]</span>years later he commanded an expedition +to the Arctic Ocean, and subsequently entered the service of the +Iceland Company as captain of one of their ships.</p> +<p>When forty years of age he was made an alderman of Copenhagen, and +in 1654 became its chief burgomaster. During the siege of that city in +the war with Charles the Tenth (Gustavus), he was one of its most +resolute and intrepid defenders; and so when the power of the Danish +nobility was to be overthrown, it was he who took the chief part in the +movement.</p> +<p>This man, who was neither cowed by the inherited tyranny of the +nobles, nor daunted by the terrors of war or the mighty forces of +nature, was named <i>Hans Nansen</i>; and it is from him, on his +father’s side, that <i>Fridtjof Nansen</i> descended.</p> +<hr class="tb"> +<p>Our hero’s mother is a niece of Count Wedel Jarlsberg, the +Statholder<a class="noteref" id="xd20e436src" href="#xd20e436" name= +"xd20e436src">2</a> of Norway,—the man who in 1814 risked life +and fortune to provide Norway with grain from Denmark, and who did his +share toward procuring a free and equable union with Sweden.</p> +<p>Fridtjof Nansen grew up at Store Fröen, and it was not long +before the strongly marked features of his race became apparent in the +fair, shock-haired lad with the large, dark-blue, dreamy eyes.</p> +<p>Whatever was worthy of note, he must thoroughly master; whatever was +impossible for others, he must do himself. He would bathe in the +Frogner River in spring <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb5" href="#pb5" +name="pb5">5</a>]</span>and autumn in the coldest pools; fish +bare-legged with self-made tackle in the swiftest foss;<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e447src" href="#xd20e447" name="xd20e447src">3</a> +contrive and improve on everything pertaining to tools and implements, +and examine and take to pieces all the mechanical contrivances that +came in his way; often succeeding, frequently failing, but never giving +in.</p> +<p>Once, when only three years old, he was nearly burned to death. He +had been meddling with the copper fire in the brewhouse, and was +standing in the courtyard busied with a little wheelbarrow. All at once +his clothes were on fire, for a spark, it seems, had lighted on them, +and from exposure to the air, burst out into flames. Out rushed the +housekeeper to the rescue. Meanwhile Fridtjof stood hammering away at +his barrow, utterly indifferent to the danger he was in, while the +housekeeper was extinguishing the fire. “It was quite enough for +one person to see to that sort of thing,” he thought.</p> +<p>On one occasion he very nearly caused the drowning of his younger +brother in the icy river. His mother appeared on the scene as he was in +the act of dragging him up out of the water. She scolded him severely; +but the lad tried to comfort her by saying, that “once he himself +had nearly been drowned in the same river when he was quite +alone.”</p> +<p>Once or twice on his early fishing-excursions he managed to get the +fishhook caught in his lip, and his mother had to cut it out with a +razor, causing the lad a great deal of pain, but he bore it all without +a murmur.</p> +<p>The pleasures of the chase, too, were a great source <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb6" href="#pb6" name="pb6">6</a>]</span>of enjoyment +to him in his childish years. At first he would go out after sparrows +and squirrels with a bow and arrow like the Indian hunters. Naturally +he did not meet with much success. It then occurred to him that a +cannon would be an excellent weapon for shooting sparrows. Accordingly +he procured one, and after loading it up to the muzzle with gunpowder, +fired it off, with the result that the cannon burst into a hundred +pieces, and a large part of the charge was lodged in his face, +involving the interesting operation of having the grains of powder +picked out with a needle.</p> +<p>The system on which the Nansen boys were brought up at Store +Fröen was to inure them in both mind and body. Little weight was +attached to trivial matters. The mistakes they made they must correct +for themselves as far as possible; and if they brought suffering on +themselves they were taught to endure it. The principles of self-help +were thus inculcated at an early age—principles which they never +forgot in later days.</p> +<p>As Fridtjof grew up from the child into the boy, the two opposite +sides of his character became apparent,—inflexible determination, +and a dreamy love of adventure; and the older he grew, the more marked +did these become. He was, as the saying is, “a strange +boy.” Strong as a young bear, he was ever foremost in fight with +street boys, whom he daily met between his home and school. When the +humor took him, especially if his younger brother was molested, he +would fight fiercely, though the odds were three or four to one against +him. But in general, he was of a quiet, thoughtful disposition. +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb7" href="#pb7" name= +"pb7">7</a>]</span></p> +<p>Sometimes indeed he would sit buried in deep thought half an hour at +a time, and when dressing would every now and then remain sitting with +one stocking on and the other in his hand so long that his brother had +to call out to him to make haste. At table, too, he would every now and +then forget to eat his food, or else would devour anything and +everything that came in his way.</p> +<p>The craving to follow out his own thoughts and his own way thus +displayed itself in his early childhood, and he had not attained a +great age before his longing to achieve exploits and to test his powers +of endurance became apparent.</p> +<p>It began with a pair of ski<a class="noteref" id="xd20e474src" href= +"#xd20e474" name="xd20e474src">4</a> made by himself for use on the +Frogner hills, developed in the hazardous leaps on the Huseby<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e482src" href="#xd20e482" name="xd20e482src">5</a> +slopes, and culminated in his becoming one of Norway’s cleverest +and most enduring runners on ski. It began with fishing for troutlets +in the river, and ended with catching seals in the Arctic seas. It +began with shooting sparrows with cannons, and ended with shooting the +polar bear and walrus with tiny Krag-Jörgensen conical bullets. It +began with splashing about in the cold pools of the Frogner river, and +ended in having to swim for dear life amid the ice floes of the frozen +ocean. Persevering and precise, enduring and yet defiant, step by step +he progressed.</p> +<p>Nothing was ever skipped over—everything was thoroughly +learned and put into practice. Thus the boy produced the <i>man</i>! +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb8" href="#pb8" name= +"pb8">8</a>]</span></p> +<p>There was a certain amount of pride in Fridtjof’s nature that +under different circumstances might have proved injurious to him. He +was proud of his descent, and of his faith in his own powers. But the +strict and wise guidance of his parents directed this feeling into one +of loyalty—loyalty toward his friends, his work, his plans. His +innate pride thus became a conscientious feeling of honor in small +things as well as great—a mighty lever, forsooth, to be employed +in future exploits.</p> +<p>Meanness was a thing unknown to Fridtjof Nansen, nor did he ever +cherish rancorous feelings in his breast. A quarrel he was ever ready +to make up, and this done it was at once and for all forgotten.</p> +<p>The following instance of his school-days shows what his disposition +was:—</p> +<p>Fridtjof was in the second class of the primary school. One day a +new boy, named Karl, was admitted. Now Fridtjof was the strongest boy +in the class, but the newcomer was also a stout-built lad. It happened +that they fell out on some occasion or other. Karl was doing something +the other did not approve of, whereupon Fridtjof called out, +“You’ve no right to do +that.”—“Haven’t I?” was the reply, and a +battle at once ensued. Blood began to flow freely, when the principal +appeared on the scene. Taking the two combatants, he locked them up in +the class-room. “Sit there, you naughty boys! you ought to be +ashamed of yourselves,” he said, as he left them in durance +vile.</p> +<p>On his return to the class-room a short time afterward, he found the +two lads sitting with their arms <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb9" +href="#pb9" name="pb9">9</a>]</span>around each other’s neck, +reading out of the same book. Henceforth they were bosom friends.</p> +<p>As a boy Nansen possessed singular powers of endurance and +hardiness, and could put up with cold, hunger, thirst, or pain to a far +greater degree than other boys of his age. But with all this he had a +warm heart, sympathizing in the troubles of others, and evincing +sincere interest in their welfare,—traits of character of +childhood’s days that became so strongly developed in Nansen the +leader. Side by side with his yearning to achieve exploits there grew +up within his breast, under the strict surveillance of his father, the +desire of performing good, solid work.</p> +<p>Here may be mentioned another instance, well worthy of +notice:—</p> +<p>Fridtjof and his brother went one day to the fair. There were +jugglers and cake-stalls and gingerbread, sweets, toys, etc., in +abundance. In fine, Christiania fair, coming as it does on the first +Tuesday in February, was a very child’s paradise, with all its +varied attractions. Peasants from the country driving around in their +quaint costumes, the townspeople loafing and enjoying themselves, all +looking pleased as they made their purchases at the stalls in the +marketplace, added to the “fun of the fair.”</p> +<p>Fridtjof and his brother Alexander went well furnished with money; +for their parents had given them a dime each, while aunt and grandmamma +gave them each a quarter apiece. Off the lads started, their faces +beaming with joy. On returning home, however, instead of bringing with +them sweets and toys, it was seen that <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb10" href="#pb10" name="pb10">10</a>]</span>they had spent their +money in buying tools. Their father was not a little moved at seeing +this, and the result was that more money was forthcoming for the lads. +But it all went the same way, and was spent in the purchase of tools, +with the exception of a nickel that was invested in rye cakes.</p> +<p>More than one boy has on such an occasion remembered his +father’s and mother’s advice not to throw money away on +useless things, and has set out with the magnanimous resolve of buying +something useful. The difference between them and the Nansen boys is +this: the latter not only made good resolutions, but carried them out. +It is the act that shows the spirit, and boys who do such things are +generally to be met with in later days holding high and responsible +positions.</p> +<p>Fridtjof was a diligent boy at school, especially at first, and +passed his middle school examination<a class="noteref" id="xd20e523src" +href="#xd20e523" name="xd20e523src">6</a> successfully. He worked hard +at the natural sciences, which had a special attraction for him. But +gradually, as he rose higher in the classes, it was the case with him +as it is with others who are destined to perform something exceptional +in the world; that is, he preferred to follow out his own +ideas—ideas that were not always in accordance with the school +plan. His burning thirst after knowledge impelled him to devote his +attention to what lay nearest, and thoroughly to investigate whatever +was most worthy of note, most wonderful, and most difficult. High +aspirations soon make themselves apparent. <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb11" href="#pb11" name="pb11">11</a>]</span></p> +<p>The mighty hidden forces of nature had a great attraction for him. +He and his friend Karl (who after their fight were inseparable), when +Fridtjof was about fifteen, one day got hold of a lot of fireworks. +These they mixed up together in a mortar, adding to the compound some +“new kinds of fluid” they had bought for their experiment. +Nature, however, anticipated them, for a spark happening to fall on the +mixture, it burst into flames.</p> +<p>Our two experimentalists thereon seized hold of the mortar and threw +it out of the window. It fell on the stones and broke into a thousand +pieces, and thus they gained the new experience,—how a new +chemical substance <i>should not be compounded</i>. The humorous whim, +however, seized them to blacken their hands and faces, and to lie on +the floor as if they were dead. And when Alexander entered the room, +they made him believe that the explosion had been the cause of it all. +Thus, though the experiment had failed, they got some amusement out of +its failure.</p> +<p>Although Fridtjof had so many interests outside his actual school +studies, he was very diligent in his school work. In 1880 he took his +<i>real artium</i>,<a class="noteref" id="xd20e541src" href="#xd20e541" +name="xd20e541src">7</a> with twenty-one marks in twelve subjects. In +natural science, mathematics, and history he had the best marks, and in +the following examination in 1881 he gained the distinction of passing +<i lang="la">laudabilis præ ceteris</i>. <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb12" href="#pb12" name="pb12">12</a>]</span></p> +<p>Though brought up at home very strictly, for his father was +extremely particular about the smallest matters, yet his life must have +possessed great charm for him, spent as it was in the peaceful quiet of +his home at Store Fröen. If on the one hand his father insisted +that he should never shirk his duty, but should strictly fulfil it, on +the other he never denied him anything that could afford him +pleasure.</p> +<p>This is evident from a letter Fridtjof Nansen wrote home during one +of his first sojourns among strangers. On writing to his father in 1883 +he dwells on the Christmas at home, terms it the highest ideal of +happiness and blessedness, dwells on the bright peaceful reminiscences +of his childhood and ends with the following description of a Christmas +Eve:—</p> +<p>“At last the day dawned,—Christmas Eve. Now impatience +was at its height. It was impossible to sit still for one minute; it +was absolute necessary to be doing something to get the time to pass, +or to occupy one’s thoughts either by peeping through the keyhole +to try and catch a glimpse of the Christmas-tree with its bags of +raisins and almonds, or by rushing out-of-doors and sliding down the +hills on a hand-sleigh; or if there were snow enough, we could go out +on ski till it was dark. Sometimes it would happen that Einar had to go +on an errand into the town, and it was so nice to sit on the saddle at +the back of the sleigh, while the sleigh-bells tinkled so merrily, and +the stars glittered in the dark sky overhead.</p> +<p>“The long-expected moment arrived at last,—father went +in to light up. How my heart thumped and <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb13" href="#pb13" name="pb13">13</a>]</span>throbbed! Ida was sitting +in an armchair in a corner, guessing what would fall to her share; +others of the party might be seen to smile in anticipation of some +surprise or other of which they had got an inkling—when all at +once the doors were thrown wide open, and the dazzling brilliancy of +the lights on the Christmas-tree well nigh blinded us. Oh, what a sight +it was! For the first few minutes we were literally dumb from joy, +could scarcely draw our breath—only a moment afterward to give +free vent to our pent-up feelings, like wild things.... +Yes—yes—never shall I forget them—never will those +Christmas Eves fade from my memory as long as I live.”</p> +<p>Reminiscences of a good home, of a good and happy childhood, are the +very best things a man can take with him amid the storms and struggles +of life; and we may be sure of this,—that on many a day that has +been beset with almost insurmountable difficulties, when his powers +were almost exhausted, and his heart feeling faint within, the +recollection of those early years at Store Fröen has more than +once recurred to Nansen’s mind.</p> +<p>The peace and comfort of the old home, with all its dear +associations, the beloved faces of its inmates—these have passed +before his mind’s eye, cheering him on in the accomplishment of +his last tremendous undertaking. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb14" +href="#pb14" name="pb14">14</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e398" href="#xd20e398src" name="xd20e398">1</a></span> +<i>Frognersæteren</i>, a forest-covered hill about six miles from +Christiania. <i>Nordmarken</i>, an extensive woodland stretching for +miles and miles to the north of Christiania.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e436" href="#xd20e436src" name="xd20e436">2</a></span> +<i>Statholder</i>, vice-regent. In the early days of the union with +Sweden the king had the right of appointing a vice-regent for Norway. +The last time the king made use of this prerogative was in 1844, and +the right was abrogated in 1872.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e447" href="#xd20e447src" name="xd20e447">3</a></span> +<i>Foss</i>, waterfall.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e474" href="#xd20e474src" name="xd20e474">4</a></span> <i>Ski</i>, +Norwegian snowshoes; pronounced <i>shee</i>.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e482" href="#xd20e482src" name="xd20e482">5</a></span> +<i>Huseby</i>, a farm near Christiania, where the annual +<i>ski</i>-match was formerly held.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e523" href="#xd20e523src" name="xd20e523">6</a></span> <i>Middle +school examination</i>, passed on graduating from the grammar school to +the high school.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e541" href="#xd20e541src" name="xd20e541">7</a></span> <i>Examen +artium</i>, the entrance examination to the university. For <i>real +artium</i> the chief topics of examination are sciences, mathematics, +and the English language. The best mark in any subject is 1 +(excellent), the poorest 6 (bad).</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch2" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">Chapter II.</h2> +<div class="argument"> +<p class="first">Youthful Excursions.—Studies.—Goes on a +Sealing Expedition to the Arctic Sea.—Hunts Ice-bear.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">There is hardly a boy in Christiania or its +neighborhood who is fond of sport that does not know Nordmarken, and +you may hear many and many a one speak of its lakes, the deafening roar +of its cascades, of the mysterious silence of its endless forest +tracts, and the refreshing odor of the pine-trees. You may hear, too, +how the speckled trout have been lured out of some deep pool, the hare +been hunted among the purple mountain ridges, or the capercailzie +approached with noiseless footsteps when in early spring the cock bird +is wooing his mate; or again, of expeditions on ski over the boundless +tracts of snow in the crisp winter air beneath the feathery snowladen +trees of the forest.</p> +<p>In the days of Nansen’s boyhood it was very different from +what it is now. Then the spell of enchantment that ever lies over an +unknown and unexplored region brooded over it—a feeling +engendered by Asbjörnsen’s<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e579src" href="#xd20e579" name="xd20e579src">1</a> well-known +tales.</p> +<p>It was as if old Asbjörnsen himself, the fairy-tale king, was +trudging along rod in hand by the side of some hidden stream—he +who alone knew how to find <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb15" href= +"#pb15" name="pb15">15</a>]</span>his way through the pathless forest +to the dark waters of some remote lake. And it was but once in a while +that the most venturesome lads, enticed by the tales he had devoured in +that favorite story-book, dared pry into the secrets of that enchanted +land. Only a few of the rising generation then had the courage and the +hardihood to penetrate into those wilds whence they returned with faces +beaming with joy, and with reinvigorated health and strength. But now +the whole Norwegian youth do the same thing.</p> +<p>Among the few who in those days ventured there were the Nansen boys. +They had the pluck, the hardiness, and yearning after adventure that +Nordmarken demanded. They were not afraid of lying out in the forest +during a pouring wet summer night, neither were they particular as to +whether they had to fast for a day or two.</p> +<p>Fridtjof Nansen was about eleven years old when, in company with his +brother Alexander, he paid his first independent visit to it. Two of +their friends were living in Sörkedal,<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e598src" href="#xd20e598" name="xd20e598src">2</a> so they +determined to go and see them—for the forest looked so attractive +that they could not resist the temptation. For once they started off +without asking leave. They knew their way as far as Bogstad,<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e603src" href="#xd20e603" name="xd20e603src">3</a> +but after that had to ask the road to Sörkedal. Arriving at their +destination, they passed the day in playing games, and in fishing in +the river.</p> +<p>But it was not altogether an enjoyable visit, for conscience +pricked, and as they set out for home late in <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb16" href="#pb16" name="pb16">16</a>]</span>the +evening, their hearts sank. Their father was a strict disciplinarian, +and a thrashing rose up before them, and what was even worse than that, +mother might be grieved, and that was something they could not endure +to think of.</p> +<p>On reaching home they found its inmates had not gone to bed, though +it was late in the night. Of course they had been searching for the +truants, and their hearts, which a moment before had been very low +down, now jumped up into their throats, for they could see mother +coming toward them.</p> +<p>“Is that you, boys?” she asked.</p> +<p>“Now for it,” they thought.</p> +<p>“Where <i>have</i> you been?” asked their mother.</p> +<p>Yes, they had been to Sörkedal, and they looked up at her half +afraid of what would happen next. Then they saw that her eyes were +filled with tears.</p> +<p>“You are strange boys!” she murmured; and that was all +she said. But those words made the hearts of the young culprits turn +cold and hot by turns, and they there and then registered a vow that +they would never do anything again to cause mother pain, but would +always try to please her—a resolution they kept, as far as was +possible, their whole lives through.</p> +<p>Subsequently they had leave given them to go to Sörkedal, and +wherever else they wanted. But they had to go on their own +responsibility, and look out for themselves as best they could. But +Fridtjof never forgot the lesson he had learned on that first +expedition to Nordmarken. Who can tell whether his mother’s +tearful face, and her gentle words, “You are strange <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb17" href="#pb17" name= +"pb17">17</a>]</span>boys!” have not appeared to him in wakeful +hours, and been the means of preventing many a venturesome deed being +rashly undertaken, many a headstrong idea from becoming defiant.</p> +<p>This at all events is certain,—Nansen when a man always knew +how to turn aside in a spirit of self-denial when the boundary line +between prudence and rashness had been reached. And for this it may be +safely said he had to thank his father and mother.</p> +<hr class="tb"> +<p>Those who are in the habit of going about in forests are pretty sure +to meet with some wonderful old fellow who knows where the best fish +lie in the river, and the favorite haunts of game in the woods. Such a +one was an old man named Ola Knub, whose acquaintance Nansen made in +the Nordmarken forest. His wife used to come to Store Fröen with +baskets of huckleberries, strawberries, cranberries, etc., and it was +through her Fridtjof got to know him. Often they would set off on an +expedition, rod in hand, and coffee kettle on their back, and be away +for days together. They would fish for trout from early morning till +late at night, sleeping on a plank bed in some wood-cutter’s hut, +after partaking of a supper of trout broiled in the ashes, and black +coffee.</p> +<p>Toward the end of May, when the birch and the oak began to bud, and +the timber floats had gone down the river, they would start on such an +expedition, taking with them a goodly supply of bread and butter, and +perhaps the stump of a sausage. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb18" +href="#pb18" name="pb18">18</a>]</span></p> +<p>It took them generally quite five hours to reach their destination, +but once arrived there they would immediately set to work with rod and +line, and fish up to midnight, when they would crawl into some +charcoal-burner’s hut for a few hours’ sleep, or as was +often the case, sleep out in the open, resting their backs against a +tree, and then at daybreak would be off again, to the river. For time +was precious, and they had to make the best use they could of the hours +between Saturday evening and Monday morning, when they must be in +school.</p> +<p>When autumn set in, and hare-hunting began, they would often be on +foot for twenty-four hours together without any food at all. As the +boys grew older, they would follow the chase in winter on ski, often, +indeed, almost to the detriment of their health. Once when they had +been hare-hunting for a whole fortnight, they found their provision-bag +was empty, and as they would not touch the hares they had killed, they +had to subsist as best they could on potatoes only.</p> +<p>In this way Fridtjof grew up to be exceptionally hardy. When, as it +often happened, his companions got worn out, he would suggest their +going to some spot a long distance off. It seemed to be a special point +of honor with him to bid defiance to fatigue. On one occasion, after +one of these winter excursions to Nordmarken, he set off alone without +any provisions in his knapsack to a place twenty-five kilometres +(fifteen and a half miles) distant, for none of his companions dared +accompany him. On arriving at the place where he was bound, he almost +ate its inmates out of house and home. <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb19" href="#pb19" name="pb19">19</a>]</span></p> +<p>On another occasion, on a long expedition on ski with some of his +comrades, all of whom had brought a plentiful supply of food with them +in their knapsacks, Fridtjof had nothing. When they halted to take some +necessary refreshment, he unbuttoned his jacket and pulled out some +pancakes from his pocket, quite warm from the heat of his body. +“Here, you fellows,” he said, “won’t you have +some pancakes?” But pancakes, his friends thought, might be nice +things in general, yet pancakes kept hot in that way were not +appetizing, and so they refused his proffered hospitality.</p> +<p>“You are a lot of geese! there’s jam on them too,” +he said, as he eagerly devoured the lot.</p> +<p>Even as a boy Fridtjof was impressed with the idea that hardiness +and powers of endurance were qualifications absolutely essential for +the life he was bent on leading; so he made it his great aim to be able +to bear everything, and to require as little as was possible.</p> +<p>If there were things others found impracticable, he would at once +set to work and attempt them. And when once he had taken a matter in +hand, he would never rest till he had gone through with it, even though +his life might be at stake. For instance, he and his brother once set +out to climb the Svartdal’s peak in Jotunheim.<a class="noteref" +id="xd20e657src" href="#xd20e657" name="xd20e657src">4</a> People +usually made the ascent from the rear side of the mountain; but this +was not difficult enough for him. He would climb it from the front, a +route no one had ever attempted; and he did it.</p> +<p>Up under Svartdal’s peak there was a glacier that <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb20" href="#pb20" name="pb20">20</a>]</span>they +must cross, bounded on its farther side by a precipice extending +perpendicularly down into the valley below. His brother relates, +“I had turned giddy, so Fridtjof let me have his staff. Then he +set off over the ice; but instead of going with the utmost caution, +advancing foot by foot at a time, as he now would do, off went my +brother as hard as he could—his foot slipped, and he commenced to +slide down the glacier. I saw that he turned pale, for in a few seconds +more he would be hurled over the abyss, and be crushed to pieces on the +rocks below. He saw his danger, however, just in the nick of time, and +managed to arrest his progress by digging his heels into the snow. +Never shall I forget that moment; neither shall I forget when we +arrived at the tourist’s cabin how he borrowed a pair of trousers +belonging to the club’s corpulent secretary—for they +completely swallowed him up. His own garment, be it stated, had lost an +essential part by the excessive friction caused by his slide down the +glacier.”</p> +<p>Such were the foolhardy exploits Fridtjof would indulge in as a boy; +but when he arrived at manhood he would never risk his life in any +undertaking that was not worth a life’s venture.</p> +<hr class="tb"> +<p>When nineteen he entered the university, and in the following year +passed his second examination;<a class="noteref" id="xd20e672src" href= +"#xd20e672" name="xd20e672src">5</a> and now arose the question what +was he to be? As yet the idea of the future career which has rendered +his name famous had not occurred to his mind, so we see him +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb21" href="#pb21" name= +"pb21">21</a>]</span>hesitating over which of the many roads that lay +before him to adopt. He applied to have his name put down for admission +as cadet in the military school, but quickly withdrew the application. +Next he began the study of medicine, after which all his time was +devoted to a special study of zoölogy. In 1882 he sought the +advice of Professor Collet as to the best method of following up this +branch of science, and the professor’s reply was that he had +better go on a sealing-expedition to the Arctic seas. Nansen took a +week to reflect on this advice before finally deciding; and on March 11 +we see him on board the sealer Viking, steering out of Arendal harbor +to the Arctic ocean—the ocean that subsequently was to mark an +epoch in his life, and become the scene of his memorable exploit.</p> +<div class="figure xd20e680width" id="p021"><img src="images/p021.jpg" +alt="Nansen at nineteen." width="387" height="579"> +<p class="figureHead">Nansen at nineteen.</p> +</div> +<p>It was with wondrously mixed feelings that he turned his gaze toward +the north as he stood on the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb22" href= +"#pb22" name="pb22">22</a>]</span>deck that March morning. Behind him +lay the beloved home of his childhood and youth. The first rays of the +rising sun were shining over the silent forests whither the woodcock +and other birds of passage would soon be journeying from southern +climes, and the capercailzie beginning his amorous manœuvres on +the sombre pine tops, while the whole woodland would speedily be +flooded with the songs of its feathered denizens.</p> +<p>And there before him was the sea, the wondrous sea, where he would +behold wrecked vessels drifting along in the raging tempest, with +flocks of stormy petrels in attendance—and beyond, the Polar sea, +that fairy region, was pictured in his dreams. Yes, he could see it in +his spirit—could see the mighty icebergs, with their crests +sparkling in the sunlight in thousands of varied forms and hues, and +between these the boundless tracts of ice extending as far as the eye +could reach in one level unbroken plain. When this dream became +reality, how did he meet it?</p> +<p>Flat, drifting floes of ice, rocked up and down in the blue-green +sea, alike in sunshine and in fog, in storm and calm. One monotonous +infinity of ice to struggle through, floe after floe rising up like +white-clad ghosts from the murky sea, gliding by with a soughing, +rippling murmur to vanish from sight, or to dash against the +ship’s sides till masts and hull quivered; and then when morning +broke, a faint, mysterious light, a hollow murmur in the air, like the +roar of distant surge, far away to the north.</p> +<p>This was the Arctic sea! this the drift ice! They were soon in the +midst of it. The sea-gulls circled <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb23" +href="#pb23" name="pb23">23</a>]</span>about, and the snow-bunting +whirled around the floes of ice on which the new-fallen snow lay and +glittered.</p> +<p>A gale set in; then it blew a hurricane; and the Viking groaned like +a wounded whale, quivering as if in the agonies of death from the +fierce blows on her sides. At last they approached the scene of their +exertions, and the excitement of the impending chase for seals drove +out every other feeling from the mind, and every one was wondering +“were there many seals this year? would the weather be +propitious?”</p> +<p>One forenoon “a sail to leeward” was reported by the man +in the crow’s-nest, and all hands were called up on deck, every +stitch of canvas spread, and all the available steam-power used to +overtake the stranger.</p> +<p>There were two ships; one of them being Nordenskjöld’s +famous Vega, now converted into a sealer. Nansen took his hat off to +her; and it may well be that this strange encounter imbued his mind +with a yearning to accomplish some exploit of a similar perilous nature +and world-wide renown as that of the famed Vega expedition. It is a +significant fact that the Vega was the first ship Nansen met with in +the Arctic sea—a fact that forces itself upon the mind with all +the might of a historic moment, with all the fateful force of destiny. +It addresses us like one of those many accidental occurrences that seem +as if they had a purpose—occurrences that every man who is on the +alert and mindful of his future career will meet once at least if not +oftener on his journey through life. Such things are beyond our finite +comprehension. Some people may term them “the finger of +God,” others the new, higher, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb24" +href="#pb24" name="pb24">24</a>]</span>unknown laws of nature; it may +be these names signify but one and the same thing.</p> +<p>That year the Viking did not meet with great success among the +seals, for the season was rather too advanced by the time she reached +the sealing-grounds. But all the more did Nansen get to learn about the +Arctic sea; and of the immense waste of waters of that free, lonely +ocean, his inmost being drank in refreshing draughts.</p> +<p>On May 2, Spitzbergen was sighted, and on the 25th they were off the +coast of Iceland, where Nansen for a while planted his foot once more +on firm land. But their stay there was short, and soon they were off to +sea again, and in among the seals. And now the continual report of guns +sounded all around; the crew singing and shouting; flaying seals and +boiling the blubber—a life forsooth of busy activity.</p> +<p>Toward the end of June the Viking got frozen in off the East +Greenland coast, where she lay imprisoned a whole month, unfortunately +during the best of the sealing season; a loss, indeed, to the owners, +but a gain for Nansen, who now for the first time in his life got his +full enjoyment in the chase of the polar bear.</p> +<p>During all these days of their imprisonment in the ice there was one +incessant chase after bears,—looking out for bears from the +crow’s-nest, racing after bears over the ice, resulting in loss +of life to a goodly number of those huge denizens of the Polar +regions.</p> +<p>“Bear on the weather bow!” “Bear to leeward! all +hands turn out!” were the cries from morning till night; and many +a time did Nansen jump up from his <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb25" +href="#pb25" name="pb25">25</a>]</span>berth but half dressed, and away +over the ice to get a shot.</p> +<p>Toward evening one day in July Nansen was sitting up in the +crow’s-nest, making a sketch of the Greenland coast. On deck one +of the crew, nicknamed Balloon, was keeping watch, and just as our +artist was engrossed with his pencil, he heard Balloon shouting at the +top of his voice, “Bear ahead!” In an instant Nansen sprang +up, threw his painting-materials down on the deck below, quickly +following the same himself down the rigging. But alas! by the time he +had reached the deck and seized his rifle, the bear had +disappeared.</p> +<p>“A pretty sort of fellow to sit up in the crow’s-nest +and not see a bear squatting just in front of the bows!” said the +captain tauntingly.</p> +<p>But a day or two afterward Nansen fully retrieved his reputation. It +was his last bear-hunt on the expedition, and this is what +occurred:—</p> +<p>He and the captain and one of the sailors set out after a monstrous +bear. The beast, however, was shy, and beat a speedy retreat. All three +sprang after it. But as Nansen was jumping over an open place in the +ice, he fell plump into the sea. His first thought on finding himself +in the water was his rifle, which he flung upon the ice. But it slipped +off again into the water, so Nansen had to dive after it. Next time he +managed to throw it some distance across the ice, and then clambered up +himself, of course wet through to the skin. But his cartridges, which +were water-tight ones, were all right, and soon he rejoined his +companions in pursuit, and outstripped them. In a little while +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb26" href="#pb26" name= +"pb26">26</a>]</span>he saw the bear making for a hummock, and made +straight for him; on coming up to closer quarters the beast turned +sharp round and dropped into the water, but not before Nansen was able +to put a bullet into him. On reaching the edge of the ice, he could see +no trace of the animal. Yes—there was something white yonder, a +little below the surface, for the bear had dived. Presently he saw the +animal pop its head up just in front of him, and a moment after its +paws were on the edge of the floe, on which, with a fierce and angry +growl, the huge beast managed to drag himself up. Nansen now fired +again, and had the satisfaction of seeing the bear drop back dead into +the water, where he had to hold it by the ears to prevent it sinking, +till his companions came up, when they were able to haul it up on the +ice.</p> +<p>The captain now bade Nansen return to the ship as quickly as he +could to change his clothes; but on his road thither he met with some +others of the crew in pursuit of a couple of bears. The temptation was +too strong for him, so he joined them. He was fortunate enough to shoot +one of the bears that they had wounded, and then started after bear +number two, which was leisurely devouring the carcass of a seal some +little distance off. On coming up with it he fired. The bear reeled and +fell backwards into the water, but speedily coming up again, made off +for a large hummock, under cover of which it hoped to be able to sneak +off.</p> +<p>But Nansen was not far behind. It was an exciting chase. First over +a wide space of open water, then across some firm ice; the bear dashed +along for dear <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb27" href="#pb27" name= +"pb27">27</a>]</span>life, and now the iron muscles, hardened by his +exploits on the Huseby hills and his Nordmarken experiences, stood his +pursuer in good stead. Following on the blood-stained track, he ran as +fast as his legs could carry him. Now the bear, now Nansen, seemed to +be getting the advantage. Whenever a broad opening in the ice or a pool +of clear water came in their way, they swam across it; bear first, +Nansen a good second—and so it went on mile after mile. +Presently, however, Nansen thought his competitor in the race began to +slacken speed, and to turn and twist in his course, as if seeking for +some friendly shelter; and coming up within a reasonable distance he +gave him two bullets, one lodging in the chest, the other behind the +ear, when to his great joy the bear lay dead at his feet. Nansen at +once set to work to skin the brute with a penknife—rather a +tedious operation with such an instrument. Presently one of the sailors +came up, and off they started for the ship with the skin, on their road +meeting a man whom the captain had thoughtfully despatched with a +supply of bread and meat, without which, indeed, as is well known, a +hero, especially when ravenously hungry, is a nobody.</p> +<p>In all, nineteen bears were bagged during this time.</p> +<p>Soon after this bear-hunt the Viking set out for home, and great was +the joy of all on board when the coast of “old Norway,” +with its lofty mountain ridges, was seen towering up over the sea. This +expedition of the Viking was termed by the sailors, +“Nansen’s cruise,”—an exceptional reminiscence, +a monolith in the midst of the ice! <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb28" +href="#pb28" name="pb28">28</a>]</span></p> +<p>“Ay, he was a chap after bears!” said one of the sailors +afterward; “just as much under the water as over it, when he was +after bears. I told him that he was going to injure his health that +way; but he only laughed, and pointing to his woollen jersey said, +‘I do not feel cold.’”</p> +<p>To Fridtjof Nansen this Arctic expedition became the turning-point +of his life. The dream of the mighty ocean never left him; it was ever +before his eyes with all its inexplicable riddles.</p> +<p>Here was something to do—something that people called +impossible. He would test it. Some years, however, must elapse before +that dream should become reality. Nansen must first be a man. +Everything that tended to retard his progress must be removed or +shattered to pieces—all that would promote it, improved upon and +set in order. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb29" href="#pb29" name= +"pb29">29</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e579" href="#xd20e579src" name="xd20e579">1</a></span> <i>P. C. +Asbjörnsen</i> (pron. Asbyurnsen) together with <i>Jörgen</i> +(pron. Yurgen) <i>Moe</i> collected the popular and fairy tales of +Norway.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e598" href="#xd20e598src" name="xd20e598">2</a></span> +<i>Sörkedal</i>, a valley about eight miles to the north of +Christiania.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e603" href="#xd20e603src" name="xd20e603">3</a></span> +<i>Bogstad</i>, a baronial manor about five miles north of +Christiania.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e657" href="#xd20e657src" name="xd20e657">4</a></span> +<i>Jotunheim</i>, the giant’s world, a group of mountains in the +centre of southern Norway.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e672" href="#xd20e672src" name="xd20e672">5</a></span> <i>Second +examination</i>, graduating as a bachelor of arts.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch3" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">Chapter III.</h2> +<div class="argument"> +<p class="first">Fridtjof Nansen Accepts a Position in the Bergen +Museum.—Crosses the Mountains in the Winter.—Prepares +Himself for the Doctor’s Degree.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">The very same day that Nansen set foot on land after +his return from this expedition he was offered the Conservatorship of +the Bergen<a class="noteref" id="xd20e754src" href="#xd20e754" name= +"xd20e754src">1</a> Museum by Professor Collett. Old Danielsen, the +chief physician, a man of iron capacity for work, and who had attained +great renown in his profession, wanted to place a new man in charge. +Nansen promptly accepted the offer, but asked first to be allowed to +visit a sister in Denmark. But a telegram from Danielsen, “Nansen +must come at once,” compelled him, though with no little regret, +to give up his projected visit.</p> +<p>The meeting of these two men was as if two clouds heavily laden with +electricity had come in contact, producing a spark that blazed over the +northern sky. That spark resulted in the famous Greenland +expedition.</p> +<p>Danielsen was one of those who held that a youth possessed of +health, strength, and good abilities should be able to unravel almost +anything and everything in this world, and in Fridtjof Nansen he found +such an one. So these two worked together assiduously; for <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb30" href="#pb30" name="pb30">30</a>]</span>both +were alike enthusiastic in the cause of science, both possessed the +same strong faith in its advancement. And Danielsen, the clear-headed +scientist, after being associated with his colleague for some few +years, entertained such firm confidence in his powers and capabilities, +that a short time before the expedition to the North Pole set out, he +wrote in a letter:—</p> +<p>“Fridtjof Nansen will as surely return crowned with success +from the North Pole as it is I who am writing these lines—such is +an old man’s prophecy!”</p> +<p>The old scientist, who felt his end was drawing near, sent him +before his death an anticipatory letter of greeting when the expedition +should happily be over.</p> +<p>Nansen devoted himself to the study of science with the same +indomitable energy that characterized all of his achievements.</p> +<p>Hour by hour he would sit over his microscope, month after month +devote himself to the pursuit of knowledge. Yet every now and then, +when he felt he must go out to get some fresh air, he would buckle on +his ski, and dash along over the mountain or through the forest till +the snow spurted up in clouds behind him. Thus he spent several years +in Bergen.</p> +<p>But one fine day, chancing to read in the papers that +Nordenskjöld had returned from his expedition to Greenland, and +had said that the interior of the country was a boundless plain of ice +and snow, it flashed on his mind that here was a field of work for him. +Yes—he would cross Greenland on ski! and he at once set to work +to prepare a plan for the expedition. But such an adventurous task, in +which life would be at stake, must not <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb31" href="#pb31" name="pb31">31</a>]</span>be undertaken till he +himself had become a proficient in that branch of science which he had +selected as his special study. So he remains yet some more years in +Bergen, after which he spends twelve months in Naples, working hard at +the subjects in which he subsequently took his doctor’s degree in +1888.</p> +<p>Those years of expectation in Bergen were busy years. Every now and +then he would become homesick. In winter time he would go by the +railway from Bergen to Voss,<a class="noteref" id="n37.1src" href= +"#n37.1" name="n37.1src">2</a> thence on ski over the mountains to +Christiania, down the Stalheim road,<a class="pseudonoteref" href= +"#n37.1">2</a> with its sinuous twists and bends, on through +Nærödal, noted for its earth slips, on by the swift Lerdals +river fretting and fuming on one side, and a perpendicular mountain +wall on the other. And here he would sit to rest in that narrow gorge +where avalanches are of constant occurrence. Let them come! he must +rest awhile and eat. A solitary wayfarer hurries by on his sleigh as +fast as his horse will go. “Take care!” shouts the +traveller as he passes by; and Nansen looks up, gathers his things +together, and proceeds on his journey through the valley. It was +Sauekilen, the most dangerous spot in Lerdals, where he was resting. +Then the night falls, the moon shines brightly overhead, and the +creaking sound of his footsteps follows him over the desert waste, and +his dark-blue shadow stays close beside him. And he, the man possessed +of ineffable pride and indomitable <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb32" +href="#pb32" name="pb32">32</a>]</span>resolution, feels how utterly +insignificant he is in that lonely wilderness of snow—naught but +an insect under the powerful microscope of the starlit sky, for the +far-seeing eye of the Almighty is piercing through his inmost soul. +Here it avails not to seek to hide aught from that gaze. So he pours +out his thoughts to Him who alone has the right to search them. That +midnight pilgrimage over the snowy waste was like a divine service on +ski; and it was as an invigorated man, weary though he was in body, +that he knocked at the door of a peasant’s cabin, while its +astonished inmates looked out in amazement, and the old housewife cried +out, “Nay! in Jesus’ name, are there folk on the +fjeld<a class="noteref" id="xd20e798src" href="#xd20e798" name= +"xd20e798src">3</a> so late in the night? Nay! is it you? Suppose you +are always so late on the road!”</p> +<p>Even still more arduous was the return journey that same winter. The +people in the last house on the eastern side of the mountain, in +bidding him “God speed,” entreat him to go cautiously, for +the road over the fjeld is well nigh impassable in winter, they say. +Not a man in the whole district would follow him, they add. Nansen +promises them to be very careful, as he sets off in the moonlight at +three o’clock in the morning. Soon he reaches the wild desert, +and the glittering snow blushes like a golden sea in the beams of the +rising sun. Presently he reaches Myrstölen.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e806src" href="#xd20e806" name="xd20e806src">4</a> The houseman is +away from home, and the women-folk moan and weep on learning the road +he means to take. On resuming his <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb33" +href="#pb33" name="pb33">33</a>]</span>journey he shortly comes to a +cross-road. Shall it be Aurland or Vosse skavlen?<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e813src" href="#xd20e813" name="xd20e813src">5</a> He chooses the +latter route across the snow plateau, for it is the path the wild +reindeer follow. On he skims over the crisp surface enveloped in the +cloud of snow-dust his ski stir up, for the wind is behind him. But now +he loses his way, falls down among the clefts and fissures, toils along +step by step, and at last has to turn back and retrace his steps. There +ought to be a sæter<a class="noteref" id="xd20e821src" href= +"#xd20e821" name="xd20e821src">6</a> somewhere about there, but it +seems as if it had been spirited away. A pitchy darkness sets in; for +the stars have disappeared one by one, and the night is of a coal-black +hue, and Fridtjof has to make his bed on the snow-covered plateau, +under the protecting shelter of a bowlder, his faithful dog by his +side, his knapsack for a pillow, while the night wind howls over the +waste.</p> +<p>Again, at three in the morning, he resumes his journey, only again +to lose his way, and burying himself in the snow, determines to wait +for daybreak. Dawn came over the mountain-tops in a sea of rosy light, +while the dark shadows of night fled to their hiding-places in the deep +valleys below—a proclamation of eternity, where nature was the +preacher and nature the listener, the voice of God speaking to +himself.</p> +<p>At broad daylight he sees Vosse skavlen close at hand, and thither +he drags his weary, stiffened limbs; but on reaching the summit he +drinks “skaal<a class="noteref" id="xd20e830src" href="#xd20e830" +name="xd20e830src">7</a> to the fjeld,” <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb34" href="#pb34" name="pb34">34</a>]</span>a frozen +orange, the last he has, being his beverage. Before the sun sets again, +Fridtjof has crossed that mountain height, as King Sverre<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e837src" href="#xd20e837" name="xd20e837src">8</a> +did of yore—an achievement performed by those two alone!</p> +<hr class="tb"> +<p>Fridtjof Nansen’s father died in 1885, and it was largely +consideration for his aged parent’s failing health during the +last few years that delayed Nansen’s setting out on his Greenland +expedition. The letters that passed between father and son during this +period strikingly evince the tender relationship existing between them. +On receipt of the tidings of his father’s last illness he hurried +off at a moment’s notice, never resting on his long homeward +journey, inexpressibly grieved at arriving too late to see him +alive.</p> +<p>Then, after a year’s sojourn in Naples, where he met the +genial and energetic Professor Dohrn, the founder of the biological +station<a class="noteref" id="xd20e848src" href="#xd20e848" name= +"xd20e848src">9</a> in that city, having no further ties to hinder him, +he enters heart and soul into the tasks he has set himself to +accomplish,—to take his degree as doctor of philosophy, and to +make preparation for his expedition to Greenland, both of which tasks +he accomplished in the same year with credit. For he not only made +himself a name as a profound researcher in the realms of science, but +at the same time equipped an expedition that was soon destined to +excite universal attention, not in the north alone, but throughout the +length and breadth of Europe. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb35" href= +"#pb35" name="pb35">35</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e754" href="#xd20e754src" name="xd20e754">1</a></span> +<i>Bergen</i>, the metropolis of western Norway, the second largest +city in Norway.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id="n37.1" +href="#n37.1src" name="n37.1">2</a></span> <i>Voss</i>, a country +district of western Norway, connected with Bergen by railway. +<i>Stalheim road</i>, a piece of road winding in a slow decline down a +steep hill, famous for the beauty of its scenery and the engineering +skill with which it has been built. <i>Nærödal</i> and +<i>Lerdals river</i> must be passed on the way from Bergen to +Christiania.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e798" href="#xd20e798src" name="xd20e798">3</a></span> +<i>Fjeld</i> (pron. fyell), mountain.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e806" href="#xd20e806src" name="xd20e806">4</a></span> +<i>Myrstölen</i>, the last house on the eastern side of the +mountain inhabited the whole year through.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e813" href="#xd20e813src" name="xd20e813">5</a></span> +<i>Aurland</i> and <i>Vosse skavlen</i>, alternative routes across the +mountains from Christiania to Bergen.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e821" href="#xd20e821src" name="xd20e821">6</a></span> +<i>Sæter</i>, mountain hut, used by graziers during the summer +months.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e830" href="#xd20e830src" name="xd20e830">7</a></span> +<i>Skaal</i>, your health.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e837" href="#xd20e837src" name="xd20e837">8</a></span> <i>King +Sverre</i>, King of Norway 1177 to 1202.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e848" href="#xd20e848src" name="xd20e848">9</a></span> An +institution where animal life is studied.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch4" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">Chapter IV.</h2> +<div class="argument"> +<p class="first">Nansen Meets Nordenskjöld.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e858src" href="#xd20e858" name= +"xd20e858src">1</a>—Preparations for the Greenland +Expedition.—Nansen’s Followers on the +Expedition.—Starting on the Expedition.—Drifting on an +Ice-floe.<span class="corr" id="xd20e863" title= +"Source: ">—</span>Landing on East Coast of Greenland.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">Nansen had an arduous task before him in the spring of +1888, one that demanded all his strength and energy, for he would take +his doctor’s degree, and make preparations for his expedition to +Greenland.</p> +<p>He had already, in the autumn of 1887, made up his mind to +accomplish both these things. In November of that year, accordingly, he +went to Stockholm to confer with Nordenskjöld. Professor +Brögger, who introduced him to that gentleman, gives the following +account of the interview:—</p> +<p>“On Thursday, Nov. 3, as I was sitting in my study in the +Mineralogical Institute, my messenger came in and said a Norwegian had +been inquiring for me. He had left no card, neither had he given his +name. Doubtless, I thought, it was some one who wanted help out of a +difficulty.</p> +<p>“‘What was he like?’ I inquired.</p> +<p>“‘Tall and fair,’ replied the messenger.</p> +<p>“‘Was he dressed decently?’ I asked. <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb36" href="#pb36" name="pb36">36</a>]</span></p> +<p>“‘He hadn’t an overcoat on.’ This with a +significant smile, as he added, ‘Looked for all the world like a +seafaring man—or a tramp.’</p> +<p>“‘Humph!’ I muttered to myself; ‘sailor with +no overcoat! Very likely thinks I’m going to give him +one—yes, I think I understand.’</p> +<p>“Later on in the afternoon Wille<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e885src" href="#xd20e885" name="xd20e885src">2</a> came in. +‘Have you seen Nansen?’ he said.</p> +<p>“‘Nansen?’ I replied. ‘Was that sailor +fellow without an overcoat Nansen?’</p> +<p>“‘Without an overcoat! Why, he means to cross over the +inland ice of Greenland;’ and out went Wille—he was in a +hurry.</p> +<p>“Presently entered Professor Lecke with the same question, +‘Have you seen Nansen? Isn’t he a fine fellow? such a lot +of interesting discoveries he told me of, and then his researches into +the nervous system—a grand fellow!’ and off went Lecke.</p> +<p>“But before long the man himself entered the room. Tall, +upright, broad-shouldered, strongly built, though slim and very +youthful looking, with his shock of hair brushed off his well-developed +forehead. Coming toward me and holding out his hand, he introduced +himself by name, while a pleasing smile played over his face.</p> +<p>“‘And you mean to cross over Greenland?’ I +asked.</p> +<p>“‘Yes; I’ve been thinking of it,’ was the +reply.</p> +<p>“I looked him in the face, as he stood before me with an air +of conscious self-reliance about him. With every <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb37" href="#pb37" name="pb37">37</a>]</span>word he +spoke he seemed to grow on me; and this plan of his to cross over +Greenland on ski from the east coast, which but a moment ago I had +looked on as a madman’s idea, during our conversation gradually +grew on me, till it seemed to be the most natural thing in the world; +and all at once it flashed on my mind, ‘And he’ll do it, +too, as sure as ever we are sitting here talking about it.’</p> +<p>“He, whose name but two hours ago I had not known, became in +those few minutes (and it all came about so naturally) as if he were an +old acquaintance, and I felt I should be proud and fortunate indeed to +have him for my friend my whole life through.</p> +<p>“‘We will go and see Nordenskjöld at once,’ I +said, rising up. And we went.</p> +<p>“With his strange attire,—he was dressed in a +tight-fitting, dark-blue blouse or coatee, a kind of knitted +jacket,—he was, as may be supposed, stared at in Drottning-gatan. +Some people, indeed, took him for an acrobat or tight-rope +dancer.”</p> +<p>Nordenskjöld, “old Nor” as he was often termed, was +in his laboratory, and looked up sharply as his two visitors entered +the room, for he was, as ever, “busy.”</p> +<p>The professor saluted, and introduced his companion, +“Conservator Nansen from Bergen, who purposes to cross over the +inland ice of Greenland.”</p> +<p>“The deuce he does!” muttered “old Nor,” +staring with all his eyes at the fair-haired young viking.</p> +<p>“And would like to confer with you about it,” continued +the professor. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb38" href="#pb38" name= +"pb38">38</a>]</span></p> +<p>“Quite welcome; and so Herr Nansen thinks of crossing over +Greenland?”</p> +<p>“Yes; such was his intention.” Thereon, without further +ado, he sketched out his projected plan, to which “old Nor” +listened with great attention, shaking his head every now and then, as +if rather sceptical about it, but evidently getting more and more +interested as he proceeded.</p> +<p>As Nansen and Professor Brögger were sitting in the +latter’s house that evening, a knock was heard at the door, and +who should come in but “old Nor” himself—a convincing +proof to Brögger that the old man entertained a favorable idea of +the proposed plan. And many a valuable hint did the young ice-bear get +from the old one, as they sat opposite each other—the man of the +past and the coming man of the present—quietly conversing +together that evening.</p> +<p>Now Nansen sets off for home in order to prepare for the arduous +task of the ensuing spring. In December, 1887, he is in Bergen again, +and at the end of January he travels on ski from Hardanger to +Kongsberg, thence by rail to Christiania.</p> +<p>In March we see him once more in Bergen, giving lectures in order to +awaken public interest in Greenland; now sleeping out on the top of +Blaamand,<a class="noteref" id="xd20e933src" href="#xd20e933" name= +"xd20e933src">3</a> a mountain near Bergen, in a sleeping-bag, to test +its efficiency; now standing on the cathedra in the university +auditorium to claim his right to the degree of doctor of philosophy, +which on April 28 was honorably awarded him; and on May 2 he sets out +for Copenhagen, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb39" href="#pb39" name= +"pb39">39</a>]</span><i>en route</i> for Greenland. For unhappily it +was the case in Norway in 1888 that Norwegian exploits must be carried +out with Danish help. In vain had he sought for assistance from the +regents of the university. They recommended the matter to the +government, but the government had no 5,000 kroner<a class="noteref" +id="xd20e942src" href="#xd20e942" name="xd20e942src">4</a> ($1,350) to +throw away on such an enterprise,—the enterprise of a madman, as +most people termed it.</p> +<p>Yet when that enterprise had been carried to a successful issue, and +that same lunatic had become a great man and asked the government and +the storthing<a class="noteref" id="xd20e950src" href="#xd20e950" name= +"xd20e950src">5</a> for a grant of 200,000 kroner ($54,000) for his +second mad expedition, his request was promptly granted. A new Norway +had grown up meanwhile, a new national spirit had forced its way into +existence, a living testimony to the power of the Nansen +expedition.</p> +<p>As stated above, Nansen had to go to Denmark for the 5,000 kroner; +and it was the wealthy merchant, Augustin Gamel, who placed that amount +at his disposal. Still, certain is it, had not that sum of money been +forthcoming as it was, Fridtjof Nansen would have plucked himself bare +to the last feather in order to carry out his undertaking.</p> +<p>But what was there to be gained from an expedition to Greenland +worth the risking of human life,—for a life-risk it +unquestionably would be,—to say nothing of the cost thereof? What +was there to be learned from the ice?</p> +<p>The question is soon answered. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb40" +href="#pb40" name="pb40">40</a>]</span></p> +<p>The island of Greenland,—for it is now well ascertained that +it is an island, and that the largest in the world,—this Sahara +of the North, contains within its ice-plains the key to the history of +the human race. For it is the largest homogeneous relic we possess of +the glacial age. Such as Greenland now is, so large tracts of the world +have been; and, what is of more interest to us, so has the whole of the +north been. It is this mighty ice-realm that has caused a large +proportion of the earth’s surface to assume its present +appearance. The lowlands of Mid-Germany and Denmark have been scoured +and transported thither from the rocks of Norway and Sweden. The +Swedish rock at Lützen in Saxony is Swedish granite that the ice +has carried with it. And the small glaciers still left in Norway, such +as the Folgefond, Jostedalsbræ, Svartis,<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e965src" href="#xd20e965" name="xd20e965src">6</a> etc., are +merely “calves” of that ancient, stupendous mass of ice +that time and heat have transported, even though it once lay more than +a thousand metres in thickness over widely extended plains.</p> +<p>To investigate, therefore, the inland ice of Greenland is, in a +word, to investigate the great glacial age; and one may learn from such +a study many a lesson explanatory of our earth’s appearance at +the present day, and ascertain what could exist, and what could not, +under such conditions.</p> +<p>We know now that, during the glacial age, human beings lived on this +earth, even close up to this gigantic glacier, that subsequently +destroyed all life on its course. It may be safely asserted that the +struggle with the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb41" href="#pb41" +name="pb41">41</a>]</span>ice, and with the variations of climate, have +been important factors in making the human race what it will eventually +be, the lords of nature.</p> +<p>The Esquimaux in their deerskin dress, the aborigines of Australia, +the pigmy tribes of Africa’s primeval forests, are a living +testimony of the tenacious powers of the soul and body of +mankind,—civilization’s trusty outposts. An Esquimau living +on blubber under fifty degrees of cold is just as much a man of +achievement in this work-a-day world as an Edison, who, with every +comfort at his disposal, forces nature to disclose her hidden marvels. +But he who, born in the midst of civilization, and who forces his way +to an outpost farther advanced than any mankind has yet attained, is +greater, perhaps, than either, especially when in his struggle for +existence he wrests from nature her inmost secrets.</p> +<p>This was the kernel of Nansen’s exploits—his first and +his last.</p> +<hr class="tb"> +<p>Nansen was fully alive to the fact that his enterprise would involve +human life; and he formed his plans in such wise that he would either +attain his object or perish in the attempt. He would make the +dangerous, uninhabited coast of East Greenland his starting-point as +one which presented no enticement for retracing his steps. He would +force his way onward. The instinct of self-preservation should impel +him toward the west—the greater his advance in that direction the +greater <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb42" href="#pb42" name= +"pb42">42</a>]</span>his hopes. Behind him naught but death; before +him, life!</p> +<p>But he must have followers! Where were men to be found to risk their +lives on such a venture? to form one of a madman’s retinue? And +not only that, he must have men with him who, like himself, were well +versed in all manly sports, especially in running on ski; men hard as +iron, as he was; men who, like himself, were unencumbered with family +ties. Where were such to be found? He sought long and diligently, and +he found them.</p> +<p>There was a man named Sverdrup—<i>Otto Sverdrup</i>. Yes, we +all of us know him now! But then he was an unknown Nordland youth, +inured to hardship on sea and land, an excellent sailor, a skilful +ski-runner, firm of purpose; one to whom fatigue was a stranger, +physically strong and able in emergency, unyielding as a rod of iron, +firm as a rock. A man chary of words in fine weather, but eloquent in +storm: possessed, too, of a courage that lay so deep that it needed +almost a peril involving life to arouse it. Yet, when the pinch came +Sverdrup was in his element. Then would his light blue eyes assume a +darker hue, and a smile creep over his hard-set features; then he would +resemble a hawk that sits on a perch with ruffled feathers, bidding +defiance to every one who approaches it, but which, when danger draws +nigh, flaps its pinions, and soars aloft in ever widening circles, +increasing with the force of the tempest, borne along by the storm.</p> +<p>This man accompanied him.</p> +<div class="figure xd20e999width" id="p043"><img src="images/p043.jpg" +alt="Otto Sverdrup." width="487" height="720"> +<p class="figureHead">Otto Sverdrup.</p> +</div> +<p>Number two was Lieutenant, now Captain, <i>Olaf Dietrichson</i>. +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb44" href="#pb44" name= +"pb44">44</a>]</span>He, too, hailed from the north. A man who loved a +life in the open air, a master in all manly exploits, elastic as a +steel spring, a proficient on ski, and a sportsman in heart and soul. +And added to this, a man possessed of great knowledge in those matters +especially that were needed in an expedition like the present. He, too, +was enrolled among the number.</p> +<p>Number three was also from Nordland, from Sverdrup’s +neighborhood, who recommended him. His name was <i>Kristian Kristiansen +Trana</i>—a handy and reliable youth.</p> +<p>These three were all Nordlanders. But Nansen had a great desire to +have a couple of Fjeld-Finns with him, for he considered that, inured +as they were to ice and snow, their presence would be of great service +to him. They came from Karasjok.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1018src" +href="#xd20e1018" name="xd20e1018src">7</a> The one a fine young +fellow, more Qvæn<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1023src" href= +"#xd20e1023" name="xd20e1023src">8</a> than Lapp; the other a little +squalid-looking, dark-haired, pink-eyed Fjeld-Finn. The name of the +first was <i>Balto</i>; of the other, <i>Ravna</i>. These two children +of the mountains came to Christiania looking dreadfully perplexed, with +little of the heroic about them. For they had agreed to accompany the +expedition principally for the sake of the good pay, and now learned +for the first time that their lives might be endangered. Nansen, +however, managed to instil a little confidence into them, and as was +subsequently proved, they turned out to be useful and reliable members +of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb45" href="#pb45" name= +"pb45">45</a>]</span>the expedition. Old Ravna, who was forty-five, was +a married man,—a fact Nansen did not know when he engaged +him,—and was possessed of great physical strength and powers of +endurance.</p> +<p>Nansen now had the lives of five persons beside his own on his +conscience. He would, therefore, make his equipment in such manner that +he should have nothing to reproach himself with in case anything went +wrong, a work that he conscientiously and carefully carried out. There +was not a single article or implement that was not scientifically and +practically discussed and tested, measured and weighed, before they set +out. Hand-sleighs and ski, boats and tent, cooking-utensils, +sleeping-bags, shoes and clothes, food and drink, all were of the best +kind; plenty of everything, but nothing superfluous—light, yet +strong, nourishing and strengthening. Everything, in fact, was well +thought over, and as was subsequently proved, the mistakes that did +occur were few and trifling.</p> +<p>Nansen made most of the implements with his own hands, and nothing +came to pieces during the whole expedition saving a boat plank that was +crushed by the ice.</p> +<p>But one thing Nansen omitted to take with him, and that was a supply +of spirituous liquor. It did not exist in his dictionary of sport. For +he had long entertained the opinion—an opinion very generally +held by the youth of Norway at the present day—that strong drink +is a foe to manly exploit, sapping and undermining man’s physical +and mental powers. In former days, indeed, in Norway, as elsewhere, it +was considered <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb46" href="#pb46" name= +"pb46">46</a>]</span>manly to drink, but now the drinker is looked down +on with a pity akin to contempt.</p> +<p>Thus equipped, these six venturesome men set out on their way; first +by steamer to Iceland, thence by the Jason, a sealer, Captain Jacobsen +its commander, who, as opportunity should offer, was to set them ashore +on the east coast of Greenland. And here, after struggling for a month +with the ice, they finally arrived, on July 19, so near to the Sermilik +Fjord that Nansen determined to leave the Jason and make his way across +the ice to land. The whole ship’s crew were on deck to bid them +farewell. Nansen was in command of one of the two boats, and when he +gave the word “set off,” they shot off from the +ship’s side, while the Jason’s two guns and a spontaneous +hurrah from sixty-four stalwart sailors’ throats resounded far +and wide over the sea. As the boats worked their way into the ice, the +Jason changed her course, and ere long our six travellers watched the +Norwegian flag, waving like a distant tongue of fire, gradually fade +from sight and disappear among the mist and fog.</p> +<p>These six men set out on their arduous journey with all the +indomitable fearlessness and disregard of danger that youth +inspires,—qualifications that would speedily be called into +requisition.</p> +<p>Before many hours of toiling in the ice, the rain came down in +torrents, and the current drove them with irresistible force away from +the land, while ice-floes kept striking against their boats’ +sides, threatening to crush or capsize them. A plank, indeed, in +Nansen’s boat was broken by the concussion, and had to +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb47" href="#pb47" name= +"pb47">47</a>]</span>be instantly repaired, the rain meanwhile pouring +down a perfect deluge. They determined, therefore, to drag the boats +upon an ice-floe, and to pitch their tent on it; and having done this +they got into their sleeping-bags, the deafening war of the raging +storm in their ears. The two Fjeld-Lapps, however, thinking their end +was drawing near, sat with a dejected air gazing in silence out over +the sea.</p> +<div class="figure xd20e1056width" id="p047"><img src="images/p047.jpg" +alt="Camp on the drift-ice." width="615" height="467"> +<p class="figureHead">Camp on the drift-ice.</p> +</div> +<p>Far away in the distance the roar of the surge dashing against the +edge of the ice could be heard, while the steadily increasing swell +portended an approaching tempest.</p> +<p>Next morning, July 20, Nansen was awakened by a <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb48" href="#pb48" name="pb48">48</a>]</span>violent +concussion. The ice-floe on which they were was rent asunder, and the +current was rapidly drifting them out toward the open sea. The roar of +the surge increased; the waves broke over the ice-floe on all sides. +Balto and Ravna lay crouching beneath a tarpaulin reading the New +Testament in Lappish, while the tears trickled down their cheeks; but +out on the floe Dietrichson and Kristiansen were making jokes as every +fresh wave dashed over them. Sverdrup was standing with hands folded +behind his back, chewing his quid, his eyes directed towards the sea, +as if in expectation.</p> +<p>They are but a few hundred metres distant from the open sea, and +soon will have to take to the boats, or be washed off the floe. The +swell is so heavy that the floe ducks up and down like a boat in the +trough of the sea. So the order is given, “All hands turn +in,” for all their strength will be needed, in the fierce +struggle they will shortly have to encounter. So they sleep on the very +brink of death, the roar of the storm their lullaby—Ravna and +Balto in one of the boats, Nansen and the others in the tent, where the +water pours in and out.</p> +<p>But there is one outside, on the floe. It is his watch. Hour by hour +he walks up and down, his hands behind his back. It is Sverdrup. Every +now and then he stands still, turns his sharp, thin face with the +sea-blue eyes towards the breakers, and then once more resumes his +walk.</p> +<p>The storm is raging outside, and the surge is dashing over the ice. +He goes to the boat where Ravna and Balto lie sleeping, and lays hold +of it, lest it should <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb49" href="#pb49" +name="pb49">49</a>]</span>be swept away by the backwash. Then he goes +to the tent, undoes a hook, and again stands gazing over the sea; then +turns round, and resumes his walk as before.</p> +<p>Their floe is now at the extreme edge of the ice, close to the open +sea. A huge crag of ice rises up like some white-clad threatening +monster, and the surf dashes furiously over the floe. Again the man on +the watch arrests his steps; he undoes another hook in the tent. +Matters are at their worst! He must arouse his comrades! He is about to +do so when he turns once more and gazes seaward. He becomes aware of a +new and strange motion in the floe beneath him. Its course is suddenly +changed; it is speeding swiftly away from the open sea—inward, +ever inward toward calm water, toward life, toward safety. And as that +bronze-faced man stands there, a strange and serious look passes over +his features. For that has occurred,—that wondrous thing that he +and many another sailor has often experienced,—salvation from +death without the mediation of human agency. That moment was for him +what the stormy night on the Hardanger waste was to Nansen. It was like +divine service! It was as if some invisible hand had steered the floe, +he said afterwards to Nansen. So he rolled his quid round into the +other cheek, stuck his hands in his pockets; and hour after hour, till +late in the morning, the steps of that iron-hearted man on the watch +might be heard pacing to and fro.</p> +<p>When Nansen awoke, the floe was in safe shelter.</p> +<p>Still for another week they kept drifting southward, <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb50" href="#pb50" name="pb50">50</a>]</span>the +glaciers and mountain ridges one after another disappearing from +view—a weary, comfortless time. Then, toward midnight on July 28, +when it was Sverdrup’s watch again, he thought he could hear the +sound of breakers in the west. What it was he could not rightly make +out; he thought, perhaps, his senses deceived him; for, at other times, +the sound had always come from the east where the sea was. But next +morning, when it was Ravna’s watch, Nansen was awakened by seeing +the Finn’s grimy face peering at him through an opening in the +tent.</p> +<p>“Now, Ravna, what is it? can you see land?” he asked at +a venture.</p> +<p>“Yes—yes—land too close!” croaked Ravna, as +he drew his head back.</p> +<p>Nansen sprang out of the tent. Yes, there was the land, but a short +distance off; and the ice was loose so that a way could easily be +forced through it. In a twinkling all hands were busy; and a few hours +later Nansen planted his foot on the firm land of Greenland. +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb51" href="#pb51" name= +"pb51">51</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e858" href="#xd20e858src" name="xd20e858">1</a></span> +<i>Nordenskjöld</i> (pron. Nordenshuld), famous Swedish explorer, +discoverer of the North-east Passage.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e885" href="#xd20e885src" name="xd20e885">2</a></span> +<i>Wille</i>, another Norwegian, who at that time was professor at the +High School in Stockholm.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e933" href="#xd20e933src" name="xd20e933">3</a></span> +<i>Blaamand</i> (pron. Blohmann).</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e942" href="#xd20e942src" name="xd20e942">4</a></span> One +<i>krone</i> (crown) equals twenty-seven cents.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e950" href="#xd20e950src" name="xd20e950">5</a></span> +<i>Storthing</i>, the legislative assembly (congress) of Norway.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e965" href="#xd20e965src" name="xd20e965">6</a></span> +<i>Folgefond, <span class="corr" id="xd20e968" title= +"Source: Jostedalbræ">Jostedalsbræ</span>, Svartisen</i>, +glaciers in Norway.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1018" href="#xd20e1018src" name="xd20e1018">7</a></span> +<i>Karasjok</i> (pron. Karashok), one of the northernmost districts of +Norway, chiefly inhabited by Lapps.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1023" href="#xd20e1023src" name="xd20e1023">8</a></span> +<i>Qvæn</i>, the Norwegian name for a man of the race inhabiting +the grand duchy of Finland. The <i>Lapps</i> are in Norway called +Finns.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch5" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">Chapter V.</h2> +<div class="argument"> +<p class="first">Journey across Greenland.—Meeting +Esquimaux.—Reaching the West Coast.—Return to Civilization +and Home.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">When Nansen and his companions, after their perilous +adventures in the drift-ice, landed with flags flying on their boats on +the east waste of Greenland, the first thing they did was to give vent +to their feelings in a ringing hurrah—a sound which those wild +and barren crags had never re-echoed before. Their joy, indeed, on +feeling firm ground beneath their feet once more baffles description. +In a word, they conducted themselves like a pack of schoolboys, +singing, laughing, and playing all manner of pranks. The Lapps, +however, did not partake in the general merriment, but took themselves +off up the mountain-side, where they remained several hours.</p> +<p>But when their first ebullition of joy had somewhat subsided, Nansen +himself followed the example of the Lapps, and clambered up the slope +in order to get a good view over the landscape, leaving the others to +prepare the banquet they determined to indulge in that evening on the +sea-beach. And here he remained some little while, entranced with the +wondrous beauty of the scene. The sea and the ice stretched far away to +the east, shining like a belt of silver beneath him, while on the west +the mountain-tops were bathed in a flood of <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb52" href="#pb52" name="pb52">52</a>]</span>hazy +sunshine, and the inland ice, the “Sahara of the North,” +extended in a level unbroken plain for miles and miles into the +interior.</p> +<p>A snow bunting perched on a stone close by him, and chirped a +welcome; a mosquito came humming through the air to greet the stranger, +and settled on his hand. He would not disturb it; it was a welcome from +home. It wanted his blood, and he let it take its fill. To the south +the grand outline of Cape Tordenskjold rose up in the horizon, its name +and form recalling his country to his mind; and there arose in his +breast an earnest desire, a deep longing, to sacrifice anything and +everything for his beloved “Old Norway.”</p> +<p>On rejoining his comrades, the feast was ready. It consisted of +oatmeal biscuits, Gruyère cheese, whortleberry jam, and +chocolate; and there is little doubt that these six adventurers +“ate as one eats in the springtime of youth.” For it had +been unanimously resolved that, for this one day at least, they would +enjoy themselves to the full; on the morrow their daily fare would be, +to <i>eat little, sleep little, and work as hard as possible</i>. +To-day, then, should be the first and the last of such indulgence. Time +was precious!</p> +<p>On the next day, therefore, they resumed their northward journey, +along the east coast, fighting their way day and night, inch by inch, +foot by foot, through the drift-ice; at times in peril, at others in +safety; past Cape Adelaer, past Cape Garde, ever forward in one +incessant, monotonous struggle. And now they approached the ill-omened +Puisortok, of which Esquimaux <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb53" href= +"#pb53" name="pb53">53</a>]</span>and European seafarers had many an +evil tale to tell. There, it was said, masses of ice would either shoot +up suddenly from beneath the surface of the water, and crush any vessel +that ventured near, or would fall down from the overhanging height, and +overwhelm it. There not a word must be spoken! there must be no +laughing, no eating, no smoking, if one would pass it in safety! Above +all, the fatal name of Puisortok must not pass the lips, else the +glacier would be angry, and certain destruction ensue.</p> +<p>Nansen, however, it may be said, did not observe these regulations, +and yet managed to pass it in safety. In his opinion there was nothing +very remarkable or terrible about it.</p> +<p>But something else took place at Puisortok that surprised him and +his companions.</p> +<p>On July 30, as they were preparing their midday meal, Nansen heard, +amid the shrill cries of the seabirds, a strange weird sound. What it +could be he could not conceive. It resembled the cry of a loon more +than anything else, and kept coming nearer and nearer. Through his +telescope, however, he discerned two dark specks among the ice-floes, +now close together, now a little apart, making straight for them. They +were human beings evidently—human beings in the midst of that +desert region of ice, which they had thought to be a barren, +uninhabited waste. Balto, too, watched their approach attentively, with +a half astonished, half uneasy look, for he believed them to be +supernatural beings.</p> +<p>On came the strangers, one of them bending forward <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb54" href="#pb54" name="pb54">54</a>]</span>in his +kayak<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1123src" href="#xd20e1123" name= +"xd20e1123src">1</a> as if bowing in salutation; and, on coming +alongside the rock, they crawled out of their kayaks and stood before +Nansen and his companions with bare heads, dressed in jackets and +trousers of seal-skin, smiling, and making all manner of friendly +gestures. They were Esquimaux, and had glass beads in their jet-black +hair. Their skin was of a chestnut hue, and their movements, if not +altogether graceful, were attractive.</p> +<p>On coming up to our travellers they began to ask questions in a +strange language, which, needless to say, was perfectly unintelligible. +Nansen, indeed, tried to talk to them in Esquimau from a conversation +book in that tongue he had with him, but it was perfectly useless. And +it was not till both parties had recourse to the language of signs that +Nansen was able to ascertain that they belonged to an Esquimau +encampment to the north of Puisortok.</p> +<p>These two Esquimaux were good-natured looking little beings; and now +they began to examine the equipments of the travellers, and taste their +food, with which they seemed beyond measure pleased, expressing their +admiration at all they saw by a long-drawn kind of bovine bellow. +Finally they took leave, and set off northward in their kayaks which +they managed with wonderful dexterity, and soon disappeared from +sight.</p> +<p>At six the same evening our travellers followed in the same +direction, and in a short time reached the Esquimau encampment at Cape +Bille. Long, however, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb55" href="#pb55" +name="pb55">55</a>]</span>before their eyes could detect any signs of +tents or of human beings, their sense of smell became aware of a rank +odor of train-oil, accompanied by a sound of voices; and they presently +saw numbers of Esquimaux standing on the sea-beach, and on the rocks, +earnestly watching the approach of the strangers.</p> +<p>It was a picturesque sight that presented itself to the eyes of our +travellers.</p> +<p>“All about the ledges of the rocks,” writes Nansen, +“stood long rows of strangely wild, shaggy looking creatures, +men, women and children—all dressed in much the same scanty +attire, staring and pointing at us, and uttering the same cowlike sound +we had heard in the forenoon. It was just as if a whole herd of cows +were lowing one against another, as when the cowhouse door is opened in +the morning to admit the expected fodder.”</p> +<p>They were all smiling,—a smile indeed, is the only welcoming +salute of the Esquimaux,—all eager to help Nansen and his +companions ashore, chattering away incessantly in their own tongue, +like a saucepan boiling and bubbling over with words, not one of which, +alas, could Nansen or his companions understand.</p> +<p>Presently Nansen was invited to enter one of their tents, in which +was an odor of such a remarkable nature, such a blending of several +ingredients, that a description thereof is impossible. It was the +smell, as it were, of a mixture of train-oil, human exhalations, and +the effluvium of fetid liquids all intimately mixed up together; while +men and women, lying on the floor round the fire, children rolling +about everywhere, dogs sniffing <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb56" +href="#pb56" name="pb56">56</a>]</span>all around, helped to make up a +scene that was decidedly unique.</p> +<div class="figure xd20e1148width" id="p056"><img src="images/p056.jpg" +alt="East Greenland Esquimaux." width="489" height="599"> +<p class="figureHead">East Greenland Esquimaux.</p> +</div> +<p>All of the occupants were of a brownish-greyish hue, due mostly to +the non-application of soap and water, and were swarming with vermin. +All of them were shiny with train-oil, plump, laughing, chattering +creatures—in a word, presenting a picture of primitive social +life, in all its original blessedness.</p> +<p>Nansen does not consider the Esquimaux, crosseyed <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb57" href="#pb57" name="pb57">57</a>]</span>and +flat-featured though they be, as by any means repulsive looking. The +nose he describes, in the case of children, “as a depression in +the middle of the face,” the reverse ideal, indeed, of a European +nose.</p> +<p>On the whole he considers their plump, rounded forms to have a +genial appearance about them, and that the seal is the Esquimau +prototype.</p> +<p>The hospitality of these children of nature was boundless. They +would give away all they possessed, even to the shirt on their backs, +had they possessed such an article; and certainly showed extreme +gratitude when their liberality was reciprocated, evidently placing a +high value on empty biscuit-tins, for each time any of them got one +presented to him he would at once bellow forth his joy at the gift.</p> +<p>But what especially seemed to attract their interest was when Nansen +and his companions began to undress, before turning in for the night +into their sleeping-bags; while to watch them creep out of the same the +next morning afforded them no less interest. They entertained, however, +a great dread of the camera, for every time Nansen turned its dark +glass eye upon them, a regular stampede would take place.</p> +<p>Next day Nansen and the Esquimaux parted company, some of the latter +proceeding on their way to the south, others accompanying him on his +journey northward. The leavetaking between the Esquimaux was peculiar, +being celebrated by cramming their nostrils full of snuff from each +other’s snuff-horns. Snuff indeed is the only benefit, or the +reverse, it seems the Esquimaux have derived from European civilization +up <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb58" href="#pb58" name= +"pb58">58</a>]</span>to date; and is such a favorite, one might say +necessary, article with them that they will go on a shopping expedition +to the south to procure it, a journey that often takes them four years +to accomplish!</p> +<hr class="tb"> +<p>The journey northward was an extremely fatiguing one, for they +encountered such stormy weather that their boats more than once +narrowly escaped being nipped in the ice. As a set-off, however, to +this, the scenery proved to be magnificent,—the floating +mountains of ice resembling enchanted castles, and all nature was on a +stupendous scale. Finally they reached a harbor on Griffenfeldt’s +Island, where they enjoyed the first hot meal they had had on their +coasting expedition, consisting of caraway soup. This meal of soup was +a great comfort to the weary and worn-out travellers. Here a striking +but silent testimony of that severe and pitiless climate presented +itself in the form of a number of skulls and human bones lying blanched +and scattered among the rocks, evidently the remains of Esquimaux who +in times long gone by had perished from starvation.</p> +<p>After an incredible amount of toil, Nansen arrived at a small island +in the entrance of the Inugsuazmuit Fjord, and thence proceeded to +Skjoldungen where the water was more open. Here they encamped, and were +almost eaten up by mosquitoes.</p> +<p>On Aug. 6 they again set out on their way northward, meeting with +another encampment of Esquimaux, who were, however, so terrified at the +approach of the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb59" href="#pb59" name= +"pb59">59</a>]</span>strangers, that they one and all bolted off to the +mountain, and it was not till Nansen presented them with an empty tin +box and some needles that they became reassured, after which they +accompanied the expedition for some little distance, and on parting +gave Nansen a quantity of dried seal’s flesh.</p> +<p>The farther our travellers proceeded on their journey, the more +dissatisfied and uneasy did Balto and Ravna become. Accordingly one day +Nansen took the opportunity of giving Balto a good scolding, who with +tears and sobs gave vent to his complaints, “They had not had +food enough—coffee only three times during the whole journey; and +they had to work harder than any beast the whole livelong day, and he +would gladly give many thousands of kroner to be safe at home once +more.”</p> +<p>There was indeed something in what Balto said. The fare had +unquestionably been somewhat scanty, and the work severe; and it was +evident that these children of nature, hardy though they were, could +not vie with civilized people when it became a question of endurance +for any length of time, and of risking life and taxing one’s +ability to the utmost.</p> +<p>Finally, on Aug. 10, the expedition reached Umivik in a dense fog, +after a very difficult journey through the ice, and encamped for the +last time on the east coast of Greenland. Here they boiled coffee, shot +a kind of snipe, and lived like gentlemen, so that even Balto and Ravna +were quite satisfied. The former, indeed, began intoning some prayers, +as he had heard the priest in Finmarken do, in a very masterly +manner,—a pastime, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb60" href= +"#pb60" name="pb60">60</a>]</span>by the way, he never indulged in +except he felt his life to be quite safe.</p> +<p>The next day, Aug. 11, rose gloriously bright. Far away among the +distant glaciers a rumbling sound as of cannon could be heard, while +snow-covered mountains towered high, overhead, on the other side of +which lay boundless tracts of inland ice. Nansen and Sverdrup now made +a reconnoitring expedition, and did not return till five o’clock +the next morning. It still required some days to overhaul and get +everything in complete order for their journey inland; and it was not +till nine o’clock in the evening of Aug. 16, after first dragging +up on land the boats, in which a few necessary articles of food were +stored, together with a brief account of the progress of the expedition +carefully packed in a tin box, that they commenced their journey across +the inland ice.</p> +<p>Nansen and Sverdrup led the way with the large sleigh, while the +others, each dragging a smaller one, followed in their wake. Thus these +six men, confident of solving the problem before them, with the firm +earth beneath their feet, commenced the ascent of the mountain-slope +which Nansen christened “Nordenskjöld’s +Nunatak.”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1191src" href="#xd20e1191" +name="xd20e1191src">2</a></p> +<p>Their work had now begun in real earnest—a work so severe and +arduous that it would require all the strength and powers of endurance +they possessed to accomplish it. The ice was full of fissures, and +these had either to be circumvented or crossed, a very difficult matter +with heavily laden sleighs. A covering of <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb61" href="#pb61" name="pb61">61</a>]</span>ice often lay over these +fissures, so that great caution was required. Hence their progress was +often very slow, each man being roped to his fellow; so that if one of +them should happen to disappear into one of these fathomless abysses, +his companion could haul him up. Such an occurrence happened more than +once; for Nansen as well as the others would every now and then fall +plump in up to the arms, dangling with his legs over empty space. But +it always turned out well; for powerful hands took hold of the rope, +and the practised gymnasts knew how to extricate themselves.</p> +<p>At first the ascent was very hard work, and it will readily be +understood that the six tired men were not sorry on the first night of +their journey to crawl into their sleeping-bags, after first refreshing +the inner man with cup after cup of hot tea.</p> +<p>Yet, notwithstanding all the fatigue they had undergone, there was +so much strength left in them that Dietrichson volunteered to go back +and fetch a piece of Gruyère cheese they had left behind when +halting for their midday meal. “It would be a nice little morning +walk,” he said, “before turning in!” And he actually +went—all for the sake of a precious bit of cheese!</p> +<p>Next day there was a pouring rain that wet them through. The work of +hauling the sleighs, however, kept them warm. But later in the evening, +it came down in such torrents that Nansen deemed it advisable to pitch +the tent, and here they remained, weather-bound, for three whole days. +And long days they were! But our travellers followed the example of +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb62" href="#pb62" name= +"pb62">62</a>]</span>bruin in winter; that is, they lay under shelter +the greater part of the time, Nansen taking care that they should also +imitate bruin in another respect,—who sleeps sucking his +paw,—by giving them rations once a day only. “He who does +no work shall have little food,” was his motto.</p> +<p>On the forenoon of the twentieth, however, the weather improved; and +our travellers again set out on their journey, having first indulged in +a good warm meal by way of recompense for their three days’ +fasting. The ice at first was very difficult, so much so that they had +to retrace their steps, and, sitting on their sleighs, slide down the +mountain slope. But the going improved, as also did the weather. +“If it would only freeze a little,” sighed Nansen. But he +was to get enough of frost before long.</p> +<p>On they tramped, under a broiling sun, over the slushy snow. As +there was no drinking-water to be had, they filled their flasks with +snow, carrying them in their breast-pockets for the heat of their +bodies to melt it.</p> +<p>On Aug. 22 there was a night frost; the snow was hard and in good +condition, but the surface so rough and full of lumps and frozen waves +of slush, that the ropes with which they dragged the sleighs cut and +chafed their shoulders. “It was just as if our shoulders were +being burnt,” Balto said.</p> +<p>They now travelled mostly by night, for it was better going then, +and there was no sun to broil them; while the aurora borealis, bathing +as it were the whole of the frozen plain in a flood of silvery light, +inspired <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb63" href="#pb63" name= +"pb63">63</a>]</span>them with fresh courage. The surface of the ice +over which they travelled was as smooth and even as a lake newly frozen +over. Even Balto on such occasions would indulge in a few oaths, a +thing he never allowed himself except when he felt “master of the +situation.” He was a Finn, you see, and perhaps had no other way +of giving expression to his feelings!</p> +<p>As they got into higher altitudes the cold at night became more +intense. Occasionally they were overtaken by a snowstorm, when they had +to encamp in order to avoid being frozen to death; while at times, +again, the going would become so heavy in the fine drifting snow that +they had to drag their sleighs one by one, three or four men at a time +to each sleigh, an operation involving such tremendous exertion that +Kristiansen, a man of few words, on one such occasion said to Nansen, +“What fools people must be to let themselves in for work like +this!”</p> +<p>To give some idea of the intense cold they had to encounter it may +be stated that, at the highest altitude they reached,—9,272 feet +above the sea,—the temperature fell to below -49° Fahrenheit, +and this, too, in the tent at night, the thermometer being under +Nansen’s pillow. And all this toil and labor, be it remembered, +went on from Aug. 16 to the end of September, with sleighs weighing on +an average about two hundred and twenty pounds each, in drifting +snow-dust, worse than even the sandstorms of Sahara.</p> +<p>In order to lighten their labor, Nansen resolved to use sails on the +sleighs—a proceeding which Balto highly disapproved of: +“Such mad people he had <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb64" href= +"#pb64" name="pb64">64</a>]</span>never seen before, to want to sail +over the snow! He was a Lapp, he was, and there was nothing they could +teach him on land. It was the greatest nonsense he had ever heard +of!”</p> +<div class="figure xd20e1227width" id="p064"><img src="images/p064.jpg" +alt="Sledging across Greenland." width="639" height="456"> +<p class="figureHead">Sledging across Greenland.</p> +</div> +<p>Sails, however, were forthcoming, notwithstanding Balto’s +objections; and they sat and stitched them with frozen fingers in the +midst of the snow. But it was astonishing what a help they proved to +be; and so they proceeded on their way, after slightly altering their +course in the direction of Godthaab.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1233src" href="#xd20e1233" name="xd20e1233src">3</a></p> +<p>Thus, then, we see these solitary beings, looking like dark spots +moving on an infinite expanse of snow, <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb65" href="#pb65" name="pb65">65</a>]</span>wending their way ever +onward, Nansen and Sverdrup side by side, ski-staff and ice-axe in +hand, in front, earnestly gazing ahead as they dragged the heavy +sleigh, while close behind followed Dietrichson and Kristiansen, Balto +and Ravna bringing up the rear, each dragging a smaller sleigh. So it +went on for weeks; and though it tried their strength, and put their +powers of endurance to a most severe test, yet, if ever the thought of +“giving it up” arose in their minds, it was at once scouted +by all the party, the two Lapps excepted. One day Balto complained +loudly to Nansen. “When you asked us,” he said, “in +Christiania, what weight we could drag, we told you we could manage one +hundredweight each, but now we have double that weight, and all I can +say is, that, if we can drag these loads over to the west coast, we are +stronger than horses.”</p> +<p>Onward, however, they went, in spite of the cold, which at times was +so intense that their beards froze fast to their jerseys, facing +blinding snowstorms that well-nigh made old Ravna desperate. The only +bright moments they enjoyed were when sleeping or at their meals. The +sleeping-bags, indeed, were a paradise; their meals, ideals of perfect +bliss.</p> +<p>Unfortunately, Nansen had not taken a sufficient supply of fatty +food with him, and to such an extent did the craving for fat go, that +Sverdrup one day seriously suggested that they should eat +boot-grease—a compound of boiled grease and old linseed oil! +Their great luxury was to eat raw butter, and smoke a pipe after it. +First they would smoke the fragrant weed <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb66" href="#pb66" name="pb66">66</a>]</span>pure and simple; when +that was done, the tobacco ash, followed by the oil as long as it would +burn; and when this was all exhausted, they would smoke tarred yarn, or +anything else that was a bit tasty! Nansen, who neither smoked nor +chewed, would content himself with a chip of wood, or a sliver off one +of the “truger” (snowshoes). “It tasted good,” +he said, “and kept his mouth moist.”</p> +<p>Finally, on Sept. 14, they had reached their highest altitude, and +now began to descend toward the coast, keeping a sharp lookout for +“land ahead.” But none was yet to be seen, and one day +Ravna’s patience completely gave way. With sobs and moans he said +to Nansen,—</p> +<p>“I’m an old Fjeld-Lapp, and a silly old fool! I’m +sure we shall never get to the coast!”</p> +<p>“Yes,” was the curt answer, “it’s quite +true! Ravna is a silly old fool!”</p> +<p>One day, however, shortly afterward, while they were at dinner, they +heard the twittering of a bird close by. It was a snow-bunting, +bringing them a greeting from the west coast, and their hearts grew +warm within them at the welcome sound.</p> +<p>On the next day, with sails set, they proceeded onward down the +sloping ground, but with only partial success. Nansen was standing +behind the large sleigh to steady it, while Sverdrup steered from the +front. Merrily flew the bark; but, unfortunately, Nansen stumbled and +fell, and had hard work to regain his legs, and harder work still to +gather up sundry articles that had fallen off the sleigh, such as boxes +of pemmican, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb67" href="#pb67" name= +"pb67">67</a>]</span>fur jackets, and ice-axes. Meanwhile Sverdrup and +the ship had almost disappeared from view, and all that Nansen could +see of it was a dark, square speck, far ahead across the ice. Sverdrup +had been sitting all the while in front, thinking what an admirable +passage they were making, and was not a little astonished, on looking +behind, to find that he was the only passenger on board. Matters, +however, went on better after this; and in the afternoon, as they were +sailing their best and fastest, the joyful cry of “Land +ahead!” rang through the air. The west coast was in sight! After +several days’ hard work across fissures and over uneven ice, the +coast itself was finally reached. But Godthaab was a long, long way off +still, and to reach it by land was sheer impossibility.</p> +<p>The joy of our travellers on once more feeling firm ground beneath +their feet, and of getting real water to drink, was indescribable. They +swallowed quart after quart, till they could drink no more. The Lapps, +as usual took themselves off to the fjeld to testify their joy.</p> +<p>That evening was the most delightful one they had experienced for +weeks, one never to be forgotten in after years, when, with their tent +pitched, and a blazing fire of wood, they sat beside it, Sverdrup +smoking a pipe of moss in lieu of tobacco, and Nansen lying on his back +on the grass, which shed a strange and delightful perfume all +around.</p> +<p>But how was Godthaab to be reached? By land it was impossible! +Therefore the journey must be made by sea! But there was no boat! A +boat, then, must be built. And Sverdrup and Nansen were the men to +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb68" href="#pb68" name= +"pb68">68</a>]</span>solve the problem. They set to work, and by +evening the boat was finished. Its dimensions were eight feet five +inches in length, four feet eight inches in breadth, and it was made of +willows and sail-cloth. The oars were of bamboo and willow branches, +across the blades of which canvas was stretched. The thwarts were made +from bamboo, and the foot of one of their scientific instruments which, +by the way, chafed them terribly, and were very uncomfortable +seats.</p> +<div class="figure xd20e1270width" id="p068"><img src="images/p068.jpg" +alt="On the way to Godthaab." width="622" height="451"> +<p class="figureHead">On the way to Godthaab.</p> +</div> +<p>All preparations being now made, Nansen and Sverdrup set off on +their adventurous journey. The first day it was terribly hard work, for +the water was too shallow to admit of rowing. On the second day, +however, they put out to sea. Here they had at times to encounter +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb69" href="#pb69" name= +"pb69">69</a>]</span>severe weather, fearing every moment lest their +frail bark should be swamped or capsized. At night they would sleep on +the naked shore beneath the open sky. From morning till night +struggling away with their oars, living on hot soup and the sea-birds +they shot, which were ravenously devoured without much labor being +devoted to cooking the same. Finally they reached their destination, +meeting with a hearty welcome, accompanied by a salute from cannon +fired off in their honor, when once it was ascertained who the new +arrivals were.</p> +<p>Nansen’s first inquiry was about a ship for Denmark, and he +learned, to his great disappointment, that the last vessel for the +season had sailed from Godthaab two months before, and that the nearest +ship, the Fox, was lying at Ivitgut, three hundred miles off.</p> +<p>It was a terrible blow in the midst of their joy. Home had, as it +were, at one stroke receded many hundreds of miles away; and here they +would have to pass a whole winter and spring, while dear ones at home +would think they had perished, and would be mourning for their supposed +loss all those weary months.</p> +<p>But this must never be! The Fox must be got at, and friends at home +must at all events get letters by her.</p> +<p>After a great deal of trouble Nansen at length found an Esquimau who +agreed to set off in his kayak bearing two letters. One was from Nansen +to Gamel, who had equipped the expedition; the other from Sverdrup to +his father.</p> +<p>This having been arranged, and boats having been <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb70" href="#pb70" name="pb70">70</a>]</span>sent off +to fetch their comrades from Ameralikfjord, Nansen and Sverdrup plunged +into all the joys and delights of civilized life to which they had so +long been strangers. Now they were able to indulge in the luxury of +soap and water for the first time since the commencement of their +journey across the ice. To change their clothes, to sleep in proper +beds, to eat civilized food with knives and forks on earthenware +plates, to smoke, to converse with educated beings, was to them the +<i>summum bonum</i> of enjoyment, and they felt themselves to be in +clover.</p> +<p>Notwithstanding all these, Nansen did not seem altogether himself. +He was in a dreamy state, thinking perhaps of nights spent in +sleeping-bags up on the inland ice, or dreaming of that memorable +evening in the Ameralikfjord, of the hard struggles they had undergone +on the boundless plains of snow. These things flashed across him, +excluding from his mind the conviction that he had rendered his name +famous.</p> +<p>At last, on Oct. 12, the other members of the expedition joined +them, and these six men, who had risked their lives in that perilous +adventure, were once more assembled together.</p> +<p>His object had been attained, and the name of Fridtjof Nansen would +soon be known the whole world over!</p> +<p>That same autumn the Fox brought to Norway tidings of the success of +the expedition, and a few hours after her arrival the telegraph +announced throughout the length and breadth of the civilized world, in +few but significant words, “Fridtjof Nansen has crossed over the +inland ice of Greenland.” <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb71" +href="#pb71" name="pb71">71</a>]</span></p> +<p>And the Norwegian nation, which had refused to grant the venturesome +young man 5,000 kroner ($1,350), now raised her head, and called +Fridtjof Nansen one of her best sons. And when one day in April, after +having spent a long winter in Greenland, he went on board the +Hvidbjörn<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1305src" href="#xd20e1305" +name="xd20e1305src">4</a> on his homeward journey, preparations were +being made in the capital for a festival such as a king receives when +he visits his subjects.</p> +<p>It was May 30: the spring sun was shining with all its brilliancy +over Norway. The Christiania fjord was teeming with yachts and small +sailing-boats. A light breeze played over the ruffled surface of the +water, while the perfume of the budding trees on its banks shed a sweet +fragrance all around. As for the town, it literally swarmed with human +beings. The quays, the fortress, the very roofs of the houses, were +densely packed with eager crowds, all of them intently gazing seaward. +Presently a shout of welcome heard faintly in the distance announced +his approach, gradually increasing in volume as he came nearer, till it +merged into one continuous roar, while thousands of flags were waving +overhead.</p> +<p>Eagerly the crowds pressed forward to catch the first glimpse of his +form, and when they did recognize him, their hurrahs burst forth like a +storm, and were caught up in the streets, answered from the windows, +from the tops of houses; and when they ceased for a moment from the +sheer exhaustion of those who uttered them, they were soon renewed with +redoubled vigor. And when finally Nansen had disembarked and had +entered <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb72" href="#pb72" name= +"pb72">72</a>]</span>a carriage, the police could no longer keep the +people under control. As if with one accord they dashed forward, and +taking out the horses, harnessed themselves in their place, and dragged +him through the streets of the city in triumph.</p> +<p>Yes, the Norwegian people had taken possession of Fridtjof +Nansen!</p> +<p>But up at a window there stood the old housekeeper from Store +Fröen, waving her white apron, while tears of joy trickled down +her face. She it was who had bound up his bleeding head when years ago +he had fallen and cut it on the ice; she it was to whom he had often +gone when in some childish scrape. He remembered her in his hour of +triumph. And as she was laughing and crying by turns, and waving her +apron, he dashed up the steps and gave her a loving embrace.</p> +<p>For was she not part and parcel of his home? <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb73" href="#pb73" name="pb73">73</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1123" href="#xd20e1123src" name="xd20e1123">1</a></span> +<i>Kayak</i>, small and light boat, chiefly made of sealskin, used by +the natives of Greenland.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1191" href="#xd20e1191src" name="xd20e1191">2</a></span> Peaks of +rock projecting above the surface of the ice.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1233" href="#xd20e1233src" name="xd20e1233">3</a></span> +<i>Godthaab</i> (pron. Gott-hōb), the only city, and seat of the +Danish governor, on the west coast of Greenland.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1305" href="#xd20e1305src" name="xd20e1305">4</a></span> +<i>Hvidbjörn</i> (pron. Vid-byurn), The White Bear, a +trading-vessel.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch6" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">Chapter VI.</h2> +<div class="argument"> +<p class="first">Engagement and +Marriage.—Home-Life.—Planning the Polar Expedition.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">Two months after Nansen had returned home from his +Greenland expedition he became engaged to Eva Sars, daughter of the +late Professor Sars, and was married to her the same autumn. Her mother +was the sister of the poet Welhaven.</p> +<p>The following story of his engagement is related:—</p> +<p>“On the night of Aug. 12 a shower of gravel and small pebbles +rattled against the panes of a window in the house where Fridtjof +Nansen’s half-sister lived. He was very fond of her, and of her +husband also, who had indeed initiated him in the use of gun and rod, +and who had taken him with him, when a mere lad, on many a sporting +excursion to Nordmarken.</p> +<p>“On hearing this unusual noise at the dead of night, his +brother-in-law jumped out of bed in no very amiable frame of mind, and +opening the window, called out, ‘What is it?’</p> +<p>“‘I want to come in!’ said a tall figure dressed +in gray, from the street below.</p> +<p>“A volley of expletives greeted the nocturnal visitor, who +kept on saying, ‘I want to come in.’</p> +<p>“Before long Fridtjof Nansen was standing in his +sister’s bedroom at two o’clock in the morning. +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb74" href="#pb74" name= +"pb74">74</a>]</span></p> +<p>“Raising herself up in the bed, she said, ‘But, +Fridtjof, whatever is it?’</p> +<p>“‘I’m engaged to be married—that’s +all!’ was the laconic reply.</p> +<p>“‘Engaged! But with whom?’</p> +<p>“‘Why, with Eva, of course!’</p> +<p>“Then he said he felt very hungry, and his brother-in-law had +to take a journey into the larder and fetch out some cold meat, and +then down into the cellar after a bottle of champagne. His +sister’s bed served for a table, and a new chapter in +‘Fridtjof’s saga’ was inaugurated at this nocturnal +banquet.”</p> +<p>The story goes, Nansen first met his future wife in a snowdrift. One +day, it appears, when up in the Frogner woods, he espied two little +boots sticking up out of the snow. Curiosity prompted him to go and see +to whom the said boots belonged, and as he approached for that purpose, +a little snow be-sprinkled head peered up at him. It was Eva Sars!</p> +<p>What gives this anecdote interest is that it was out of the snow and +the cold to which he was to dedicate his life, she, who became dearer +to him than life itself, first appeared.</p> +<p>Another circumstance connected therewith worthy of note is that Eva +Sars was a person of rather a cold and repellent nature, and gave one +the impression that there was a good deal of snow in her disposition. +Hence the reason perhaps why she kept aloof rather than attracted those +who would know her. Fridtjof Nansen, however, was not the man to be +deterred by coldness. He was determined to win her, even if he +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb75" href="#pb75" name= +"pb75">75</a>]</span>should have to cross the inland ice of Greenland +for that purpose.</p> +<p>But when she became his wife all the reserve and coldness of her +nature disappeared. She took the warmest interest in his plans, +participated in his work, making every sacrifice a woman can make to +promote his purpose. In all his excursions in the open air she +accompanied him; and when she knew that he was making preparations for +another expedition, one involving life itself, not a murmur escaped her +lips. And when the hour of parting came at last, and a long, lonely +time of waiting lay before her, she broke out into song. For in those +dreary years of hope deferred she developed into an accomplished +songstress; and when the fame of Nansen’s exploit resounded +throughout the whole north, the echo of her song answered in joyful +acclaim. The maidens of Norway listening to her spirited strains, and +beholding this brave little woman with her proudly uplifted head, +learnt from Eva Nansen that such was the way in which a woman should +meet a sorrow—such the way in which she should undergo a time of +trial.</p> +<p>The following story, in Nansen’s own words, will serve to give +an idea of the sort of woman she was:</p> +<p>“It was New Year’s Eve, 1890. Eva and I had gone on a +little trip to Kröderen,<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1369src" href= +"#xd20e1369" name="xd20e1369src">1</a> and we determined to get to the +top of Norefjeld. “We slept at Olberg, and, feeling rather lazy +next morning, did not set out till <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb76" +href="#pb76" name="pb76">76</a>]</span>nearly noon. We took it very +easily, moreover! Even in summer-time it is a stiff day’s work to +clamber up Norefjeld; but in winter, when the days are short, one has +to look pretty sharp to reach the top while it is light. Moreover, the +route we chose, though perhaps the most direct, was not by any means +the shortest. The snow lay very deep; and soon it became impossible to +go on ski, the ascent being so steep, that we had to take them off and +carry them. However, we had made up our minds to reach the top; for it +would never do to turn back after having gone half-way, difficult +though the ascent might be. The last part of our journey was the most +trying of all; I had to cut out steps with my ski-staff to get a +foothold in the frozen snow. I went in front, and Eva followed close +behind me. It really seemed that we slipped two steps backward for +every one we took forward. At last we reached the top; it was pitch +dark, and we had been going from ten <span class="sc">A.M.</span> to +five <span class="sc">P.M.</span>, without food. But, thank goodness, +we had some cheese and pemmican with us, so we sat down on the snow, +and ate it.</p> +<p>“Yes! there were we two alone on the top of Norefjeld, five +thousand feet above the sea, with a biting wind blowing that made our +cheeks tingle, and the darkness growing thicker and thicker every +moment. Far away in the west there was a faint glimmer of +daylight,—of the last day of the old year,—just enough to +guide us by. The next thing to be done was to get down to Eggedal. From +where we were it was a distance of about six and one-half miles, a +matter of little consequence in broad daylight, but in the present +instance <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb77" href="#pb77" name= +"pb77">77</a>]</span>no joke, I can assure you! However, it had to be +done. So off we started, I leading the way, Eva following.</p> +<p>“We went like the wind down the slope, but had to be very +careful. When one has been out in the dark some little time, it is just +as if the snow gives out a faint light—though light it cannot +really be termed, but a feeble kind of shimmer. Goodness only knows how +we managed to get down, but get down we did! As it was too steep to go +on ski, there was nothing for it but to squat and slide down—a +kind of locomotion detrimental, perhaps, to one’s breeches, but +under the circumstances unquestionably the safest mode of proceeding in +the dark!</p> +<p>“When we had got half-way down my hat blew off. So I had to +‘put the brake on,’ and get up on my legs, and go after it. +Far away above me I got a glimpse of a dark object on the snow, crawled +after it, got up to it, and grasped it, to find it was only a stone! My +hat, then, must be further up. Surely that was it—again I got +hold of a stone! The snow seemed to be alive with stones. Hat after +hat, hat after hat, but whenever I tried to put it on my head, it +turned out to be a stone. A stone for bread is bad enough, and stones +for hats are not a bit better! So I had to give it up, and go +hatless.</p> +<p>“Eva had been sitting waiting for me all this while. +‘Eva,’ I shouted, and a faint answer came back from +below.</p> +<p>“Those miles seemed to be uncommonly long ones. Every now and +then we could use our ski, and then it <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb78" href="#pb78" name="pb78">78</a>]</span>would become so steep +again that we had to carry them. At last we came to a standstill. There +was a chasm right in front of us,—how deep it was it was too dark +to ascertain. However, we bundled over it somehow or other, and happily +the snow was very deep. It is quite incredible how one can manage to +get over a difficulty!</p> +<p>“As regards our direction, we had lost it completely; all we +knew was that we must get down into the valley. Again we came to a +standstill, and Eva had to wait while I went on, groping in the dark, +trying to find a way. I was absent on this errand some little time. +Presently it occurred to me, ‘What if she should have fallen +asleep!’</p> +<p>“‘Eva!’ I shouted, ‘Eva!’ Yes, she +answered; but she must be a long way above where I was. If she had been +asleep it would have been a difficult matter to have found her. But I +groped my way up-hill to her, with the consolation that I had found the +bed of a stream. Now the bed of a stream is not very well adapted for +ski, especially when it is pitch dark, and the stomach is empty, and +conscience pricks you,—for really I ought not to have ventured on +such an expedition with her. However, ‘all’s well that ends +well,’ and we got through all right.</p> +<p>“We had now got down to the birch scrub, and at last found our +road.</p> +<p>“After some little time we passed a cabin. I thought it +wouldn’t be a bad place to take refuge in, but Eva said it was so +horribly dirty! She was full of spirits now, and voted for going on. So +on we went, and in due time reached the parish clerk’s house in +Eggedal. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb79" href="#pb79" name= +"pb79">79</a>]</span>Of course the inmates were in bed, so we had to +arouse them. The clerk was horrified when I told him we had just come +from the top of Norefjeld. This time Eva was not so nice about +lodgings, for no sooner had she sat down on a chair, than she fell +asleep. It was midnight, mind you, and she had been in harness fourteen +hours.</p> +<p>“‘He’s a bit tired, poor lad!’ said the +clerk. For Eva had on a ski-dress with a very small skirt, trousers, +and a Lapp fur cloak.</p> +<p>“‘That’s my wife,’ I replied, whereupon he +burst out into a laugh. ‘Nay, nay! to drag his wife with him over +the top of Norefjeld on New Year’s Eve!’ he said.</p> +<p>“Presently he brought in something to eat, for we were +famished; and when Eva smelt it wasn’t cheese and pemmican, she +woke up.</p> +<p>“We rested here three days. Yes, it had been a New +Year’s Eve trip. A very agreeable one in my opinion, but +I’m not so sure Eva altogether agreed with me!</p> +<p>“Two days later I and the ‘poor little lad’ drove +through Numedal to Kongsberg in nine degrees below zero (Fahrenheit), +which nearly froze the little fellow. But it is not a bad thing +occasionally to have to put up with some inconveniences—you +appreciate comforts afterward so much the more. He who has never +experienced what cold is, does not really know the meaning of +warmth!”</p> +<hr class="tb"> +<p>The day after the wedding the newly married pair set out for +Newcastle, where there was to be a meeting <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb80" href="#pb80" name="pb80">80</a>]</span>of the +Geographical Society, travelling <i>via</i> Gothenburg, Hamburg, and +London. After this they went to Stockholm, and here Nansen was +presented with the “Vega” medal by His Majesty. This was a +distinguished honor, the more so as it had hitherto only been awarded +to five persons, among whom were Stanley and Nordenskjöld. Nansen +subsequently was presented with several medals in foreign countries, +and was made a Knight of the Order of St. Olaf and Danebrog.</p> +<p>On their return from Stockholm to Norway, Nansen and his wife took +apartments at Marte Larsen’s, the old housekeeper at Store +Fröen, and stayed there two months, after which they took a house +on the Drammen road. But they did not enjoy themselves there, and +Nansen determined to build a house, for which purpose he bought a site +at Svartebugta, near Lysaker.<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1435src" href= +"#xd20e1435" name="xd20e1435src">2</a> It was here that, as a boy, he +had often watched for wild ducks. It was a charming spot, moreover, and +within easy distance of the town. The house was finished in the spring +of 1890. During the whole of the winter, while building operations were +going on, they lived in an icy cold pavillion near Lysaker railway +station.</p> +<p>“It was here he weaned me from freezing,” says Eva +Nansen.</p> +<p>In this wretched habitation, where the water froze in the bedroom at +night, Nansen would sit and work at his book on Greenland, and when he +had time would superintend the building of the new house. It was called +“Godthaab”—a name given it by Björnstjerne +Björnson. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb81" href="#pb81" name= +"pb81">81</a>]</span></p> +<p>In the autumn of this year Nansen set out on a lengthened lecturing +tour, accompanied by his wife. He lectured in Copenhagen, London, +Berlin, and Dresden, about his Greenland experiences, and also about +the projected expedition to the North Pole. Everywhere people were +attracted by his captivating individuality; but most thought this new +expedition too venturesome. Even the most experienced Arctic explorers +shook their heads, for they thought that, from such a daring +enterprise, not a single member of the expedition would ever return +alive.</p> +<p>But Nansen adhered to his own opinions, and we see him in the +intervening years occupied with the equipment required for an +expedition to the polar regions—a work so stupendous that the +preparations for the Greenland expedition were but child’s play +in comparison. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb82" href="#pb82" name= +"pb82">82</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1369" href="#xd20e1369src" name="xd20e1369">1</a></span> +<i>Kröderen</i>, a lake about forty miles to the northwest of +Christiania. <i>Norefjeld</i>, a mountain on the west side of the lake. +<i>Olberg</i>, a farmhouse at the foot of the mountain.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1435" href="#xd20e1435src" name="xd20e1435">2</a></span> +<i>Lysaker</i>, a railroad station about four miles west of +Christiania.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch7" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">Chapter VII.</h2> +<div class="argument"> +<p class="first">Preparations for the Polar Expedition.—Starting +from Norway.—Journey along the Siberian Coast.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">Nansen’s theory as regards the expedition to the +North Pole was as simple as it was daring. He believed that he had +discovered the existence of a current passing over the pole, and of +this he would avail himself. His idea, in fact, was to work his way +into the ice among the New Siberian Islands, let his vessel be fast +frozen into the drift-ice, and be carried by the current over the Pole +to the east coast of Greenland. There articles had been found on +ice-floes that had unquestionably belonged to former Arctic +expeditions, a fact that convinced him of the existence of such a +current.</p> +<p>It might take some years for a vessel to drift all that way; he +must, therefore, make his preparations accordingly. Such at all events +was Nansen’s theory—a theory which, it must be said, few +shared with him. For none of the world’s noted explorers of those +regions believed in the existence of such a current, and people +generally termed the scheme, “a madman’s idea!”</p> +<p>Nansen, therefore, stood almost alone in this, and yet not +altogether alone, either. For the Norwegian people who would not +sacrifice $1,350 for the Greenland expedition gave him now in a lump +sum 280,000 kroner ($75,600). They were convinced of his gigantic +powers, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb83" href="#pb83" name= +"pb83">83</a>]</span>and when the Norwegians are fully convinced of a +thing, they are willing to make any sacrifice to carry it out. They +believed in him now!</p> +<p>Nansen then set to work in earnest at his gigantic undertaking.</p> +<p>First of all a vessel must be designed,—one that would be able +to defy the ice. Availing himself, therefore, of the services of the +famous shipbuilder, Colin Archer, he had the Fram<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1468src" href="#xd20e1468" name="xd20e1468src">1</a> +built—a name suggestive of noble achievements to the youth of +Norway.</p> +<p>On Oct. 26, 1892, she was launched at Laurvig. During the previous +night the temperature had been fourteen degrees above zero, and a +slight sprinkling of snow had covered valley and height with a thin +veil of white. The morning sun peered through the mist with that +peculiar hazy light that foretells a bright winter day.</p> +<p>At the station at Laurvig, Nansen waited to receive his guests. A +whaler, with a crow’s-nest on her foretop, was lying in the +harbor, to convey the visitors to the spot where the Fram was lying on +the stocks.</p> +<p>In the bay at Reykjavik the huge hull of a vessel may be seen raised +up on the beach, with her stern toward the sea. It is Fridtjof +Nansen’s new ship that is now to be launched. She is a high +vessel, of great beam, painted black below and white above. Three stout +masts of American pitch-pine are lying by her side on the quay, while +three flagstaffs, two of them only with flags flying, rear themselves +up aloft on her deck. The flag which is to be run up the bare staff is +to bear the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb84" href="#pb84" name= +"pb84">84</a>]</span>vessel’s name—unknown as yet. +Everybody is wondering what that name will be, and conjectures whether +it will be Eva, Leif, Norway, Northpole, are rife.</p> +<p>Crowds of spectators are assembled at the wharf, while as many have +clambered upon the adjacent rocks. But around the huge ship, which lies +on the slips firmly secured with iron chains, are standing groups of +stalwart, weather-beaten men in working attire. They are whalers, who +for years have frequented the polar seas and braved its dangers, and +are now attentively examining and criticising the new ship’s +construction. A goodly number, too, of workmen are there,—the men +who built the ship; and they are looking at their work with feelings of +pride. And yonder is the vessel’s architect,—that stately, +earnest-looking man with the long, flowing white beard,—Colin +Archer.</p> +<p>And now, accompanied by his wife, Nansen ascends the platform that +has been erected in the ship’s bow. Mrs. Nansen steps forward, +breaks a bottle of champagne on the prow, and in clear, ringing tones +declares, “<i>Fram</i> is her name.” At the same moment a +flag on which the vessel’s name can be read in white letters on a +red ground, is run up to the top of the bare flagstaff.</p> +<p>The last bands and chains are quickly removed, and the ponderous +mass glides, stern first, slowly down the incline, but with +ever-increasing velocity, toward the water. For a moment some anxiety +is felt lest she should sink or get wedged; but as soon as her bows +touch the water the stern rises up, and the Fram floats proudly on the +sea, and is then at once moored fast with warps to the quay. +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb85" href="#pb85" name= +"pb85">85</a>]</span></p> +<div class="figure xd20e1493width" id="p085"><img src="images/p085.jpg" +alt="Crew of the Fram." width="720" height="469"> +<p class="figureHead">Crew of the Fram.</p> +<p class="first">By Permission of Harper & Brothers</p> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb86" href="#pb86" name= +"pb86">86</a>]</span></p> +<p>Meanwhile Nansen stood beside his wife, and all eyes turned toward +them. But not a trace of anxiety or doubt could be discerned on his +frank and open countenance; for he possessed that faith in his project +that is able to remove mountains.</p> +<p>The next matter of importance was to select the crew. There was +ample material to choose from, for hundreds of volunteers from abroad +offered themselves, besides Norwegians. But it was a Norwegian +expedition—her crew, then, must be exclusively a national crew! +And so Otto Sverdrup, who had earned his laurels in the Greenland +expedition; Sigurd Scott-Hansen, first lieutenant in the royal navy; +Henrik Greve Blessing, surgeon; Theodor Claudius Jacobsen and Adolf +Juell of the mercantile marine; Anton Amundsen and Lars Petterson, +engineers; Frederik Hjalmar Johansen, lieutenant of the royal army +reserve, Peter Leonard Henriksen, harpooner; Bernt Nordahl, +electrician; Ivar Otto Irgens Mogstad, head keeper at the lunatic +asylum; and Bernt Berntsen, common sailor,—were selected. Most of +them were married and had children.</p> +<p>Sverdrup was to be the Fram’s commander, for Nansen knew that +the ship would be safer in his hands than in his own.</p> +<p>Finally, after an incredible deal of hard work in getting everything +in order, the day of their departure arrived.</p> +<p>It was midsummer—a dull, gloomy day. The Fram, heavily laden, +is lying at Pipperviken Quay, waiting for Nansen. The appointed hour is +past, and yet there are no signs of him. Members of the storthing, +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb87" href="#pb87" name= +"pb87">87</a>]</span>who had assembled there to bid him farewell, can +wait no longer, and the crowds of people that line the quay are one and +all anxiously gazing over the fjord.</p> +<p>But presently a quick-sailing little petroleum boat heaves in sight. +It swings round Dyna,<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1514src" href= +"#xd20e1514" name="xd20e1514src">2</a> and quickly lies alongside the +Fram; and Nansen goes on board his ship at once, and gives the order to +“go ahead.” Every eye is fixed on him. He is as calm as +ever, firm as a rock, but his face is pale.</p> +<p>The anchor is weighed; and after making the tour of the little +creek, the Fram steams down the fjord. “Full speed” is the +command issued from the bridge; and as she proceeds on her way, Nansen +turns round to take a farewell look over Svartebugta where Godthaab +lies. He discerns a glimpse of a woman’s form dressed in white by +the bench under the fir-tree, and then turns his face away; it was +there he had bidden her farewell. Little Liv, his only child, had been +carried by her mother, crowing and smiling, to bid father good-by, and +he had taken her in his arms.</p> +<p>“Yes, you smile, little one!” he said; “but +I”—and he sobbed.</p> +<p>This had taken place but an hour before. And now he was standing on +the bridge alone, leaving all he held dear behind.</p> +<p>The twelve men who accompanied him,—they, too, had made +sacrifices,—each had his own sorrow to meet at this hour; but at +the word of command, one and all went about their duty as if nothing +was amiss. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb88" href="#pb88" name= +"pb88">88</a>]</span></p> +<p>For the first few days it was fine weather, but on getting out as +far as Lindesnæs<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1531src" href= +"#xd20e1531" name="xd20e1531src">3</a> it became very stormy. The ship +rolled like a log, and seas broke over the rails on both sides. Great +fear was entertained lest the deck cargo should be carried overboard, a +contingency, indeed, that soon occurred; for twenty-five empty paraffin +casks broke loose from their lashings, and a quantity of reserve timber +balks followed.</p> +<p>“It was an anxious time,” says Nansen. “Seasick I +stood on the bridge, alternately offering libations to the gods of the +sea, and trembling for the safety of the boats and of the men who were +trying to make snug what they could on deck. Now a green sea poured +over us, and knocked one fellow off his legs so that he was deluged; +now the lads were jumping over hurtling spars to avoid getting their +feet crushed. There was not a dry thread on them. Juell was lying +asleep in the ‘Grand Hotel,’ as we called one of the long +boats, and awoke to find the sea roaring under him. I met him at the +cabin door as he came running down. Once the Fram buried her bows and +shipped a sea over the forecastle. One fellow was clinging to the +anchor davits over the foaming water; it was poor Juell +again.”</p> +<p>Then all the casks, besides a quantity of timber, had to be thrown +overboard. It was, indeed, an anxious time.</p> +<p>But fine weather came at last, and Bergen turned out to meet them in +brilliant sunshine. Then on again, along the wonderful coast of Norway, +while the people on shore stood gazing after them, marvelling as they +passed. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb89" href="#pb89" name= +"pb89">89</a>]</span></p> +<p>At Beian<a class="noteref" id="xd20e1545src" href="#xd20e1545" name= +"xd20e1545src">4</a> Sverdrup joined the ship, and Berntsen, the +thirteenth member of the crew, at Tromsö.<a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1550src" href="#xd20e1550" name="xd20e1550src">5</a></p> +<p>Still onward toward the north, till finally the last glimpse of +their native country faded from their sight in the hazy horizon, and a +dense fog coming on enveloped them in its shroud. They were to have met +the Urania, laden with coal, in Jugor straits; but as that vessel had +not arrived, and time was precious, the Fram proceeded on her course, +after having shipped a number of Esquimau dogs which a Russian, named +Trontheim, had been commissioned to procure for the expedition. It was +here that Nansen took leave of his secretary, Cristophersen, who was to +return by the Urania; and the last tie that united them with Norway was +severed.</p> +<p>The Fram now heads out from the Jugor straits into the dreaded Kara +sea, which many had prophesied would be her destruction. But they +worked their way through storm and ice, at times satisfactorily, at +others encountering slight mishaps; but the Fram proved herself to be a +reliable iceworthy vessel, and Nansen felt more and more convinced +that, when the ice-pressure began in real earnest, she would acquit +herself well.</p> +<p>“It was a royal pleasure,” he writes, “to take her +into difficult ice. She twists and turns like a ball on a +plate—and so strong! If she runs into a floe at full speed, she +scarcely utters a sound, only quivers a little, perhaps.” +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb90" href="#pb90" name= +"pb90">90</a>]</span></p> +<p>When, as was often the case, they had to anchor on account of bad +weather, Nansen and his companions would go ashore, either for the +purpose of taking observations or for sport. One day they shot two +bears and sundry reindeer; but, when they started to row back to the +Fram in the evening, they had a severe task before them. For a strong +breeze was blowing, and the current was dead against them. “We +rowed as if our finger-tips would burst,” says Nansen, “but +could hardly make any headway. So we had to go in under land again to +get out of the current. But no sooner did we set out for the Fram again +than we got into it once more, and then the whole manœuvre had to +be repeated, with the same result. Presently a buoy was lowered from +the ship: if we could only reach it, all would be right. But no such +luck was in store for us yet. We would make one more desperate effort, +and we rowed with a will, every muscle of our bodies strained to the +utmost. But to our vexation we now saw the buoy being hauled up. We +rowed a little to the windward of the Fram, and then tried again to +sheer over. This time we got nearer her than we had been before, but +still no buoy was thrown over—not even a man was to be seen on +deck. We roared like madmen,” writes Nansen, “for a +buoy—we had no strength left for another attempt. It was not a +pleasing prospect to have to drift back, and go ashore again in our wet +clothes,—we <i>would</i> get on board! Once more we yelled like +wild Indians, and now they came rushing aft, and threw out the buoy in +our direction. We put our last strength into our oars. There were +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb91" href="#pb91" name= +"pb91">91</a>]</span>only a few boat-lengths to cover, and the lads +bent flat over the thwarts. Now only three boat-lengths. Another +desperate spurt! Now only two and a half boat-lengths—presently +two—then only one! A few more frantic pulls, and there was a +little less. ‘Now, my lads, one or two more hard pulls—keep +to it!—Now another—don’t give in—one +more—<i>there we have it!</i>’ And a joyful sigh of relief +passed round the boat. ‘Keep her going, or the rope will +break—row, my lads!’ And row we did, and soon they had +hauled us alongside the Fram. Not till we were lying there, getting our +bearskins and flesh hauled on board, did we realize what we had had to +fight against. The current was running along the side of the ship like +a millstream. At last we were on board. It was evening by this time, +and it was a comfort to get some hot food, and then stretch one’s +limbs in a comfortable, dry berth.”</p> +<p>The Fram proceeded on her course the next day, passing a number of +unknown islands, to which Nansen gave names. Among these were +Scott-Hansen’s Islands, Ringnes, Mohns, etc.</p> +<p>On Sept. 6, the anniversary of Nansen’s wedding, they passed +Taimar Island, and after a prosperous passage through open water +reached Cape Tscheljuskin on Sept. 9.</p> +<p>Nansen was sitting in the crow’s nest that evening. The +weather was perfectly still, and the sky lay in a dream of gold and +yellow. A solitary star was visible; it stood directly over Cape +Tscheljuskin, twinkling brightly, though sadly, in the pale sky +overhead. As the vessel proceeded on her course it seemed to follow +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb92" href="#pb92" name= +"pb92">92</a>]</span>them. There was something about that star that +attracted Nansen’s attention, and brought him peace. It was as it +were <i>his</i> star, and he felt that she who was at home was sending +him a message by it. Meanwhile the Fram toiled on through the gloomy +melancholy of the night out into the unknown.</p> +<p>In the morning, when the sun rose up, a salute was fired, and high +festival held on board.</p> +<p>A few days later a herd of walrus was sighted. It was a lovely +morning, and perfectly calm, so that they could distinctly hear their +bellowings over the clear surface of the water, as they lay in a heap +on an ice-floe, the blue mountains glittering in the sunlight in the +background.</p> +<p>“My goodness, what a lot of meat!” ejaculated Juell, the +cook. And at once Nansen, Juell, and Henriksen set out after them, +Juell rowing, Nansen armed with a gun, and Henriksen with a harpoon. On +getting to close quarters Henriksen threw the harpoon at the nearest +walrus, but it struck too high, and glanced off the tough hide, and +went skipping over the rounded backs of the others. Now all was stir +and life. Ten or a dozen of the bulky animals waddled with upraised +heads to the extreme edge of the floe, whereupon Nansen took aim at the +largest, and fired. The brute staggered, and fell headlong into the +water. Another bullet into a second walrus was attended with the same +result, and the rest of the herd plunged into the water, so that it +boiled and seethed. Soon, however, they were up again, all around the +boat, standing upright in the water, bellowing and roaring till the air +shook. Every <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb93" href="#pb93" name= +"pb93">93</a>]</span>now and then they would make a dash toward the +boat, then dive, and come up again. The sea boiled like a cauldron, and +every moment they seemed about to dash their tusks through the side of +the boat, and capsize it. Fortunately, however, this did not occur. +Walrus after walrus was shot by Nansen, while Henriksen was busy with +his harpoon to prevent them sinking.</p> +<p>At last, after a favorable journey through open water, the Fram +finally reached firm ice on Sept. 25, and allowed herself to be frozen +in; for winter was fast approaching, and it was no longer possible to +drive her through the ice. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb94" href= +"#pb94" name="pb94">94</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1468" href="#xd20e1468src" name="xd20e1468">1</a></span> +<i>Fram</i> means onward.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1514" href="#xd20e1514src" name="xd20e1514">2</a></span> +<i>Dyna</i>, an islet with a lighthouse in Christiania harbor.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1531" href="#xd20e1531src" name="xd20e1531">3</a></span> <i>Cape +Lindesnæs</i>, the southernmost point of Norway.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1545" href="#xd20e1545src" name="xd20e1545">4</a></span> +<i>Beian</i> (pron. By-an), a village and stopping-place for the +coast-wise steamers in northern Norway, near Trondhjem.</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e1550" href="#xd20e1550src" name="xd20e1550">5</a></span> +<i>Tromsö</i>, the chief city and bishop’s see of the +bishopric of same name, the northernmost diocese in Norway.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch8" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">Chapter VIII.</h2> +<div class="argument"> +<p class="first">Drifting Through the Ice.—Christmas.—Daily +Life on the Fram.—Bear-Hunt and Ice-Pressure.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">From Sept. 26 the Fram lay frozen in in the drift-ice, +and many a long day would pass ere she would be loose again. +Nansen’s theory of a current over the North Pole would now be +proved to be correct or the reverse.</p> +<p>It was a monotonous time that was approaching for the men on board. +At first they drifted but very little northward, each succeeding day +bringing but little alteration; but they kept a good heart, for they +had not to suffer from lack of anything that could conduce to their +comfort. They had a good ship, excellently equipped, and so passed the +days as best they could,—now occupying themselves with seeing to +the dogs or taking observations, etc.; while reading, playing cards, +chess, halma, and making all kinds of implements, filled up the +remainder of their time. Every now and then the monotony of their +existence would undergo variation, when the ice-pressure set in. Then +there was plenty of life and stir on board, and all hands would turn +out to do battle with the foe.</p> +<div class="figure xd20e1606width" id="p095"><img src="images/p095.jpg" +alt="The Fram in an ice pressure." width="720" height="436"> +<p class="figureHead">The Fram in an ice pressure.</p> +<p class="first">By Permission of Harper & Brothers.</p> +</div> +<p>It was on Monday, Oct. 9, that the Fram underwent her first +experience of a regular ice-pressure. Nansen and the others were +sitting after dinner, as usual, chatting <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb96" href="#pb96" name="pb96">96</a>]</span>about one thing and +another, when all at once a deafening sound was heard, and the ship +quivered from stem to stern. Up they rushed on deck; for now the Fram +was to be put to the test—and gloriously she passed through it! +When the ice nipped she lifted herself up, as if raised by invisible +hands, and pushed the floes down below her.</p> +<p>An ice-pressure is a most wonderful thing. Let us hear what Nansen +says of it:—</p> +<p>“It begins with a gentle crack and moan along the ship’s +sides, gradually sounding louder in every conceivable key. Now it is a +high plaintive tone, now it is a grumble, now it is a snarl, and the +ship gives a start up. Steadily the noise increases till it is like all +the pipes of an organ; the ship trembles and shakes, and rises by fits +and starts, or is gently lifted up. But presently the uproar slackens, +and the ship sinks down into her old position again, as if in a safe +bed.”</p> +<p>But woe to them who have not such a ship to resort to under a +pressure like this; for when once it begins in real earnest, it is as +if there could not be a spot on the earth’s surface that would +not tremble and shake.</p> +<p>“First,” says Nansen, “you hear a sound like the +thundering rumble of an earthquake far away on the great waste; then +you hear it in several places, always coming nearer and nearer. The +silent ice world re-echoes with thunders; nature’s giants are +awakening to the battle. The ice cracks on every side of you, and +begins to pile itself up in heaps. There are howlings and thunderings +around you; you feel the ice trembling, and hear it rumbling under your +feet. In the semi-darkness <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb97" href= +"#pb97" name="pb97">97</a>]</span>you can see it piling and tossing +itself up into high ridges,—floes ten, twelve, fifteen feet +thick, broken and flung up on the top of each other,—you jump +away to save your life. But the ice splits in front of you; a black +gulf opens, and the water streams up. You turn in another direction; +but there through the dark you can just see a new ridge of moving +ice-blocks coming toward you. You try another direction, but there it +is just the same. All around there is thundering and roaring, as of +some enormous waterfall with explosions like cannon salvoes. Still +nearer you it comes. The floe you are standing on gets smaller and +smaller; water pours over it; there can be no escape except by +scrambling over the ice-blocks to get to the other side of the pack. +But little by little the disturbance calms down again, and the noise +passes on and is lost by degrees in the distance.”</p> +<p>Another thing brought life and stir into the camp, viz., +“bears.” And many a time the cry of “bears” was +heard in those icy plains.</p> +<p>In <i>Farthest North</i>, Nansen describes a number of amusing +incidents with these animals. We must, however, content ourselves with +giving only a brief sketch of some of the most interesting of +these.</p> +<p>Nansen and Sverdrup, and indeed several of the others, had shot +polar bears before; but some of their number were novices in the sport, +among whom were Blessing, Johansen and Scott-Hansen. One day, when the +latter were taking observations a short distance from the ship, a bear +was seen but a little way off—in fact, just in front of the Fram. +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb98" href="#pb98" name= +"pb98">98</a>]</span></p> +<p>“Hush! don’t make a noise, or we shall frighten +him,” said Hansen; and they all crouched down to watch him.</p> +<p>“I think I’d better slip off on board and tell them +about it,” said Blessing. And off he started on tiptoe, so as not +to alarm the bear.</p> +<p>The beast meanwhile came sniffing and shambling along toward where +they were, so that evidently he had not been frightened.</p> +<p>Catching sight of Blessing, who was slinking off to the ship, the +brute made straight for him.</p> +<p>Blessing, seeing that the bear was by no means alarmed, now made his +way back to his companions as quickly as he could, closely followed by +the bear. Matters began to look rather serious, and they each snatched +up their weapons. Hansen, an ice-staff, Johansen, an axe, and Blessing +nothing at all, shouting at the top of their voices, “Bear! +bear!” after which they all took to their heels as fast as ever +they could for the ship. The bear, however, held on his course toward +the tent, which he examined very closely before following on their +tracks. The animal was subsequently shot on approaching the Fram. +Nansen was not a little surprised on finding in its stomach a piece of +paper stamped, “Lutken & Mohn, Christiania,” which he +recognized as belonging to the ship.</p> +<p>On another occasion, toward the end of 1893, Hendriksen, whose +business it was to see to the dogs that were tethered on an ice-floe, +came tearing into the ship, and shouting, “Come with a gun! Come +with a gun!” The bear, it seems, had bitten him on his side. +Nansen <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb99" href="#pb99" name= +"pb99">99</a>]</span>immediately caught up his gun, as also did +Hendriksen, and off they set after the bear. There was a confused sound +of human voices on the starboard side of the ship, while on the ice +below the gangway the dogs were making a tremendous uproar.</p> +<p>Nansen put his gun up to his shoulder, but it wouldn’t go off. +There was a plug of tow in the barrel. And Hendriksen kept crying out, +“Shoot, shoot! mine won’t go off!” There he stood +clicking and clicking, for his gun was stuffed up with vaseline. +Meanwhile the bear was lying close under the ship, worrying one of the +dogs. The mate, too, was fumbling away at his gun, which was also +plugged, while Mogstad, the fourth man, was brandishing an empty rifle, +for he had shot all his cartridges away, crying out, “Shoot him! +shoot him!” The fifth man, Scott-Hansen, was lying in the passage +leading into the chart-room, groping after cartridges through a narrow +chink in the door; for Kvik’s kennel stood against it, so that he +could not get it wide open. At last, however, Johansen came, and fired +right into the bear’s hide. This shot had the effect of making +the brute let go of the dog, which jumped up and ran away. Several +shots were now fired, which killed the bear.</p> +<p>Hendriksen tells this story about his being bitten:—</p> +<p>“You see,” he said, “as I was going along with the +lantern, I saw some drops of blood by the gangway, but thought one of +the dogs had very likely cut its foot. On the ice, however, we saw +bear-tracks, and started off to the west, the whole pack of dogs with +us running on ahead. When we had got some little distance from the +Fram, we heard a terrible row in front, and presently <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb100" href="#pb100" name="pb100">100</a>]</span>saw +a great brute coming straight toward us, closely followed by the dogs. +No sooner did we see what it was than we set off for the ship as fast +as we could. Mogstad had his Lappish moccasons on, and knew the way +better than I did, so he got to the ship before me; for I +couldn’t go very fast with these heavy wooden shoes, you see. I +missed my way, I suppose, for I found myself on the big hummock to the +west of the ship’s bows. There I took a good look round, to see +if the bear was after me. But I could not see any signs of it, so I +started off again, but fell down flat on my back among the hummocks. +Oh, yes, I was soon up again, and got down to the level ice near the +ship’s side, when I saw something coming at me on the right. At +first I thought it was one of the dogs; for it isn’t so easy to +see in the dark, you know. But I hadn’t much time for thinking, +for the brute jumped right on me, and bit me here, on the side. I had +lifted my arm up like this, you see, and then he bit me on the hip, +growling and foaming at the mouth all the while.”</p> +<p>“What did you think then, Peter?” asked Nansen.</p> +<p>“What did I think? Why, I thought it was all up with me. I +hadn’t any weapon, you see; so I took my lantern and hit the +beast as hard as ever I could with it on the head, and the lantern +broke, and the pieces went skimming over the ice. On receiving the blow +I gave him he squatted down and had a good look at me; but no sooner +did I set off again than up he got too, whether to have another go at +me, or what for, I can’t say. Anyhow, he caught sight of a dog +coming along, and set off after it, and so I got on board.” +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb101" href="#pb101" name= +"pb101">101</a>]</span></p> +<p>“Did you call out, Peter?”</p> +<p>“I should think I did! I holloaed as loud as ever I +could!”</p> +<p>And no doubt he did, for he was quite hoarse.</p> +<p>“But where was Mogstad all the while?” asked Nansen.</p> +<p>“Why, you see, he had got to the ship long before me. It never +occurred to him, I suppose, to give the alarm; but he takes his gun off +the cabin wall, thinking he could manage by himself. But his gun +wouldn’t go off, and the bear might have had plenty of time to +eat me up right under his very nose.”</p> +<p>On leaving Peter, the bear, it seems, had set off after the dogs; +and it was in this way it came near the ship, where, after killing one +of the dogs, it was shot.</p> +<p>In the course of the winter Sverdrup set up a bear-trap of his own +invention, but it did not prove very successful. One evening, a bear +was seen approaching the trap; it was a bright moonlight night, much to +Sverdrup’s delight. On reaching the trap, the bear reared itself +on its hind legs very cautiously, laid his right paw on the woodwork, +stared for a little while at the tempting bait, but didn’t seem +to approve altogether of the ugly rows of teeth around it. Shaking his +head suspiciously, he lowered himself on all fours, and sniffed at the +steel wire fastened to the trap, and once more shook his head as if to +say, “Those cunning beggars have planned this very carefully for +me, no doubt.” Then he got up again on his hind legs and had +another sniff, and down again on all fours, after which he came toward +the ship and was shot. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb102" href= +"#pb102" name="pb102">102</a>]</span></p> +<p>Autumn passed away and Christmas arrived while the Fram was drifting +between seventy-nine and eighty-one degrees north latitude. This +tedious drifting was a sore trial to Nansen. He often thought that +there must be some error in his calculations, often very nearly lost +heart. But then he thought of those at home who had made such +sacrifices for him, and of those on board who placed such implicit +faith in him; while overhead the star—his star—shone out +brilliantly in the wintry night, and inspired him with renewed +courage.</p> +<p>The time was now drawing near when their first Christmas on board +should be kept. The polar night, with its prolonged darkness and biting +cold, brooded over the ship, and ice-pressures thundered all +around.</p> +<p>Christmas Eve was ushered in with -35° Fahrenheit. The Fram lay +in seventy-nine degrees, eleven minutes, north latitude, two minutes +farther south than was the case a week before.</p> +<p>There was a peculiar feeling of solemnity on board. Every one was +thinking of home, and trying at the same time to keep his thoughts to +himself, and so there was more noise and laughter than usual. They ate +and they drank and made speeches, and the Christmas presents were given +out, and the <i>Framsjaa</i>, the Fram’s newspaper, with an extra +illustrated Christmas number, appeared.</p> +<p>In <i>the</i> poem for the day it said:—</p> +<div class="lgouter"> +<div class="lg"> +<p class="line">“When the ship is hemmed in by ice +fathom-thick,</p> +<p class="line xd20e1701">When we drift at the will of the stream,</p> +<p class="line">When the white veil of winter is spread all around,</p> +<p class="line xd20e1701">In our sleep of our dear home we dream.</p> +</div> +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb103" href="#pb103" name= +"pb103">103</a>]</span> +<div class="lg"> +<p class="line">Let us wish them a right merry Christmas at home,</p> +<p class="line xd20e1701">Good luck may the coming year bring;</p> +<p class="line">We’ll be patient and wait, for the Pole we will +gain,</p> +<p class="line xd20e1701">Then hurrah for our home in the +spring.”</p> +</div> +</div> +<p class="first">The <i>menu</i> for Christmas Eve was:—</p> +<ul> +<li>1. <span class="sc">Oxtail Soup.</span></li> +<li>2. <span class="sc">Fish Pudding.</span></li> +<li>3. <span class="sc">Reindeer-steak and Green Peas. French Beans, +Potatoes, and Huckleberry Jelly.</span></li> +<li>4. <span class="sc">Cloudberries and Cream.</span></li> +<li>5. <span class="sc">Cake and Marzipan.</span></li> +<li>6. <span class="sc">Beer.</span></li> +</ul> +<p>The Nansen lads knew how to live. But this night they had no supper; +they simply could not manage it. Indeed, it was all they could do to +get through an extra dessert, consisting of pineapple preserve, +honey-cakes, vanilla biscuits, cocoa macaroons, figs, raisins, almonds, +etc.</p> +<p>The banquet was held in their cosey saloon, which was lighted with +electric lights; and in the evening they had organ recitals, songs, and +many other recreations. Yes, there was merriment galore on the Fram, +frozen in though she was in the Polar sea.</p> +<p>If it had not been for the noise of the ice-pressures they might +indeed have imagined themselves to be in the very middle of +civilization. In their inmost hearts they longed for a +pressure,—a pressure of the hand from dear ones at home. A long +time must elapse before that could be.</p> +<p>Then came New Year’s Eve, with a brilliant aurora shining +overhead, and still each one on board felt that irrepressible longing +in his heart. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb104" href="#pb104" name= +"pb104">104</a>]</span></p> +<p>Nansen read out on this occasion the last salutation he had received +from Norway. It was a telegram from Professor Moltke Moe at +Tromsö:—</p> +<div class="lgouter"> +<p class="line xd20e1760">“Luck on the way,</p> +<p class="line xd20e1760">Sun on the sea,</p> +<p class="line xd20e1760">Sun in your minds,</p> +<p class="line xd20e1760">Help from the winds.</p> +<p class="line xd20e1760">Wide open floes</p> +<p class="line xd20e1760">Part and unclose</p> +<p class="line xd20e1760">Where the ship goes.</p> +<p class="line xd20e1760">Onward! Good cheer!</p> +<p class="line xd20e1760">Tho’ ice in the rear</p> +<p class="line xd20e1760">Pack—it will clear.</p> +<p class="line xd20e1760">Food enough—strength enough—</p> +<p class="line xd20e1760">Means enough—clothes enough.</p> +<p class="line xd20e1760">Then will the Fram’s crew</p> +<p class="line xd20e1760">Reach the Pole in months few.</p> +<p class="line">Good luck on thy journey to thee and thy hand,</p> +<p class="line">And a good welcome back to the dear +Fatherland!”</p> +</div> +<p class="first">These lines, needless to say, were received with great +acclamation.</p> +<p>Meanwhile month after month passes without much change. The men on +the Fram live their lonely lives. They take observations in the biting +frost—Scott Hansen usually attends to this work. The others, who +are sitting down in the cabins, often hear a noise of feet on the deck, +as if some one were dancing a jig.</p> +<p>“Is it cold?” asks Nansen, when Hansen and his +assistants come below.</p> +<p>“Cold? oh, no! not at all!—quite a pleasant +temperature!” a piece of information which is received with +shouts of laughter.</p> +<p>“Don’t you find it cold about the feet either?” +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb105" href="#pb105" name= +"pb105">105</a>]</span></p> +<p>“No, can’t say I do; but every now and then it’s +rather cool for one’s fingers!” He had just had two of his +frostbitten.</p> +<p>One morning, indeed, when an observation had to be taken in a hurry, +Scott Hansen was seen on deck with nothing on but his shirt and +trousers when the thermometer registered -40° Fahrenheit.</p> +<p>Occasionally they would have to go out on the ice to take +observations, when they might be seen standing with their lanterns and +tackle, bending over their instruments, and then all at once tearing +away over the ice, swinging their arms like the sails of a windmill; +but it was always, “Oh! it’s not at all cold! Nothing to +speak of!”</p> +<p>On Friday, Feb. 2, the Fram reached eighty degrees north latitude, +an event that was duly celebrated on board. They were all, moreover, in +wonderful spirits, especially as the gloom of winter was beginning to +lighten at the approach of spring.</p> +<p>By March 23 they had again drifted to the south, and it was not till +April 17 that they reached 80° 20′ north latitude. On May 21, +it was 81° 20′, one degree further north, and on June 18, +81° 52′. They were progressing! But after this a back drift +set in, and on Sept. 15, 1894, the Fram lay in 81° 14′ north +latitude.</p> +<p>The weather had been tolerably fine during the summer; but there was +little else for them to do except take observations, ascertain the +temperature of the water at different depths, etc., and collect +specimens of sea-weed, etc. And so another winter with its gloom and +darkness was approaching. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb106" href= +"#pb106" name="pb106">106</a>]</span></p> +<p>During this summer Nansen had often contemplated the idea of leaving +the Fram, and of going with one of his companions on a sleigh +expedition to the regions nearer the Pole; for he feared the Fram would +not drift much farther in a northerly direction, and was most unwilling +to return home without first having done his utmost to explore the +northern regions. Accordingly he occupied himself a good deal in making +sleigh excursions in order to get the dogs into training, and in other +preparations. He had mentioned his plan to Sverdrup, who quite approved +of it.</p> +<p>About the middle of September a rather strange thing happened. +Peterson, who was acting as cook that week, came one day to Nansen, and +said he had had a wonderful dream. He dreamt that Nansen intended to go +on an expedition to the Pole with four of the men, but would not take +him with them.</p> +<p>“You told me,” he said, “you wouldn’t want a +cook on your expedition, and that the ship was to meet you at some +other place; anyhow, that you would not return here, but would go to +some other land. It’s strange what a lot of nonsense one can +dream!”</p> +<p>Nansen replied that perhaps it was not such great nonsense, after +all; whereon Petersen said, “Well, if you do go, I would ask you +to take me with you; I should like it very much! I can’t say I am +a good hand on ski, but I could manage to keep up with the rest.” +When Nansen remarked that such an expedition would be attended with no +little danger, one involving even the risk of life; “Psha!” +answered Petersen, “one can but die once! If I were with you I +shouldn’t be a bit <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb107" href= +"#pb107" name="pb107">107</a>]</span>afraid!” And that he would +willingly have accompanied Nansen to the North Pole in the middle of +the dark winter, without the slightest hesitation, is sure enough. And +so, indeed, would all the others have done.</p> +<p>On Monday, Nov. 19, Nansen mentioned his scheme to Johansen, whom he +had selected to be his companion, and on the following day he took the +rest of the crew into his confidence. They evinced the greatest +interest in the proposed scheme, and, indeed, considered it highly +necessary that such an expedition should take place.</p> +<p>And now they all set to work in earnest about the necessary +preparations, such as making sleighs, kayaks, exercising the dogs, and +weighing out provisions, etc.</p> +<p>Meanwhile winter dragged on its weary way. Another Christmas came, +finding them in latitude, eighty-three degrees, and ice pressures were +increasing daily. The New Year of 1895 was ushered in with wind, and +was dark and dreary in the extreme. On Jan. 3, the famous ice-pressure +occurred, that exposed the Fram to the severest strain any ship ever +encountered, and lived.</p> +<p>At 8 <span class="sc">A.M.</span> on the morning of the 3d of +January Nansen was awakened by the familiar sound of an approaching +pressure. On going up on deck he was not a little surprised to see a +huge pressure-ridge scarcely thirty paces away from the Fram, with deep +cracks reaching almost to the ship itself. All loose articles were at +once stowed away on board. At noon the pressure began again, and the +dreaded ridge came nearer <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb108" href= +"#pb108" name="pb108">108</a>]</span>and nearer. In the afternoon +preparations were made to abandon the ship, the sleighs and kayaks +being placed ready on deck. At supper-time it began crunching again, +and Nordahl came below to say that they had better go up on deck at +once. The dogs, too, had to be let loose, for the water stood high in +their kennels.</p> +<p>During the night the ice remained comparatively quiet, but next +morning the pressure began again. The huge ridge was now only a few +feet from the ship.</p> +<p>At 6.30 Jan. 5 Nansen was awakened by Sverdrup telling him that the +ridge had now reached the ship, and was level with the rails. All hands +at once rushed on deck; but nothing further occurred that day till late +in the evening, when the climax came. At eight <span class= +"sc">P.M.</span> the crunching and thundering was worse than ever; +masses of ice and snow dashed over the tent and rails amidships. Every +one set to work to save what he could. Indeed, the crashing and +thundering made them think doomsday had come; and all the while the +crew were rushing about here and there, carrying sacks and bags, the +dogs howling, and masses of ice pouring in every moment. Yet they +worked away with a will till everything was put in a place of +safety.</p> +<p>When the pressure finally was over, the Fram’s port-side was +completely buried in the ice-mound; only the top of the tent being +visible. But she had stood the trial—passed through it +gloriously; for she came out of it all uninjured, without even a crack. +There she lay as sound as ever, but with a mound of ice over her, +higher indeed than the second ratline of her fore-shrouds, and six feet +above the rails. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb109" href="#pb109" +name="pb109">109</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch9" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">Chapter IX.</h2> +<div class="argument"> +<p class="first">Nansen and Johansen start on a Sleighing +Expedition.—Reach Eighty-six Degrees, Fourteen Minutes, North +Latitude.—Winter in Franz Joseph’s Land.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">March 17, 1895, was a memorable day in the +Fram’s history, for it was on that date that Nansen and Johansen +set out on the most adventurous expedition ever undertaken in the polar +sea. At the time of leaving the ship, she was in eighty-four degrees +north latitude.</p> +<p>On quitting her they fired a salute on board with all their guns as +a farewell; and, though the lads on the Fram kept their spirits up +bravely, every eye was full of tears, something quite uncommon with +them: and they watched their two adventurous comrades, with their +sleighs and dogs, as they set off toward the Pole, till they were lost +to sight among the hummocks.</p> +<p>The ice was terribly difficult, and they had a wearisome march over +it; and, to make matters worse, a southerly drift set in, driving them +nearly as far back as they advanced. However, they got on pretty well +till reaching eighty-five degrees north latitude, when another back +drift set in, lasting, indeed, without intermission during the whole of +the expedition. The dogs, too, got worn out, and had to be killed one +after the other; while, to add to their discomfort, their clothes would +get frozen so stiff during the day that they had <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb110" href="#pb110" name="pb110">110</a>]</span>to +thaw them in their sleeping-bags at night with the warmth of their +bodies. Very often they were so tired in the evening that they would +fall asleep with the food in their hands. Their expedition, too, +haunted them in their sleep; and often Nansen would be awakened by +hearing Johansen call out in the night, “Pan!” +“Barabbas!” or “The whole sleigh is going +over!” or “Sass-sass,” “Prr!” Lappish +words to make the dogs quicken their pace or to halt.</p> +<div class="figure xd20e1867width" id="p110"><img src="images/p110.jpg" +alt="Nansen and Johansen leaving the Fram." width="678" height="495"> +<p class="figureHead">Nansen and Johansen leaving the Fram.</p> +</div> +<p>It was sorrowful work to have to kill these faithful animals when +they were worn out. Nansen himself says that he often felt the +bitterest self-reproaches, and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb111" +href="#pb111" name="pb111">111</a>]</span>confessed that this +expedition seemed to destroy all the better feelings of his nature. But +forward they must go, and forward they went, though their progress was +very slow.</p> +<p>It was not long before Nansen became convinced that it would be an +utter impossibility to reach the Pole through such masses of pack-ice +and hummocks as they encountered. The question, therefore, was how far +they should venture toward it before turning their faces southward.</p> +<p>On Monday, April 8, they had reached eighty-six degrees, ten +minutes, north latitude (though it subsequently turned out to be +eighty-six degrees, fourteen minutes, north latitude, that renowned +degree of latitude that became historical when the news of the Nansen +expedition was flashed all over the world), and determined to go on no +farther. So, on the day following, they changed their course to the +south. The going improved a little as they travelled on. As far as the +eye could reach huge masses of ice towered aloft toward the north, +while toward the south the ice became each day more favorable, a +circumstance that cheered them up not a little.</p> +<p>On Sunday, May 5, they were in eighty-four degrees, thirty-one +minutes, north latitude, and on the 17th, in eighty-three degrees, +thirty minutes, north latitude.</p> +<p>They found it very hard work crossing the open channels in the ice; +and what made it harder was that the number of their dogs diminished +daily, one after another having to be killed as food for the survivors. +It was absolutely necessary, however, to reach a latitude <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb112" href="#pb112" name= +"pb112">112</a>]</span>where game could be procured, before their stock +of provisions gave out.</p> +<p>On May 19 they came on the tracks of a bear, but did not see the +animal itself. Tracks of foxes they had already seen when in +eighty-five degrees north latitude.</p> +<p>It seemed as if there was no end to these channels which must be +crossed, and of the young ice which made hauling the sleighs such +terribly hard work. Moreover, soon they would have no dogs left to help +them, and they would have to drag the sleighs themselves.</p> +<p>May passed and June set in, and still no end to the channels or to +their excessive hard work, and not a glimpse of land to be seen yet. +Every now and then a narwhal would be seen, or a seal, heralds, +doubtless, that they were approaching the regions of animated nature. +The ice, too, no longer hard and smooth, became regular slush, so that +it clogged on the under surface of their ski, and strained to the +utmost the poor dogs, who could hardly drag their loads after them. +Everything, indeed, seemed against them! Three months had elapsed since +quitting the Fram, and as yet they had met with no change for the +better.</p> +<p>On June 16 Kaifas, Haren, and Suggen were the sole survivors of the +pack, and Nansen and Johansen had to do dogs’ work themselves in +dragging the sleighs.</p> +<p>But a turn for the better set in. On the 22d, as they were rowing +the kayaks over some open water, they were fortunate enough to shoot a +large seal. Its flesh lasted them a good while, and indeed proved a +great godsend, though they did set fire to the tent while frying +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb113" href="#pb113" name= +"pb113">113</a>]</span>blood pancakes in blubber—a mere trifle, +however, on such an expedition as theirs! They soon mended it with one +of the sleigh sails, and the blood pancakes were voted to be delicious. +On the 24th Nansen shot another seal, an event duly celebrated with +great festivity; viz., a supper <span class="corr" id="xd20e1898" +title="Source: off">of</span> chocolate and blubber.</p> +<p>On June 30 Nansen discovered, to his great chagrin, that they had +advanced no farther south than they were a month ago, and it began to +dawn upon him that in all probability they would have to winter up +there—a pleasant prospect, forsooth! Their stock of provisions +was nearly exhausted, and only three dogs left.</p> +<p>On July 6 they shot three bears, so that all anxiety as regards food +was happily at end for the time; though the prospect of reaching home +that year, at least, was infinitesimally small.</p> +<p>On Tuesday, July 23, they finally broke up “Longing +Camp,” as they termed their quarters, and devoted all their +energies to their journey homeward.</p> +<p>The next day they saw land for the first time. Through the telescope +its hazy outline could be discerned; but it took them a fortnight to +reach it, and when they did reach it, they were so exhausted that they +had to lie up several days.</p> +<p>During this time Johansen was nearly killed by a bear. Nansen tells +the story:—</p> +<p>“After some very hard work we at last reached an open channel +in the ice which we had to cross in our kayaks. I had just got mine +ready, and was holding it to prevent its sliding down into the water, +when I heard a scuffle going on behind me; and Johansen, who was +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb114" href="#pb114" name= +"pb114">114</a>]</span>dragging his sleigh, called out, ‘Get your +gun!’ I looked round, and saw a huge bear dash at him, and knock +him down on his back. I made a grab at my gun, which was in its case on +the foredeck; but at the same moment my kayak unfortunately slipped +down into the water. My first impulse was to jump in after it, and +shoot from the deck; but it was too risky a venture to attempt, so I +set to work to haul it up on the ice again as quickly as I could. But +it was so heavy that I had to kneel down on one knee, pulling and +hauling and struggling to get hold of the gun, without even time to +turn around and see what was going on behind me. Presently I heard +Johansen say very calmly, ‘If you don’t look sharp, it will +be too late.’ Look sharp! I should think I did look sharp! At +last I got hold of the butt-end of the gun, drew it out of its case, +whipped round in a sitting posture, and cocked one of the barrels which +was loaded with shot. Meanwhile the bear stood there scarcely a yard +away from me, and was on the point of doing for Kaifas. I had no time +to cock the other barrel, so I gave it the whole charge of shot behind +the ear, and the brute fell dead between us.</p> +<p>“The bear must have followed on our tracks like a cat, and +hiding behind blocks of ice, have slunk after us while we were busy +clearing the loose ice away in the channel, with our backs turned +toward it. We could see by its tracks that it had wormed its way on its +stomach over a ridge in our rear, under cover of an ice-mound in close +proximity to Johansen’s kayak.</p> +<p>“While Johansen, without of course suspecting anything, or +even looking behind him, was stooping down <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb115" href="#pb115" name="pb115">115</a>]</span>to +lay hold of the hauling-rope, he got a glimpse of some animal lying in +a crouching posture at the stern of the kayak. He thought at first it +was only the dog Suggen; but before he had time to notice how large it +was, he received a blow over the right ear that made him +‘silly,’ and over he went on his back. He now tried to +defend himself the best he could with his bare fists, and with one hand +gripped the brute by the throat, never once relaxing his hold.</p> +<p>“Just as the bear was about to bite him on the head, he +uttered those memorable words, ‘Look sharp!’ The bear kept +watching me intently, wondering no doubt what I was up to, when all at +once it happily caught sight of one of the dogs, and immediately turned +toward it. Johansen now let go his hold of the brute’s throat, +and wriggled himself away, while the bear gave poor Suggen a smack with +his paw that made him howl as he used to do when he got a thrashing. +Kaifas, too, got a smack on the nose. Meanwhile Johansen had got on his +feet, and just as I fired had got hold of his gun, which was sticking +up out of the hole in the kayak. The only damage done was that the bear +had scraped a little of the grime and dirt off Johansen’s right +cheek, so that he goes with a white stripe on it now, besides a scratch +on one hand. Kaifas, too, had his nose scratched.”</p> +<p>On reaching land they had to shoot Kaifas and Suggen, the sole +survivors of their twenty-six faithful companions. It was a hard task. +Johansen took Nansen’s dog Kaifas in a leash behind a hummock, +while Nansen did the same with Johansen’s Suggen. Their two guns +went off simultaneously, and the two men stood friendless, <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb116" href="#pb116" name= +"pb116">116</a>]</span>alone in the desert of ice. They did not say +many words to each other on meeting.</p> +<hr class="tb"> +<p>Along the coast of the land they discovered there was open water, of +which they availed themselves, first lashing their kayaks together so +that they formed in fact a double kayak.</p> +<p>They rowed for several days, and were fortunate enough to shoot a +walrus; but they had no idea what land it was, or where they were.</p> +<p>One evening, however, the channel closed up, and no more open water +was to be found. But on Aug. 13 it opened up again, and they were able +to push on. After twenty-four hours it closed once more, and they had +to drag the kayaks on the sleigh overland. On the evening of Aug. 18 +they reached one of the islands they had been steering for, and for the +first time for two years had bare earth under their feet. Here they +revelled in “the joys of country life,”—now jumping +over the rocks, or gathering moss and specimens of the flora, +etc.,—and hoisted the Norwegian flag.</p> +<p>In its summer dress this northern land seemed to them to be a +perfect paradise; plenty of seals, sea-birds, flowers, and +mud—and in front the blue sea.</p> +<p>They were, therefore, loath to leave it, but onward they must +proceed, if they wished to reach home that autumn. But fate willed it +otherwise.</p> +<p>They soon encountered ice again—nothing but ice—bare ice +as far as the eye could reach. After waiting a considerable time, they +once more had open water, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb117" href= +"#pb117" name="pb117">117</a>]</span>of which they took advantage by +hoisting a sail; but at the end of twenty-four hours their course was +again blocked—a block that decided their future movements +materially; for they were compelled to winter there!</p> +<p>It may readily be supposed that this was not only a terrible +disappointment, but a severe trial to our two arctic navigators. After +all their labor and exertion, after reaching open water, and buoying +themselves up, with the hope that their struggles would soon be over, +to find that hope shattered, and their plans rendered abortive, and +that they must perforce be imprisoned in the ice for months, was enough +to make them lose heart altogether. But when once they realized their +position, they acted like men, and set to work to build a stone hut, on +the roof and floor of which they stretched bear hides. They succeeded +in shooting several walruses, the blubber of which provided them with +fuel, so that they might have been in a worse plight than they were. +Still, it was not altogether pleasant to have to lie in a stone hut +during a polar winter, with the thermometer down to -40 Fahrenheit, +without any other food than bears’ flesh and blubber. Indeed, it +required the constitution of a giant to endure it, and unyielding +determination not to lose heart altogether.</p> +<p>By working for a week, they finished the walls of their abode, and +after getting the roof on, moved into it. They made a great heap of +blubber of the walruses they shot outside the hut, covering it over +with walrus hides. This was their fuel store. It served of course to +attract bears, which was an advantage; and many a one paid the penalty +of his appetite by being shot. At first they <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb118" href="#pb118" name= +"pb118">118</a>]</span>found it very uncomfortable at night, so they +both slept in one sleeping-bag, and thus kept tolerably warm. But the +climax of their joy was building in the roof a chimney of ice to let +out the smoke of their fire. They had no other materials to make it out +of. It answered capitally, however, having only one drawback; viz., +that it readily melted. But there was no lack of ice for making +another.</p> +<p>Their cuisine was simple in the extreme, and strangely enough they +never got tired of their food. Whatever came to hand, flesh or blubber, +they ate readily, and sometimes, when a longing for fatty food, as was +often the case, came over them, they would fish pieces of blubber out +of the lamps, and eat them with great relish. They called these burnt +pieces biscuits; and “if there had only been a little sugar +sprinkled on them, they would have tasted deliciously,” they +said.</p> +<p>During the course of this winter the foxes proved very troublesome. +They gnawed holes in the roof, stole instruments, wire, harpoons, and a +thermometer. Luckily they had a spare one, so that the register of the +temperature did not suffer. They were principally white foxes that +visited them; but occasionally they saw the blue fox, and would dearly +have liked to shoot some specimens of that beautiful animal, only that +they feared their ammunition would not hold out. They shot their last +bear on Oct. 21, after which they saw no more till the following +spring.</p> +<p>It was a long, tedious winter; the weather generally very +boisterous, with drifting snowstorms. But every now and then fine +weather would set in, when the stars <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb119" href="#pb119" name="pb119">119</a>]</span>would shine with +great brilliancy, and wondrously beautiful displays of the aurora +borealis would lighten up the whole scene.</p> +<p>Another Christmas Eve arrived, the third they had spent in the polar +regions; but this was the dreariest and gloomiest of them all. However, +they determined to celebrate it, which they did by reversing their +shirts. Then they ate fish-meal with train-oil instead of butter, and +for a second course toasted bread and blubber. On Christmas morning +they treated themselves to chocolate and bread.</p> +<p>On New Year’s Day, 1896, there were -41° of cold +(Fahrenheit), and all Nansen’s finger-tips were frost-bitten. Out +there on that dreary headland their thoughts wandered away to their +home, where they pictured to themselves all the Christmas joy and +festivity that would be taking place, the flakes of snow falling gently +out-of-doors, and the happy faces of their dear ones within.</p> +<div class="lgouter"> +<p class="line">“The road to the stars is long and +heavy!”</p> +</div> +<hr class="tb"> +<p>Nansen and Johansen slept during the greater part of that long +winter. Sometimes, like bears in their winter quarters, they would +sleep for twenty-four hours at a stretch, when there was nothing +particular to be done. Spring, however, returned at last, and the birds +began to reappear on their northerly flight. The polar bears, too, +revisited their hut, so they got plenty of fresh meat. The first bear +they killed acted very daringly. Johansen was on the point of going out +of the hut one day, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb120" href="#pb120" +name="pb120">120</a>]</span>when he started back, crying out, +“There’s a bear just outside!” Snatching up his gun, +he put his head out of the door of the hut, but instantly withdrew it. +“It is close by, and means coming in.” Then he put his gun +out again, and fired. The shot took effect, and the wounded beast made +off for some rocky ground. After a long pursuit Nansen came up with it, +and shot it in a snowdrift. It rolled over and over like a ball, and +fell dead close to his feet. Its flesh lasted them six weeks.</p> +<p>On May 19 they broke up their winter camp, and proceeded over the +ice in a southerly direction, meeting with long stretches of level +young ice, making also good use of their sail, and finally reached open +water on Friday, June 12. They now lashed the two kayaks together, +forming a double kayak, and set out to sea with a favorable breeze, +feeling not a little elated; and in the evening lay to at the edge of +the ice to rest, having first moored the kayaks with a rope, and then +got up on a hummock to reconnoitre. Presently Johansen was heard to +shout out, “The kayaks are adrift!” Down they both of them +rushed as fast as they could.</p> +<p>“Here, take my watch!” cried Nansen, handing it to +Johansen, while he divested himself of his outer garments, and jumped +into the water.</p> +<p>Meanwhile the kayaks had drifted a considerable distance. It was +absolutely necessary to overtake them, for their loss +meant—death.</p> +<p>But we will let Nansen tell the story:—</p> +<p>“When I got tired, I turned over on my back, and then I could +see Johansen walking incessantly to and fro on the ice. Poor fellow! he +could not stand still; <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb121" href= +"#pb121" name="pb121">121</a>]</span>he felt it was so dreadful to be +unable to do anything. Moreover, he did not entertain, he told me, much +hope of my being able to reach them. However, it would not have mended +matters had he jumped in after me. They were the worst minutes, he +said, he had ever passed in all his life.</p> +<p>“But when I turned over again and began swimming once more, I +saw that I was perceptibly gaining on the kayaks, and this made me +redouble my exertions. My limbs, however, were now becoming so numb and +stiff that I felt I couldn’t go on much longer. But I +wasn’t far off the kayaks now; if I could only manage to hold out +a little longer, we were saved—and on I went. My strokes kept +getting shorter and feebler every instant, but still I was gaining, and +hoped to be able to come up with them. At last I got hold of a ski that +lay athwart the bows, and clutched onto the kayaks. We were saved! but +when I tried to get aboard, my limbs were so cold and stiff that I +couldn’t manage it. For a moment I feared it was too late after +all, and that although I had got thus far, I should never be able to +get on board. So I waited a moment to rest, and after a great deal of +difficulty, succeeded in getting one leg up on the edge of the sleigh +that was lying on the deck, and so got on board, but so exhausted that +I found it hard work to use the paddle.”</p> +<p>When Nansen at last got the kayaks back to the edge of the ice, he +changed his wet clothes, and was put to bed on the ice, that is to say, +in the sleeping-bag, by Johansen, who threw a sail over him, and made +him some warm drink, which soon restored the circulation. <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb122" href="#pb122" name="pb122">122</a>]</span>But +when he told Johansen to go and fetch the two auks he had shot as he +was rowing the kayaks back, the latter burst out laughing, and said, +“I thought you had gone clean mad when you shot.”</p> +<p>On Monday, June 15, Nansen’s life was a second time in +jeopardy. They were rowing after walruses, when one of the creatures +bobbed up close by Nansen’s kayak, and stuck its tusks through +the side. Nansen hit it over the head with the paddle, whereon the +brute let go his hold and disappeared.</p> +<p>But the kayak very nearly foundered, and was only hauled up on the +ice as it was on the point of sinking.</p> +<p>This was the last perilous adventure on this marvellous expedition. +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb123" href="#pb123" name= +"pb123">123</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch10" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">Chapter X.</h2> +<div class="argument"> +<p class="first">Meeting with Jackson.—Return to Norway on the +Windward.—Fram Returns to Norway.—Royal Welcome Home.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">It was June 17, Henrik Wergeland’s<a class= +"noteref" id="xd20e2005src" href="#xd20e2005" name="xd20e2005src">1</a> +birthday. Nansen had been down to the edge of the ice to fetch some +salt water, and had got up on a hummock in order to have a good look +about. A brisk breeze was blowing off land, bearing with it the +confused sound of bird-cries from the distant rocks. As he stood +listening to these sounds of life in that wild desert, which he thought +no human eye had ever seen, or human foot trodden before, a noise like +the bark of a dog fell on his ear. He started with amazement.</p> +<p>Could there be dogs here? Impossible! He must have been mistaken. It +must have been the bird-cries! But no—there it was again! First a +single bark, then the full cry of a whole pack. There was a deep bark, +succeeded by a sharper one. There could be no doubt about it! Then he +remembered that only the day before he had heard a couple of reports +resembling gunshots, but had thought it was only the ice splitting and +cracking. He now called to Johansen, who was in the tent.</p> +<p>“I can hear dogs over yonder!” he said. <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb124" href="#pb124" name="pb124">124</a>]</span></p> +<p>Johansen, who was lying asleep, jumped up and bundled out of the +tent. “Dogs?” No! he could not take that in; but all the +same went up and stood beside Nansen to listen. “It must be your +imagination!” he said. He certainly had on one or two occasions, +he said, heard sounds like the barking of a dog, but they had been so +drowned in the bird-cries that he did not think much of it. To which +Nansen replied that he might think what he liked, but that for his part +he intended to set out as soon as they had had breakfast.</p> +<p>So it was arranged that Johansen should stay there to see to the +kayaks, while Nansen set out on this expedition.</p> +<p>Before finally starting, Nansen once more got up on the hummock and +listened, but could hear nothing. However, off he started, though he +felt some doubts in his own mind. What if it were a delusion after +all?</p> +<div class="figure xd20e2022width" id="p125"><img src="images/p125.jpg" +alt="Meeting of Nansen and Jackson." width="720" height="453"> +<p class="figureHead">Meeting of Nansen and Jackson.</p> +<p class="first">By Permission of Harper & Brothers.</p> +</div> +<p>After proceeding some distance he came on the tracks of an animal. +They were too large to be those of a fox, and too small for a wolf. +They must be dog tracks, then! A distant bark at that moment fell on +his ear, more distinct than ever, and off he set at full speed in the +direction of the sound, so that the snow dust whirled up in clouds +behind him, every nerve and muscle of his body quivering with +excitement. He passed a great many tracks, with foxes’ tracks +interspersed among them. A long time now elapsed during which he could +hear nothing, as he went zigzagging in among the hummocks, and his +heart began to sink at every step he took. Suddenly, however, he +thought he could hear the sound of a human voice—a strange +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb126" href="#pb126" name= +"pb126">126</a>]</span>voice—the first for three years! His heart +beat, the blood flew to his brain, and springing up on the top of a +hummock, he hallooed with all the strength of his lungs. Behind that +human voice in the midst of this desert of ice stood home, and she who +was waiting there!</p> +<p>An answering shout came back far, far off, dying away in the +distance, and before long he discerned some dark form among the +hummocks farther ahead. It was a dog! But behind it another form was +visible—a man’s form!</p> +<p>Nansen remained where he was, rooted to the spot, straining eyes and +ears as the form gradually drew near, and then set off once more to +meet it, as if it were a matter of life and death.</p> +<p>They approached each other. Nansen waved his hat; the stranger did +the same.</p> +<p>They met.</p> +<p>That stranger was the English arctic traveller, Mr. Jackson.</p> +<p>They shook hands; and Jackson said,—</p> +<p>“I am delighted to meet you!”</p> +<p>N. “Thanks; so am I.”</p> +<p>J. “Is your ship here?”</p> +<p>N. “No.”</p> +<p>J. “How many are you?”</p> +<p>N. “I have a companion out yonder by the edge of the +ice.”</p> +<p>As they walked along together, Jackson, who had been eyeing Nansen +all the while intently, all at once halted, and staring his companion +full in the face said,— <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb127" +href="#pb127" name="pb127">127</a>]</span></p> +<p>“Are not you Nansen?”</p> +<p>“Yes, I am.”</p> +<p>“By Jove! <i>I am</i> glad to meet you!”</p> +<p>And he shook Nansen by the hand so heartily as well nigh to +dislocate his wrist, his dark eyes beaming with delight. Endless +questions and answers took place between them till they reached +Jackson’s camp, where some of the men were at once despatched to +fetch Johansen.</p> +<p>Life with Jackson was for our two northmen a life of uninterrupted +comfort and delight. First of all they were photographed in their +“wild man’s attire;” then they washed, put on fresh +clothes, had their hair cut, enjoyed the luxury of a shave; undergoing +all the changes from savage to civilized life—changes that to +them were inexpressibly delightful. Once more they ate civilized food, +lay in civilized beds, read books, newspapers, smoked, drank. What a +change after fifteen months of Esquimau fare of blubber and +bears’ flesh! And yet during all that time they had experienced +scarcely a single day’s illness.</p> +<p>Jackson’s ship, the Windward, was expected to arrive shortly, +and it was arranged that Nansen and Johansen should embark on her for +Norway.</p> +<p>But our two travellers had to wait a longer time than they +anticipated, for it was not till July 26 that the Windward arrived. On +Aug. 7, however, they went on board the ship, and steered with a +favorable wind for Vardö, where they arrived early in the morning +of Aug. 13.</p> +<p>The pilot who came on board did not know Nansen; <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb128" href="#pb128" name="pb128">128</a>]</span>but +when the captain mentioned his name, his old weather-beaten face +brightened up, and assumed an appearance of mingled joy and petrified +amazement.</p> +<p>Seizing Nansen by the hand, he bade him a thousand welcomes. +“Everybody,” he said, “had thought him long dead, as +nothing had been heard of the Fram.”</p> +<p>Nansen assured him he felt no doubt of the safety of the ship, and +that he placed as much confidence in the Fram as he did in himself. +Otto Sverdrup was in command, and they would soon hear tidings of +her.</p> +<p>No sooner had the Windward anchored in Vardö harbor than Nansen +and Johansen rowed ashore, and at once repaired to the telegraph +office. No one knew them as they entered it. Nansen, thereon, threw +down a bundle of telegrams—several hundred in number—on the +counter, and begged they might be despatched without delay. The +telegraph official eyed the visitors rather curiously as he took up the +bundle. When his eye lighted on the word “Nansen,” which +was on the one lying uppermost, he changed color, and took the messages +to the lady at the desk, returning at once, his face beaming with +delight, and bade him welcome. “The telegrams should be +despatched as quickly as possible, but it would take several days to +send them all.” A minute later the telegraph apparatus began to +tick from Vardö, and thence round the whole world, the +announcement of the successful issue of the expedition to the North +Pole; and in a few hours’ time Nansen’s name was on the +lips of a hundred millions of people, whose hearts glowed at the +thought of his marvellous achievement. <span class="pagenum">[<a id= +"pb129" href="#pb129" name="pb129">129</a>]</span></p> +<p>But away yonder in Svartebugta there sat a woman, who would not on +that day have exchanged the anguish she had undergone, and the +sacrifices she had made, for all the kingdoms of the world.</p> +<p>By an extraordinary coincidence, Nansen met his friend Professor +Mohn in Vardö—the man who had all along placed implicit +reliance on his theory. On seeing him Mohn burst into tears, as he +said, “Thank God, you are alive.”</p> +<p>By another equally extraordinary coincidence, Nansen met his English +friend and patron, Sir George Baden Powell, in Hammerfest, on his yacht +the Ontario, which he placed at Nansen’s disposal, an offer which +was gratefully accepted. Sir Baden Powell had been very anxious about +Nansen, and was, in fact, on the point of setting out on an expedition +to search for him, when he thus met him.</p> +<p>That same evening Nansen’s wife and his secretary, +Christophersen, arrived in Hammerfest, and the whole place was <i>en +fête</i> to celebrate the event. Telegrams kept pouring in from +all quarters of the globe, and invitations from every town on the coast +of Norway to visit them <i>en route</i>.</p> +<p>But the Fram? The only dark spot amid all their joy was that no +tidings had been heard of her; and in the homes of those brave fellows +left behind there was sadness and anxiety. Even Nansen himself, who had +felt so sure that all was well with her, began to feel anxious.</p> +<p>One morning, it was Aug. 20, Nansen was awakened by Sir Baden Powell +knocking at his door with the announcement <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb130" href="#pb130" name="pb130">130</a>]</span>that +there was a man outside who wanted to speak to him.</p> +<p>Nansen replied that he was not dressed, but would come +presently.</p> +<p>“Come just as you are,” answered Sir Baden.</p> +<p>Who could it be?</p> +<p>Hurriedly putting on his clothes, Nansen went down into the saloon. +A man was standing there, a telegram in his hand; it was the director +of the telegraph office.</p> +<p>He had a telegram, he said, which he thought would interest him, and +had brought it himself.</p> +<p>Interest him! There was only one thing in the world that could +interest Nansen now, and that was the Fram’s fate.</p> +<p>With trembling fingers he tore open the paper, and read,—</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p class="first">Fram arrived in good condition. All well on board. Am +going to Tromsö. Welcome home.</p> +<p class="signed">O. S.</p> +</div> +<p>Nansen felt as if he must fall on the floor; and all he could do was +to stammer out, “Fram—arrived!”</p> +<p>Sir Baden Powell, who was standing beside him, shouted aloud with +joy, while Johansen’s face beamed like the sun, and +Christophersen kept walking to and fro; and to complete the tableau, +the telegraph director stood between them all, thoroughly enjoying the +scene, as he looked from one to the other of the party.</p> +<p>All Hammerfest was <i>en fête</i>, and universal joy was felt +the whole world through, when the tidings of the Fram’s +home-coming were made known.</p> +<p>The great work was ended—ended in the happiest <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb131" href="#pb131" name= +"pb131">131</a>]</span>manner, without the loss of a single human life! +The whole thing sounded indeed like a miracle. And a miracle the Nansen +lads thought it to be when they met Nansen and Johansen in Tromsö; +and when all the brave participators in the expedition were once more +assembled, theirs was a joy so overwhelming that words fail to describe +it.</p> +<hr class="tb"> +<p>Yes, the great work was ended!</p> +<p>The voyage along the coast began in sunshine and <i>fête</i>. +At last, on Sept. 9, the Fram steamed up the Christiania Fjord, which +literally teemed with vessels and boats of all sorts, sizes, and +descriptions. It was as if some old viking had returned home from a +successful enterprise abroad. The ships of war fired salutes, the guns +of the fortress thundered out their welcome; while the hurrahs and +shouts of thousands rent the air, flags and handkerchiefs waving in a +flood of joyful acclamation!</p> +<p>But when with bared head Nansen set foot on land, and the grand old +hymn—</p> +<div class="lgouter"> +<p lang="no" class="line">“VOR GUD HAN ER SAA FAST EN +BORG”<a class="noteref" id="xd20e2158src" href="#xd20e2158" name= +"xd20e2158src">2</a></p> +</div> +<p class="first">was sung in one mighty chorus by the assembled +multitude, thousands and thousands of men and women felt that the love +of their fatherland had grown in their hearts during those three long +years,—from the time when this man had set out to the icy deserts +of the north, to the moment when he once more planted his foot on his +native soil,—a feeling which the whole country shared with them. +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb132" href="#pb132" name= +"pb132">132</a>]</span></p> +<p>To the youth of Norway Fridtjof Nansen’s character and +achievements stand out as a bright model, a glorious pattern for +imitation. For he it is that has recalled to life the hero-life of the +saga times among us; he it is that has shown our youth the road to +manhood.</p> +<p><i>That</i> is his greatest achievement! <span class= +"pagenum">[<a id="pb133" href="#pb133" name="pb133">133</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= +"xd20e2005" href="#xd20e2005src" name="xd20e2005">1</a></span> +<i>Henrik Wergeland</i>, Norwegian poet and patriot, born 1808, died +1845.</p> +<p class="footnote" lang="en-us"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" +id="xd20e2158" href="#xd20e2158src" name="xd20e2158">2</a></span> +“A mighty fortress is our God.”</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="back"> +<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">Advertisements.</h2> +<p><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb134" href="#pb134" name= +"pb134">134</a>]</span></p> +<div class="div2"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Elementary English.</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first"><b>Allen’s School Grammar of the English +Language.</b> A clear, concise, adequate, teachable book for upper +grades. 175 pages. 60 cents.</p> +<p><b>Badlam’s Suggestive Lessons in Language and Reading.</b> A +manual for primary teachers. Plain and practical. $1.50.</p> +<p><b>Badlam’s Suggestive Lessons in Language.</b> Being Part I +and Appendix of Suggestive Lessons in Language and Reading. 50 +cents.</p> +<p><b>Benson’s Practical Speller.</b> Contains nearly 13,000 +words. Part I, 261 Lessons, 18 cents; Part II, 270 Lessons, 18 cents. +Parts I and II bound together, 25 cents.</p> +<p><b>Benson and Glenn’s Speller and Definer.</b> 700 spelling +and defining lists. 30 cents.</p> +<p><b>Branson’s Methods in Reading.</b> With a chapter on +spelling. 15 cents.</p> +<p><b>Buckbee’s Primary Word Book.</b> Drills in articulation and +in phonics. 25 cents.</p> +<p><b>Fuller’s Phonetic Drill Charts.</b> Exercises in elementary +sounds. Per set (3) 10 cents.</p> +<p><b>Hall’s How to Teach Reading.</b> Also discusses what +children should read. 25 cents.</p> +<p><b>Hyde’s Two-Book Course in English, Book I.</b> Practical +lessons in the correct use of English, with the rudiments of grammar. +35 cents.</p> +<p><b>Hyde’s Two-Book Course in English, Book II.</b> A carefully +graded course of lessons in language, composition and technical +grammar. 60 cents.</p> +<p><b>Hyde’s Practical Lessons in English, Book I.</b> For the +lower grades. Contains exercises for reproduction, picture lessons, +letter writing, <i>uses</i> of parts of speech, etc. 35 cents.</p> +<p><b>Hyde’s Practical Lessons in English, Book II.</b> For +grammar schools. Has enough technical grammar for correct use of +language. 50 cents.</p> +<p><b>Hyde’s Practical Lessons in English, Book II with +Supplement.</b> The supplement contains 118 pages of technical grammar. +60 cents. Supplement bound alone, 30 cents.</p> +<p><b>Hyde’s Practical English Grammar.</b> For grammar and high +schools. 50 cents.</p> +<p><b>Hyde’s Derivation of Words.</b> With exercises on prefixes, +suffixes, and stems. 10 cents.</p> +<p><b>MacEwan’s The Essentials of the English Sentence.</b> A +compendious manual for review in technical grammar preparatory to more +advanced studies in language. 75 cents.</p> +<p><b>Mathews’s Outline Of English Grammar.</b> With Selections +for Practice. 70 cents.</p> +<p><b>Penniman’s New Practical Speller.</b> Contains 6500 words +that are in common use and difficult to spell. 20 cents.</p> +<p><b>Penniman’s Common Words Difficult to Spell.</b> Graded list +of 3500 common words. 20 cents.</p> +<p><b>Penniman’s Prose Dictation Exercises.</b> For drill in +spelling, punctuation and use of capitals. 25 cents.</p> +<p><b>Philips’s History and Literature in Grammar Grades.</b> 15 +cents.</p> +<p><b>Sever’s Progressive Speller.</b> Gives spelling, +pronunciation, definition, and use of words. Vertical script is given +for script lessons. 25 cents.</p> +<p><b>Smith’s Studies in Nature, and Language Lessons.</b> A +combination of object lessons with language work. 50 cents. Part I +bound separately, 25 cents.</p> +<p><b>Spalding’s Problem of Elementary Composition.</b> Practical +suggestions for work in grammar grades. 40 cents.</p> +<p><i>See also our lists of books in Higher English, English Classics, +Supplementary Reading, and English Literature.</i></p> +<p>D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers, Boston, New York, Chicago +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb135" href="#pb135" name= +"pb135">135</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div2"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= +"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> +<div class="divHead"> +<h3 class="main">Supplementary Reading</h3> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first"><i>A Classified List for all Grades.</i></p> +<ul> +<li>GRADE I. +<ul> +<li>Bass’s The Beginner’s Reader <span class= +"flushright">25</span></li> +<li>Badlam’s Primer <span class="flushright">25</span></li> +<li>Fuller’s Illustrated Primer <span class= +"flushright">25</span></li> +<li>Griel’s Glimpses of Nature for Little Folks <span class= +"flushright">30</span></li> +<li>Heart of Oak Readers, Book I <span class= +"flushright">25</span></li> +<li>Regal’s Lessons for Little Readers <span class= +"flushright">30</span></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li>GRADE II. +<ul> +<li>Warren’s From September to June with Nature <span class= +"flushright">35</span></li> +<li>Badlam’s First Reader <span class="flushright">30</span></li> +<li>Bass’s Stories of Plant Life <span class= +"flushright">25</span></li> +<li>Heart of Oak Readers, Book I <span class= +"flushright">25</span></li> +<li>Snedden’s Docas, the Indian Boy <span class= +"flushright">35</span></li> +<li>Wright’s Seaside and Wayside Nature, Readers No. 1 +<span class="flushright">25</span></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li>GRADE III. +<ul> +<li>Heart of Oak Readers, Book II <span class= +"flushright">35</span></li> +<li>Pratt’s America’s Story, Beginner’s Book +<span class="flushright">35</span></li> +<li>Wright’s Seaside and Wayside Nature Readers, No. 2 +<span class="flushright">35</span></li> +<li>Miller’s My Saturday Bird Class <span class= +"flushright">25</span></li> +<li>Firth’s Stories of Old Greece <span class= +"flushright">30</span></li> +<li>Bass’s Stories of Animal life <span class= +"flushright">35</span></li> +<li>Spear’s Leaves and Flowers <span class= +"flushright">25</span></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li>GRADE IV. +<ul> +<li>Bass’s Stories of Pioneer Life <span class= +"flushright">40</span></li> +<li>Brown’s Alice and Tom <span class="flushright">40</span></li> +<li>Grinnell’s Our Feathered Friends <span class= +"flushright">30</span></li> +<li>Heart of Oak Readers, Book III <span class= +"flushright">45</span></li> +<li>Pratt’s America’s Story—Discoverers and Explorers +<span class="flushright">40</span></li> +<li>Wright’s Seaside and Wayside Nature Readers, No. 3 +<span class="flushright">45</span></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li>GRADE V. +<ul> +<li>Bull’s Fridtjof Nansen <span class= +"flushright">30</span></li> +<li>Grinnell’s Our Feathered Friends <span class= +"flushright">30</span></li> +<li>Heart of Oak Readers, Book III <span class= +"flushright">45</span></li> +<li>Pratt’s America’s Story—The Earlier Colonies +<span class="flushright">00</span></li> +<li>Kupfer’s Stories of Long Ago <span class= +"flushright">35</span></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li>GRADE VI. +<ul> +<li>Starr’s Strange Peoples <span class= +"flushright">40</span></li> +<li>Bull’s Fridtjof Nansen <span class= +"flushright">30</span></li> +<li>Heart of Oak Readers, Book IV <span class= +"flushright">50</span></li> +<li>Pratt’s America’s Story—The Colonial Period +<span class="flushright">00</span></li> +<li>Dole’s The Young Citizen <span class= +"flushright">45</span></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li>GRADE VII. +<ul> +<li>Starr’s American Indians <span class= +"flushright">45</span></li> +<li>Penniman’s School Poetry Book <span class= +"flushright">30</span></li> +<li>Pratt’s America’s Story—The Revolution and the +Republic <span class="flushright">00</span></li> +<li>Eckstorm’s The Bird Book <span class= +"flushright">60</span></li> +<li>Heart of Oak Readers, Book IV <span class= +"flushright">50</span></li> +<li>Wright’s Seaside and Wayside Nature Readers, No. 4 +<span class="flushright">50</span></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li>GRADES VIII <i>and</i> IX. +<ul> +<li>Heart of Oak Readers, Book V <span class= +"flushright">55</span></li> +<li>Heart of Oak Readers, Book VI <span class= +"flushright">60</span></li> +<li>Dole’s The American Citizen <span class= +"flushright">80</span></li> +<li>Shaler’s First Book in Geology (boards) <span class= +"flushright">40</span></li> +<li>Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield <span class= +"flushright">50</span></li> +<li>Addison’s Sir Roger de Coverley <span class= +"flushright">35</span></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +<p><i>Descriptive circulars sent free on request.</i></p> +<p>D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers, Boston, New York, Chicago</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="transcribernote"> +<h2 class="main">Colophon</h2> +<h3 class="main">Availability</h3> +<p class="first">This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no +cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give +it away or re-use it under the terms of the <a class="exlink xd20e41" +title="External link" href="https://www.gutenberg.org/license" rel= +"license">Project Gutenberg License</a> included with this eBook or +online at <a class="exlink xd20e41" title="External link" href= +"https://www.gutenberg.org/" rel="home">www.gutenberg.org</a>.</p> +<p>This eBook is produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at <a class="exlink xd20e41" title="External link" href= +"https://www.pgdp.net/">www.pgdp.net</a>.</p> +<p>Translation from Norwegian of <i lang="no">Fridtjof Nansen: en bog +for de unge</i> (1897), available from the Norwegian national library +(<a class="exlink xd20e41" title="External link" href= +"http://ask.bibsys.no/ask/action/show?pid=070399085&kid=biblio">1</a>).</p> +<p>Scans of this work are available from the Internet Archive +(<a class="exlink xd20e41" title="External link" href= +"http://www.archive.org/details/fridtjofnansenbo00bull">1</a>).</p> +<p>Related Library of Congress catalog page: <a class="catlink" href= +"http://lccn.loc.gov/98001473">98001473</a>.</p> +<p>Related Open Library catalog page (for source): <a class="catlink" +href="http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7213856M">OL7213856M</a>.</p> +<p>Related Open Library catalog page (for work): <a class="catlink" +href="http://openlibrary.org/works/OL5183734W">OL5183734W</a>.</p> +<p>Related WorldCat catalog page: <a class="catlink" href= +"http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/20708527">20708527</a>.</p> +<h3 class="main">Encoding</h3> +<p class="first"></p> +<h3 class="main">Revision History</h3> +<ul> +<li>2011-11-14 Started.</li> +</ul> +<h3 class="main">External References</h3> +<p>This Project Gutenberg eBook contains external references. These +links may not work for you.</p> +<h3 class="main">Corrections</h3> +<p>The following corrections have been applied to the text:</p> +<table class="correctiontable" summary= +"Overview of corrections applied to the text."> +<tr> +<th>Page</th> +<th>Source</th> +<th>Correction</th> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd20e863">35</a></td> +<td class="width40 bottom"></td> +<td class="width40 bottom">—</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd20e968">40</a></td> +<td class="width40 bottom">Jostedalbræ</td> +<td class="width40 bottom">Jostedalsbræ</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd20e1898">113</a></td> +<td class="width40 bottom">off</td> +<td class="width40 bottom">of</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Fridtjof Nansen, by Jacob B. 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