The Fram was reached on 16th June, after an absence of seventy-seven days.
Isachsen, Fosheim, and Hassel had left the records as arranged, and had returned to the ship on 18th April; and on the 23rd April, Baumann, Fosheim, and Raanes started for Beechy Island, which was reached on 4th May. It is really not an island, but constitutes the south-west corner of North Devon. The dépôt was found destroyed. The cutter Mary, which had been left there, was a wreck; whether the work of Eskimo or seal-catchers could not be said with certainty. They discovered that Arthur Strait was really a fiord. The return journey was started on the 6th May, and the Fram was reached on the 20th May.
On the 12th April, Isachsen and Bay made a trip to North Devon, and did not return till 21st May. On 25th May, Isachsen and Simmons set out to examine a bed of coal discovered by Baumann, and returned on 9th June.
The work of exploration was now over. The usual summer dredging was begun, and the geologist hunted for fossils. Olsen managed to fall from a pressure-ridge and dislocate his other shoulder. This time it was reduced without the assistance of brandy.
On 20th July the Fram, with steam up, began to leave her winter harbour, but it was not until the 6th August that she entered Jones Sound. On the 10th the Fram was in Baffin’s Bay, heading for the Devil’s Thumb. Godhavn was reached on the 17th August, and here they were well received. They left on the 21st, and although there was a break-down of the engine, Norway was sighted on 18th September. Stavanger was reached on the 19th, and soon they received a most enthusiastic reception wherever they went. The owners of the expedition incurred expenses to the amount of £12,014.
This expedition, although it unfortunately was prevented from carrying out its original plans, did important work. It not only explored the whole of Jones Sound, but discovered the existence of large islands extending toward the north. The fact that no palæocrystic ice was met with in this region makes it highly probable that land exists still farther to the north.[[2]]
| [2] | The discovery of Crocker Land and Bradley Land proves that this view was correct. |
CHAPTER XII
ITALIAN EXPEDITION (1899−1900)
Between the discovery of Franz-Josef Land by the Austro-Hungarian Expedition and the expedition of the Duke of the Abruzzi a good deal of exploration had taken place. In 1880 and 1881, Leigh Smith in his yacht Eira reached Franz-Josef Land without much difficulty, and surveyed the coast up to Cape Lofley. The Eira, when leaving for the second time, was crushed by the ice near Cape Flora, and sank. The crew built a wretched hovel in which they passed the winter. In the following summer they sailed in their boats to Novaya Zemlya, where they were taken on board a ship which had been sent to their assistance.