Another winter was passed at the house, and preparations were made for a second attempt at the inland ice. On April 1st, 1895, Peary started with a man named Lee, the coloured man Henson, four natives, six sledges, and sixty dogs. The first depôt could not be found, being buried under the snow, and—a far more serious blow—they also failed to find the second depôt with all their pemmican, 1400 lb. On entering the fourth week the party began the eastward slope with only 17 dogs left out of 42. The survivors had to be fed with dogs and soon only 11 were left. One cannot help feeling glad when Peary and his two comrades had to get into the drag-ropes themselves. At last they left the ice and pushed on to the land in the hope of finding musk oxen, and reaching the valley succeeded in shooting two of these animals and a hare.
When the return journey was begun on June 3rd Peary had nine dogs and fourteen days’ rations for them, and thirty days’ half rations of biscuits and oil, and seventeen of frozen meat for the men. On the 10th there were only six dogs, and on the 22nd one alone survived. The men had four biscuits left when they reached the house at Whale Sound.
The results which Peary claimed were the discovery of Independence Bay, of the northern end of Greenland, of a channel dividing that great mass of land from large islands to the north, and of Greenland’s insularity, and for many years these features have been shown on the maps. It has now been found that he did not discover the actual north end of Greenland, and that his channel does not exist. Peary nevertheless did real good in improving the condition of the Arctic Highlanders by supplying them with canvas and improved weapons. With better means of obtaining sustenance the death rate is said to have decreased and there are signs of an increase in the population of this most interesting northern tribe. Dr Cook’s census gave the number at 233. Peary discovered near Cape York, and brought home, the three great meteoric stones from which the Arctic Highlanders used to obtain the iron for their knives.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE TRANS-POLAR DRIFT.
NANSEN AND THE VOYAGE OF THE FRAM
Fridtjof Nansen, our foremost living Arctic worthy, a devoted scientific enquirer and a profound student of Arctic history, had always taken a broad view of the Arctic problem, mainly with reference to currents and ocean depths. But the discovery of articles on the coast of Greenland which had drifted westward from the wreck of the Jeanette off the Liakhov Islands, first gave him the idea of his great enterprise[157]. Nansen conceived the project of forcing a vessel into the pack on the Siberian side, and being drifted across the polar ocean. From most Arctic experts the idea received no encouragement whatsoever, but I had a full belief, based on careful study, in the successful issue of such an expedition[158].
Every article of equipment down to the minutest detail was Nansen’s own conception. Originality has always been a marked feature of his character. The matter of first importance then, in his projected enterprise, was the building of a special vessel to come out uninjured after the long Arctic drift. In Mr Colin Archer of Laurvik Nansen found a constructor, careful and resourceful as himself, with long experience in boat and ship-building. The son of a Scotch boat-builder who had settled in Norway early in the last century, Colin Archer was brought up to the craft, and he was the very man to turn Nansen’s ideas into realities. The result was the Fram. The main points were great strength, and sides constructed in such a manner that the ship would readily rise during ice pressure. She was also to have large carrying capacity, her beam being nearly a third of her length[159]. She was provided with a triple-expansion engine, and her rig was that of a three-masted fore-and-aft schooner. But the main object of Nansen and Colin Archer was that “she should slip like an eel out of the embraces of the ice.”
Nansen’s friend, Baron von Toll, went to the New Siberia Islands in May 1893, and established a depôt of a month’s provisions at the house he built in 1886 on the coast of Kotelnoi Island. Dogs were to be stationed at Khabarova in Pett Strait.
The crew of the Fram numbered 13 including the commander. Sverdrup, the companion of Nansen on the inland ice of Greenland, was the master; Sigurd Scott Hansen, a first lieutenant in the navy, went as navigator and scientific observer; Dr Blessing was surgeon.
In July 1893, the Fram sailed from Norway on this great and novel enterprise, and on the 29th of that month the dogs were taken on board at Khabarova. Nansen crossed the Kara Sea, and proceeded along the coast of Siberia, discovering several small islands. On September 8th, Cape Chelyuskin was rounded. On the 16th a northern course was shaped, a little to the west of the new Siberian Islands, and for some days good progress was made. It was not until the 25th of September that the Fram was finally frozen in and the famous drift began. Scott Hansen took astronomical observations every second day, and a snow house was built on the floe for magnetic observations. Deep sea soundings, with temperatures at various depths, were periodically taken.
In October 1893 the first great pressure was experienced. The ice was piling up around the Fram, tossing itself into lofty ridges, and breaking against her sides. In January 1894 matters looked so serious that preparations were made to abandon the ship, but she withstood and rose to any pressure, thus fully confirming the correctness of Colin Archer’s structural plan.