To his infinite joy, he found, after weeks of uncertainty, that he was actually drifting with the ice, and that his theory was correct.
He did not go as directly north as he had hoped, and on March 14th, 1896, after nearly three years of patient drifting, he made up his mind that the Fram had gone as far north as she would go, and that henceforth she would take a southerly course.
He was but three hundred and fifty miles from the Pole, and he determined to make an effort to reach it himself, with the aid of his dogs and kayaks.
He therefore left the Fram, and, with but one man to bear him company, he made a dash for the Pole.
He succeeded in covering ninety-five miles of the unknown ocean, and reached within two hundred and sixty-one miles of the Pole, but here he was obliged to turn back. All his dogs were dead and he had but two weeks' provisions left, so he turned his face south.
His surmises about the Fram proved correct; she drifted south, and eventually reached Spitzbergen.
The immediate scientific advantages of Nansen's trip are that he found the Pole was covered by sea, and that no land existed there, as so many persons had believed.
He found that the Polar Sea, far from being shallow, as had also been supposed, was a wide sea of vast depth.
He explored many of the lands that lie in the Polar Sea, and made observations that will be of immense value to geologists and botanists.
Greatest of all, he proved that it is possible for men to undertake the perils and hardships of an Arctic expedition without loss of life or health. The first of his achievements was the proof that there is a current from Asia to America, in which the Fram drifted for three years, not, it is true, carrying him to Greenland, as he had expected, but none the less taking him across the frozen sea, and landing his vessel at Spitzbergen.