The kayak was mended, and, after a long rest, it was past noon on the 17th of June when Nansen turned out to prepare breakfast. After doing so he went up on a hummock to look around. Flocks of little auks were flying overhead, and, amid the confused noise of their calls, he heard a couple of barks from a dog. Thinking he was mistaken he waited for a time, and then the barking was unmistakable, bark after bark, one of a deeper tone than the other. He shouted to Johansen, who started up from the sleeping-bag incredulous. The sound ceased, and, breakfast over, Nansen went forth to investigate. Soon he came on the footprints of a dog or wolf, and then, still doubting, he heard a distant yelping that certainly came not from a wolf. Making his way among the hummocks, he heard a shout from a human voice, a strange voice—the first for three years. Running up on to a hummock he shouted with all his might. Back came a shout in reply; and among the hummocks he caught sight of a dog, and further off a man walked into view. The man spoke to the dog in English. Thinking he recognised Jackson, Nansen raised his hat as he met him, and they shook hands heartily.
The contrast could not have been greater. One the well-groomed, civilised European in a check suit and rubber water-boots, the other in dirty rags black with oil and soot, with long matted hair and shaggy beard, and a face in which the complexion was undiscernible through the accumulations which a winter's endeavours, including scrapings with a knife, had failed to remove. As they talked they had turned to go inland. Suddenly Jackson stopped, and, looking the new arrival straight in the face, said—
"Aren't you Nansen?"
"Yes, I am."
"By Jove! I'm damned glad to see you."
And seizing his hand he shook it again, his whole face beaming with a smile of welcome and delight at the unexpected meeting; and needless to say, both Nansen and Johansen received the warmest of welcomes from all at Elmwood. The Windward was then on her way, and when she arrived the two Norsemen from the farthest north went in her to Vardoe, where they landed on the 13th of August.
Meanwhile the Fram had continued her leisurely drift, north-west, south-west, north-west, west, then all round the compass, still with her head pointing south, until on the 15th of November she reached 85° 55·5´ in longitude 66° 31´, thus giving Captain Otto Sverdrup the honour of attaining the highest north in a ship. Another winter was passed in her ice-berth, during which she moved westerly. In February came another complete triangle in her course, after which she went south-west, and on the 16th of May turned due south. Then, in the later days of the month with the southerly drift continuing and open water on ahead, Sverdrup resolved to set her free by mines, and on the 3rd of June, as a result of the blastings, she gave a lurch, settled a little deeper at the stern and moved away from the edge of the ice until the hawsers tautened. But, though she was afloat, the ice around still kept her captive, and in the pool she drifted straight towards Spitsbergen.
Again and again was steam got up and endeavour made to break a way out, but day after day elapsed, and it was not until the 13th of August that she passed through the last floes into open water, and her thirty-five months of imprisonment came to an end. Making for Danes Island in Spitsbergen, she was there boarded by Andrée, who was then preparing for his disappearance in the balloon voyage to the Pole. Going on direct to Skjervoe in Norway, Sverdrup landed at two o'clock in the morning to wake up the telegraphist, who told him that Nansen had reached Vardoe a week before and was then at Hammerfest and probably leaving for Tromsoe. For Tromsoe Sverdrup started, after telegraphing to Nansen. And there, at four o'clock in the afternoon of the 25th of August, 1896, Sir George Baden-Powell's yacht Otaria, with Nansen and Johansen on board, glided alongside the Fram, the good little ship looking much weather-beaten though none the worse for such a task of strength and endurance as had been set no other in the story of the sea.
CHAPTER VI
THE LENA DELTA
Discovery of the Siberian Islands—Hedenström—Anjou and Wrangell—Migration of reindeer—Animals and plants of the tundra—The northward migration of the native tribes—The voyage of the Jeannette—Her drift in the pack—Jeannette Island—Henrietta Island—The ship crushed and sunk—Landing on Bennett Island—The boat voyage—The boats separate in a storm—De Long lands on the Lena Delta—Nindemann and Noros in search of assistance—Safety of the whale-boat—Fate of De Long and his companions—Baron Toll's discoveries.