Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 6).djvu/609
Towards the North Pole.
By Dr. Fridtjof Nansen.
[This article was written especially for The Strand Magazine by Dr. Nansen after starting on his present adventurous expedition in search of the North Pole, and just before he and his brave companions disappeared, for years, into the unknown regions of eternal ice. The photographs were also supplied to us by Dr. Nansen especially for this article.]
DR. FRIDTJOF NANSEN.
HE principal feature in the plan of my attempt to penetrate into the North Polar region, or if possible to cross it, is, in brief, to try to make use of the currents of the sea instead of fighting against them. My opinion is, as I have already explained on several occasions, that there must somewhere run currents into the Polar region which carry the floe-ice across the Polar Sea, first northward towards the Pole, and then southward again into the Atlantic Ocean. That these currents really exist all Arctic expeditions prove, as most of them have had to fight against the currents and against the ice drifting southward, because they have tried to get northward from the wrong side. I think a very simple conclusion must be drawn from this fact that currents and drifting ice are constantly coming from the unknown North, viz.: Currents and, perhaps, also ice must pass into this same region, as the water running out must be replaced by water running in. This conclusion is based upon the simplest of all natural laws; but there seem to be people who will not even admit the necessity of this.
That such currents run across the North Polar region is also proved by many facts. I may mention the great quantities of Siberian driftwood which are annually carried to the