NANSEN'S STORY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2237, 14 January 1897, Page 54

NANSEN'S STORY.

AS TOLD BY HIMSELF. ! III.— HOMEWARD BOUND. J SAFE AT LAST. ! We were received here with a hospitality and heartiness each as those Arctic surroundings can seldom have witnessed, and though we had fully intended to go on our way to Spitzbergen, which would probably be our quickest way home, we could not tear ourselves away from this hospitable heart, again renounce all the ease and comfort which was here offered to us, and once more take our pilgrim's staff into our hand. We decided to accept the kind invitation to wait for the Windward, which wag soon to arrive and then again return to Europe. WELCOME. Never shall I forget how delightful it was, as soon as we entered Jackson's comfortably arranged house, to have a warm bath. It was not, indeed, possible to become clean the first time, but still it imparted a feeling of cleanliness; and then delightfully soft, cloan woollen garments to follow, to be shaved and have one's hair cut, have a capital dinner, coffee, cigars, port wine, and last, but not least, books and the latest literature (two ' years old, indeed, but new to m) — in short, we felt all at once transported, as if by the stroke of a magic wand, into the heart of civilisation. Tee attention, the con«lderaI tion which every member of this expedition offered us was touching, and made an indelible impression on both of us. It seemed as if their aim was to soften by their kindness the recollection of last winter's loneliness and dreariness, ERBORS IN PAYER'S MAP. j We now discovered that my suspicions, as indicated above, were correct. We were actually on the south coast of Franz Josef's Land, and had arrived at Oape Flora, on Northbrook Island. Oar observations and determination of longitude were fairly correct, in spite of everything, and onr chronometers proved to have been right. On the 1 other hand, thore ware mistakes in Payer's \ map, whioh had put me on the wrong track— mistakes of which I have not yet found an explanation, buc will find, it is to be hoped, on conferring more olosely with Payer himself. The broad sound through which we had coma south this spring lay just a little west of Austria Sound, and was considerably larger than the last-named sound. It had already been traversed by Jackson, and called by him the " British Channel." FORMATION OF FRANZ JOSEF'S LAND. Daring the winter we had been encamped ! just to the west of Austria Sound, on an I island whioh I have called Frederiok Jack- ! son's Island. Bafore we set out on our 1 expedition, I stated, in my lecture before the Royal Geographical Society, my opinion that Franz Josef's Land was only a group of islands. This opinion has now been fully confirmed. Franz Josef's Land is not only a group of islands, but a group of little islands of such small extent as perhaps no one had thought possible. In my opinion, the islands forming Franz Joeet's Land may be considered as a continuation of East Spitzbergen, and the most important, most interesting subject y«t to be worked out, is I the exploration of the still unknown western part of Frauz Josef's Land and its oonnec- , tion with Spil-zbergen. In this region there j are probably manj new islands which it is to be hoped Jackson and his expedition will have an opportunity of discovering and charti ing. How far north the islands extend it is I not yet possible to determine, but it is ! scaroely likely to be very far. j A BASALTIC LAND. f I will not venture an opinion as to whether j Petermann Land has any existence; our , course .wa« so easterly that it may well have been too far off to be seen ; but in that case it must be an island of inconsiderable extent. The whole of that part of Franz Josef's Land traversed by us consisted of basalt, and has once formed a continuous basaltic land, i 1 whioh is now, however, by numerous j : channels and fjords, cut up into small I • islands, entirely or in great measure \ I covered with ' glaciers, and where' only j here and there aloDg the shore the dark j basaltic rocks are visible. As a rnle, the | land does not rise to a height of 2000 ft ; 5 above the sea, and only ocoaeionally did the i ! glaciers seem to approaoh to a height of 3000 ft. On the south side of the country \ there is, beneath the basalt, a deep stratum j of clay, which extends to a height of from 500 ft to 600 ft above the sea, and whleh ; belongs to the Jura formation, and where both Dr Koetlltz of the Jackson expedition j and I found numerous fossils of various kinds, ohiefly Ammonites and Belemnites, wbioh leave no doubt as to its age. As far as I oan for the present say, a large part of this clay belongs to the so-called Oxford clay. Lignite and fosiil-wood were also common in these clay strata. In a few places numerous foasil plants were also found, whoEe age I have not yet had time to datermine, but which probably belong to a later formation than the Jura. ARRIVAL OF THE WINDWARD. . In the meantime the days at Oape Flora passed imperceptibly. We spent our time partly in making scientific excursions of small extent, partly in reading, writing, and preparing a map of our route across Franz Josef's Land as it appeared, according to our investigations, to be. Incessantly did we scan the horizon in expectation of the Windward, the ship which was to come from Europe ; but a great quantity of ice lay in the sea outside, no sail appeared on the horizon, and as time went on we became more and more impatient, and more and more often did anxious remarks fall on the possibility of the ice hindering the Windward from coming in this year. When a month had passed, Johansen and 1 began to repent a little that we had stopped here, and had not gone straight on to Spitzbergen, whera we should have probably long before this have found a ship and been on our way home. I began to think, indeed, of setting off again, as I was unwilling to risk passing another winter in the Arctic regions. I was tolerably oertain that the Fram would oome

home this year, and would then, of course, I throw onr friends into the greatest anxiety I with regard to our fate ; there would then hardly have been any hope at home of ever seeing us again. At length, when six weeks had passed, I was suddenly aroused one night by Mr Jackson with the news that the Windward had arrived. The cheers and joyful exclamations with which the news of our arrival at Oape Flora was received on board the Windward were proofs of such great and sincere delight that we could hardly have expected greater from our own countrymen. It was a fresh demonstration of the sympathy which exists between the English and Norwf gian nations. The stores brought for the Jackson expedition were soon unshipped from the Windward, and by the aid of sledges dragged over the ice to land. In less than a week all was ready, and as soon as letters and telegrams for home were written, on August 7, we went on board, and the Windward weighed anchor to make for home. HOMEWARD BOUND. On board this ship we had the shortest and pleasant homeward voyage that perhaps any Arctic expedition has ever had. We again experienced English hospitality to its fullest extent, and those days oan certainly never be forgotten by either ' Johansen or me. There was a great deal of ice in the sea between Franz Joseph's Land and Novaja Zemlja, and it would certainly have been only too easy to run the Kltle Windward so far into the closely packed ice that it would have taken weeks and months to get out again. Bat with his great experience and his clear-sightedness in all that concerned Ice and ice navigation, Captain Brown, the old whaler, under whose command the Windward now was, knew how to find jost j the only way that would be certain to take us through 220 miles of tee out into the open sea to the north of Novaja Zemlja, and thence shape a straight oourße for Vardo, where we arrived on August 13, »ix days after having left Oape Flora. A BOTAL GBEBTING. Thus I and one man of my expedition had now come to our native land, where we were received with open arms. Our first question after setting foot on Norwegian soil was whether anything had been heard of the Fram and oilr comrades. Our iear the whole winter and spring had been that the Fram would reach home before us. To our relief, however, we now learned that nothing had been heard of the Fram, and our friends had been saved from unnecassary anxiety. I telegraphed immediately to the King of Norway and the Norwegian Governinant that all was well on board the Fram when we left her, and that I fully expected her and ■ the remaining members of the expedition home again, safe and sound, in a short time. Great, then, was the joy when, in Hammerfest, on August 21, 1 received a telegram from Skjarvo, a little port nob far off, to aay that the Fram had arrived in thß night, all well on board.