What Nansen Did. It is True that Nansen has not brought

Evening Post, Volume LII, Issue 161, 28 November 1896, Page 2

What Nansen Did. It is True that Nansen has not brought

back ilie prize coveted so long and so eagerly. He cannot claim to have reached the North Pole. All that he has done has been to get nearer to the point than anyone known to history has done before. But, incidentally, iv is dear that he has really accomplished his task and solved the ancient mybtery. When Collinson and M'Glure discovered the North- West Passage . hey found that it was in reality no passage at all It was, in the phrase afterwards used by Sir George Nares with regard to the Pole itself, ''impracticable." It existed. It could be traced on the map ; but it was absolutely useless for sailor or merchant. Jus', so, Nansen has brought us baokfrom the North the assurance that Nares was right when he spoke of the Pole as "impracticable," and that nothing but the 3ea of paleocrystic ice, the existence of which he reported to us, covers the spot upon which men's eyes have so, long been turned eagerly. It is aY over with the legends and visions that represented the region of the North Pole as being a land flowing with milk and honey, where,- sheltered in an eternal calm, some of the older, primeeval races of ihe world might possibly be found. The bear and walrus alone are to be met with there ; and so far as romance is concerned the North Pole, thnnksto Nansen and his confirmation of Nares and Markhara, has become a barren spot. But the great explorer who has been restored to us so unexpectedly has unquestionably given us a great lesson. He has shown that it is possible for two civilised men to spend a whole year in that sea of everlasting ice, cut off from all contaot with their fellow-creatures, and almost absolutely destitute of what most persons regarded as the necessaries of life, and yet to retain their physical vigour and their intellectual alertness. We do not know that any feat to be compared with this has ever been accomplished before. Some of the heroic sailors who took part,in the Franklin Search Expeditions spent years among the ice. But they spent those years in comparative comfort. Nansen ana his companion lived in the open through the bitter Arctic summer, and in the deadly Arctic winter had no shelter but the burrow which they made for them* selves out of the stones and earth of the x desolate place of shelter. It is a wonderful achievement— moie wonderful, we tL'ak, tbnn anything that has been done even in Africa in the way of effort and endurance ; and we have accordingly to thank Nansen for having once more turned the Polar regions into an arena in which human courage and fortitude have been displayed at their best. — The Speaker.