NANSEN LAND

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 115, 12 November 1930, Page 9

NANSEN LAND

AN ARCTIC MEMORIAL

GREAT EXPLORER HONOURED

A RUSSIAN DECISION

(Copyright.) ■ Franz Josef Land is no more. ' By vote of the Russian Association of Science, the name Fridtjof Nansen Land has been substituted for the former title that was given in honour of the famous Emperor of Austria, Its new name fits the Arctic Archipelago appropriately, because the islands figured in one of the most dramatic episodes of .the .late Fridtjof Nansen's career as an explorer. The land which lias been named for him literally saved his life and preserved him for the valuable humanitarian career that reached a climax when he, in co-operation with Herbert Hoover, saved the lives of millions of famine-stricken Russians. .Fridtjof Nansen and a small party on board the specially-constructed Fram entered the ice floes ofi Northern Siberia in 1893 and, locked in the ice pack, drifted for 35 months without sighting land and without a single contact with the world. In fact, the world believed Nansen and his crew lost. 1 AVI) en the Fram failed to drift over the North Pole, as Nansen hoped she would, the explorer conceived a daring •two-man dash to the top of the world. Nansen .and Johansen with three .sledges, 22 dogs, and two kayaks (Eskimo cantct,', did not attain their objective, but they made a new "farthest north," 86 degrees and 12 minutes, just 228 miles from the Pole. Turning south the two men started on one of the longest marches ever made over Arctic ice. Finally they were reduced to two .dogs. Jojiaiisen was struck down by a hungry Polar bear but escaped death. BEAR MEAT. At last they reached Eva Island, one of the outlying islands of what now becomes Fridtjof Nansen Land. There they built a stone hut and lived chiefly on bear meat during the entire winter. In the spring they started south for the main islands of- the group. Nansen Js kayak was attacked by a huge walrus that drove its tusks through the fragile craft, but Nansen scrambled out on a cake of ice as the tiny boat filled with water. While they were planing to reach civilisation by a long, dangerous sea trip to Novaya Zemlya, Nansen heard a dog bark. He started off and met, to his great joy, Frederick Jackson, leader of an English expedition. Although Jackson had met Nansen years before, he failed, for the moment, to recognise in the bearded, black-skinned, sootyhaired wanderer the famous blonde Norwegian explorer. Nansen and Johansen came home on the> English party's •whaler; the Fram arrived a few days later. Nansen, who had been given up for dead, received a tremendous welcome. ' Former Franz Josef Land, containing the most northerly land yet discovered, finds its greatest usefulness to the world as a memorial. As a whole it jtow becomes a snow-white monument in honour of a man of the North. . Conveniently, also, for memorial purposes, Fridtjof Nansen Land is divided, and subdivided, into numerous islands, large and small. Channels and capes and headlands demand titles. There were no inhabitants to label them so the various explorers had free rein to distribute names as they went alone. It is easily possible to recognise the nationality of the exploring parties as well as the period of the work by merely reading the map British Channel, Alexandra Island, Harmsworth Straits, Cambridge Bay, Wilczek Island, Waypreeht Sea, Crown Prince Rudolf Land, Pierpont Morgan Strait, Vanderbilt Sound, Graham Bell Island, Whitney Sea. Austrians, English, Americans, Norwegians, and Italians have shared in making known • the; secrets of this ice-bound archipelago. NEAEEE THE POLE. Thirty of the islands : in the group are ten miles or more in : length, and the remainder, scores of them, are small. Several are as much as 50 miles long. As a whole Fridtjof Nansen Land lies slightly farther north than Svalbard (Spitzbergen). Because of its far northern position and the greater distance the Arctic arm of the Gulf Stream must flow to reach it, Fridtjof Nansen Land is marked by •Arctic conditions to a greater extent than Svalbard. It is • called "the world's most characteristic Polar land." Most of the'islands are plateaus under 1000 feet elevation, and covered with domes of ice. Less than 5 per cent, of the surface is free of snow even in summer. • ' -.'■'" Only lichens, mosses, several grassed, and ponies grow where the sun melts through the snow. Polar bears and foxes live on the islands; walrus and seals frequent the nearby waters. The islands are richest in bird life. Thousnnds of little auks, doyekies, and other l.irds come to the islands in March and "cinain until September-