What Nansen Did.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 133, 4 December 1896, Page 2

What Nansen Did.

It is true tbat Nansen has not brought back tbe prize coveted so long and so eagerly. He cannot claim to haye reached the North Pole. All tbat he has done has been to get nearer to the point than any one known to history bas done before. But incidentally, it is clear tbat he has really accomplished his task and solved the ancient mystery. Wben Collinson and McClue discovered the North-West Passage they found tbat it was in reality no passage at all. It was. in tbe phrase afterwards used by Sir George Nares with regard to tbe Pole itself, "impracticable." It existed. It could be traced on the map ; but it was absolutely useless for sailor or merchant. Just so, Nansen bas brought us back from the Nortb, tbe assurance that Nares was right when he spoke of the Pole as " impracticable," and that nothing but the sea of paleocrystic ice, tbe existance of which he reported to us, covers tbe spot upon which men's eyes have so long been turned eagerly. It is all over with the legends and visions that represented the region of the Nortb Pole as being a land flowing with milk and honey, where, sheltered in an eternal calm, some of the older primaeval races of the world might possibly be fouud. The bear and tbe walrus alone are to be met with there ; and so far as romance is concerned the North Pole, thanks to Nansen and bis confirmation of Nares and Markham, has become a barren spot. But tbe 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 civilized men to spend a whole year in tbat sea of everlasting ice, cnt off from all contract 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 witb tbis has ever been accomplished before. Some of the heroic sailors who took part in the Franklin Search Expeditions spent years among tbe ice. But tbey spent tbose years on board ship, and consequently in comparative comfort. Nansen and his companion lived in the open tbrough the bitter Arctic summer, and in the deadly cold had no shelter but the burrow wbich they had tpadp for thetpselves oqt ofthe stones and earth qf tbeii: desolate place of shelter. It is a wonderful achieves ment— more wonderful, we tbink, than anything that lias been done even in] Africa in the way of effort and endurance ; and we haye accordingly to thank Jtfant-ou for haying once mare turned tbe Pgl^r regions \tftq a**} arerja in which human pourage and fortitude haye been displayed at tlieir best.— Tbo Speaker.