Life And Explorations Of Fridtjof Nansen

Life And Explorations Of Fridtjof Nansen - BY J. ARTHUR BAIN - INTRODUCTION. - THE only cure for he Arctic fever is the discovery of the North Pole. If any one imagines that man is going to abandon this idea, should a few more lives be sacrificed in the pursuit of it, he is greatly mistaken. A goal at once so definite and so encompassed with mystery is sure to command human effort until it shall be reached, and never was mankind nearer to this consummation than at the present time. The operations of Arctic heroes, beginning with Sebastian Cabot and ending with Pridtjof Nansen, have gradually broken down the barriers that have stood for ages between restless man and his ambition. For many years Great Britain has stood foremost in the history of Arctic exploration, but Norwgy has lately proved a formidable rival in the person of Fridtjof Nansen, whose crossing of the great Greenland plateau in 1855 drew attenation for the first time to the fertility of resource possessed by this strong-nerved Scandinavian. There are many thousands of people with whom it is an article of belief that if the veil is to be lifted which hides that mysterious region known as the North Pole, the withdrawing hand................