Note 158 — Chapter XXXVIII · THE TRANS-POLAR DRIFT. NANSEN AND THE VOYAGE OF THE FRAM

Quite unknown to Nansen I had come to a similar conviction in contemplating the results of the Nares expedition. In my Report on the origin, proceedings, and results of this expedition (R. G. S. Proceedings, 1877), I pointed out that a current flowed across the polar sea from the eastern to the western hemisphere, that Franz Josef Land was part of the Spitsbergen group, rising from the same plateau with a deeper sea to the north, and that to overstep the boundary of the known polar sea, though attended by great difficulties, would reward with important discoveries the future explorer who boldly forced his way north in this direction. My Report came to Nansen’s knowledge after his return home.