Chapter I: Front Matter

FARTHEST NORTH

Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship "Fram"
1893-96 and of a Fifteen Months' Sleigh Journey by Dr. Nansen and
Lieut. Johansen

By

Dr. FRIDTJOF NANSEN

With an Appendix by Otto Sverdrup Captain of the Fram

About 120 Full-page and Numerous Text Illustrations 16 Colored
Plates in Facsimile from Dr. Nansen's Own Sketches, Etched Portrait,
and Photogravures

In two volumes

Vol. I.

New York and London
Harper & Brothers Publishers

Copyright, 1897, by Harper & Brothers.

All rights reserved.

TO
HER
WHO CHRISTENED THE SHIP
AND
HAD THE COURAGE TO REMAIN BEHIND

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

CHAP. PAGE

I. Introduction 1
II. Preparations and Equipment 54
III. The Start 81
IV. Farewell To Norway 104
V. Voyage Through the Kara Sea 146
VI. The Winter Night 237
VII. The Spring and Summer of 1894 442
VIII. Second Autumn in the Ice 525

ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. I.

PAGE.

Fridtjof Nansen Etched Frontispiece
Colin Archer 58
Design of the "Fram" 61
Sigurd Scott-Hansen 85
Adolf Juell 89
The "Fram" leaving Bergen 93
Otto Sverdrup 99
First drift-ice (July 28, 1893) 107
The new church and the old church at Khabarova 116
Peter Henriksen 119
Our trial trip with the dogs 127
Evening scene at Khabarova 131
O. Christofersen and A. Trontheim 135
Landing on Yalmal 148
The plain of Yalmal 150
In the Kara Sea 152
The "Fram" in the Kara Sea 155
Ostrova Kamenni (Rocky Island), off the coast
of Siberia 158
Theodor C. Jacobsen, mate of the "Fram" 161
Henrik Blessing 167
A dead bear on Reindeer Island (August 21, 1893) 172
"We first tried to drag the bears" 173
Bernard Nordahl 177
Ivar Mogstad 185
Bernt Bentzen 193
Lars Pettersen 205
Anton Amundsen 213
Cape Chelyuskin, the Northernmost point of
the Old World 218
On land East of Cape Chelyuskin (September 10, 1893) 219
A warm corner among the walruses, off East Taimur 223
The ice into which the "Fram" was frozen
(September 25, 1893) 234
The smithy on the "Fram" 239
The thermometer house 244
Magnetic observations 247
A smoke in the galley of the "Fram" 250
"The saloon was converted into a reading-room" 252
Scott-Hansen and Johansen inspecting the
barometers Facing p. 254
Dr. Blessing in his cabin 257
"I let loose some of the dogs" 263
The men who were afraid of frightening the bear.
"Off steals Blessing on tiptoe" 267
Dogs chained on the ice 272
We lay in open water 275
My first attempt at dog driving 289
A chronometer--observation with the theodolite
Facing p. 314
A lively game of cards 318
"'I took the lantern and gave him such a whack
on the head with it'" 330
A nocturnal visitant 336
Sverdrup's bear-trap (moonlight, December 20, 1893) 339
"He stared, hesitating, at the delicious morsel" 341
Promenade in times of peace with Sverdrup's
patent foot-gear 345
"Fram" fellows on the war-path: difference
between the Sverdrup and the Lapp foot-gear 346
"Fram" fellows still on the war-path 347
"It was strange once more to see the moonlight
playing on the coal-black waves" 351
A game of halma 355
First appearance of the sun 394
Diagrams of ice with layers 401
Johansen reading the anemometer 409
Two friends 418
Experiment in sledge sailing 421
At the coming of the Spring (March, 1894) 425
Returning home after sunset (March 31, 1894) 429
Observing the eclipse of the sun (April 6, 1894) 433
Tailpiece 441
Taking a sounding of 2058 fathoms 447
Home-sickness (June 16, 1894) 451
Sailing on the fresh-water pool (July 12, 1894) 454
Reading temperatures with lens Facing p. 456
Peter Henriksen in a brown study (July 6, 1894) 461
Taking water temperatures 466
Summer guests 469
Rhodos Tethia 473
Nansen takes a walk (July 6, 1894) 477
Our kennels (September 27, 1894) 480
The dogs basking in the sun (June 13, 1894) 482
The Seventeenth-of-May procession, 1894 485
The drift-ice in Summer (July 12, 1894) 487
A Summer scene (July 21, 1894) 493
The stern of the "Fram." Johansen and "Sultan"
(June 16, 1894) 499
Blessing goes off in search of algæ 503
A Summer evening (July 14, 1894) 505
Blessing fishing for algæ 507
Pressure-ridge on the port quarter of the "Fram"
(July 1, 1894) 509
Skeletons of a kayak for one man (bamboo) and of
a double kayak, lying on a hand-sledge 511
A Summer evening (July 14, 1894) 519
Tailpiece 524
Pettersen after the explosion 529
Snow-shoe practice (September 28, 1894) 542
Return from a snow-shoe run (September 28, 1894) 544
Block of ice (September 28, 1894) 546
The waning day (October, 1894) 548
A snow-shoe excursion (October, 1894) 553
In line for the photographer 555
Deep-water temperature. "Up with the
thermometer" (July 12, 1894) 559
On the after-deck of the "Fram" (October, 1894) 563
The return of snow-shoers Facing p. 566

COLORED PLATES IN VOL. I.

Facing p.

I. Walruses killed off the East coast of the
Taimur Peninsula (September 12, 1893) 220
II. Sleepy and cross (September 12, 1893) 228
III. Sunset off the North coast of Asia, North of
the mouth of the Chatanga (September 12, 1893) 232
IV. Off the edge of the ice.--Gathering storm
(September 14, 1893) 290
V. Evening among the drift-ice (September 22, 1893) 304
VI. At sunset (September 22, 1893) 324
VII. The waning polar day (September 22, 1893) 352
VIII. Moonlight (November 22, 1893) 576

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

The Author had not originally contemplated the publication of the colored sketches which are produced in this work. He has permitted their reproduction because they may be useful as showing color effects in the Arctic; but he wishes it understood that he claims no artistic merit for them.

FARTHEST NORTH