Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/266

* KANKEEN CLOTH. 228 NANTEL. used for clothing, especially for trousers. Lately nankeen has been largely superseded by ordi- nary cotton, artificially colored to imitate the genuine fabric. NANKINCK (Chin., Southern Capital.) The capital <if the Province of Kiang-su, China, and seat 111 the viceroy for the three provinces of Kiangsu. Kiang-si, and Xganhwei. It is 194 miles northwest of Shanghai, near the Yang-tse Kiver. latitude 32° 40' N., longitude 118" 47' E. (Map: China, E 5). It was made the capital of the Empire and called Nanking in 13(i8, but was the capital only until 1403. Its ollicial name, given by the Manchu Dynasty, is Kiang- ning. It is an ancient city, having been the capital as far back as a.d. 317 -.582. It has been famous as a literary centre and for its fine arts, manufac- tures, and monuments. It was captured by the Tai-pings in 1853, who held it for more than a year. They destroyed the beautiful porcelain tower from fear of its geomantic inlluences, and so injured the city that it has not yet recovered fully. The first British treaty was signed in Nanking in 1842. Its present • importance in part is from its military college, arsenal, and factories for the making of war material. It is a centre of missionary activity. The climate is exceedingly unhcalthful. The populalimi is vari- ously estimated at from one-quarter to one-third of a million inhabitants. It was oin-ned to foreign trade in ISilt), but its commercial importance is insignificant, owing to the pro.ximity of Chin- kiang (q.v.). In the vicinity are the famous Ming tcimbs. NAN'-NING'. A treaty port of Southern China, in the Province of Kwang-si, situated at the hejid of navigation on tlie Vu-kiang River, 320 miles west by south of Canton ( .Map: China, C 0). It is one of the principal trading stations near the southern frontier, and lies on the route of the proposed railroad from Hanoi to Canton. Population. 40.000. NANNINOSE (corniptii.n of .merican In- dian miiiKiiiosii!/), or MANNINOSE, A local name in use along the South .tlantic coast for the soft clam {Mya aroiaria). See Cl.v.m. NANSEN", niin'scn, Friotjof (1861 — ), A Norwegian Arctic explorer and naturalist, born near Christiania, Norway. Me was educated in the university of his native city, and was trained as a zoiilogist. In his twenty-first year he under- took a trip to East Greenland waters for zoiilogi- cal specimens; the same year he was appointed curator in the Natural History Museum at Ber- gen. He became known to the world as the first man to cross the ice cap of fireenlaml, an adven- turous journey from the east to the west coast, undertaken in 1888, which he described in two volumes. The First Crossinr/ of nrrnilaiul ( 1890) . He spent the winter of 188S-S9 among the West Greenland natives, which resulted in a volume on Eskimo Life (1893). After his return to Nor- way he was appointed curator in the Miiseiun of Comparative .Vnatomy at the Christiania I'ni- versity. From his twenty-third year he was con- stantly planning for the great journey into the polar regions, upon which he did not embark till nine years later. He had unusual natural and acquired qualifications for the work, and his winter among the Eskimos was of inestimable value lo him in his later experiences. Nanseu inferred, partly from the appearance in Greenland of a pair of trousers which had been left ujion the ice south of Siberia when the Jeannctte was abandoned, parti}' from the pres- ence in Greenland of driftwood from Siberia, and partly from the experience of other explorers, that a sliip driven with the ice by prevailing winds might drift from above Siberia across the pole. The weight of Arctic authority did not sujjport this plan; nevertheless, with the as- sistance of the Government and private citi- zens Nansen built and equipped the Arctic exploring vessel I'niin (Forward), left Nor«;iy in 1893, skirted the north coasts of Europe and Asia, put into the polar pack ice near the New Siberia Islands on September 22, 1893, and drifted northwest till ilarch 14, 1895. On that day, with a single companion. Lieutenant .lohansen, he left the Fram frozen in the pack and started toward the Pole with dog sledges. On .April 7, 1805, he reached latitude 86° 4' N., within 272 statute miles of the North Pole, and 184 miles nearer to it than any man had ever been liefore him. Further progress was impossible, and he retreated to Franz Josef Land, where he and .lohansen spent the winter in a snow hut, living on Arctic game. In the spring they started southward for Spitzbergen, but fortu- nately found the winter camp of the Harms- worth expedition under Jackson, and returned home on the ship of that party in the summer of 1896, Meanwhile the From drifted around to the north of the Franz Josef Land Archipelago, reaching the latitude of 85° 57', then blasted her way southward to open water, and re;iched the coast of Europe within a week of N:Misen's arrival there. The scientific results of the expe- dition were very great, and were published in a series of reports. Nansen also wrote Farlhest yorth, a popular description of the expedition. His achievements were recognized by many geo- graphical societies, which conferred their higliest honors upon the explorer. He made extensive lecture tours in Europe and the L'nited States. Nansen failed to find any form of life above the 84th parallel. His discovery of a wide sea of oceanic depth, north of tlie New Siberia Islands, overthiew the theory of the prevailing shallowness of the Arctic Ocean. He found that, owing to the jtredominanee of water in the far North, the temperatures there were higher than along the nortli coast of Asia, He discovered no land except a few little islands near the Asian coast: and the free movement of the ice masses driven, as Nansen observed, by the winds in every direction, has led geographers to eon- elude that there is no large land near the North Pole. See Polak Research. NANTEL', GriLLAi'ME Alphoxse (1852 — ). A Canadian advocate, journalist, and politician, born at Saint .lerome, Quebec. lie was educated at Sainte ThfrSse de Blainville, was admitted to the bar, and afler several years of practice estab- lished at Saint Ji'-rome the colonization newspaper Le Nord, whose publication he continued until 1887. From 1887 to 1892 he was editor of lAi Prcsse at Montreal, and in 1897 established the weekly journal l,r Munih Cinuiilien. In 1SS2 he was returned bv Terrebonne to the Quebec Assem- bly, and in 1880, 1890 and 1892 was reelected by acclamation. From 1891 to 1890 he was Min- ister of Public Works. He became a director of the Great Northern Railway and of the Nor! hern Coluuization Railway, and published in the in-