Page:The frozen North; an account of Arctic exploration for use in schools (IA frozennorthaccou00hort).pdf/143

 left the Fram, then in latitude 84° north, in command of Otto Sverdrup. The journey northward had to be made over difficult ice filled with hummocks, and, worse than this, a southerly drift set in, which carried the whole pack south almost as fast as they traveled north. Many of the dogs became utterly exhausted and had to be killed. It made Nansen very sad to be obliged to part with the faithful animals who had helped him so much.

At night Nansen and Johansen were so tired that they often fell asleep while eating their supper. When they crept into their sleeping bags, their clothes were sometimes frozen stiff, but the heat of their bodies in their bags thawed them out.

Notwithstanding all these hardships, Nansen and his companion succeeded in reaching 86° 14´ north latitude on April 8, 1895. This was the highest latitude so far reached by any explorer. The North Pole was but two hundred and sixty-one miles farther north. Nansen knew he could not reach the pole through such masses of floes and hummocks, and accordingly he decided to return, changing his course to the south. The travelers found many channels between the ice floes, which were difficult to cross. The dogs were now so few in number that the men had to do dogs' work, and drag the sledges. The ice became soft, so that the ski and the sledges sank deep into it. Sometimes the men sank in up to their armpits.

Nansen's report of this journey has led many people to believe that the warm and the cold ocean currents meet at the pole, and that the effect of the united currents is to make the ice rotten and dangerous for travel. Some explorers believe that it is impossible to travel the last hundred miles of the journey toward the pole by sledge or boat. They think that the ice is too soft for sledge