He succeeded brilliantly in his attempt, and his exploit was followed up by two successive attempts of Lieutenant Peary in 1892-95, who succeeded in crossing Greenland at much higher latitude even than Nansen.
[Illustration: CLIMBING THE NORTH POLE] The success of his bold plan encouraged Dr.Nansen to attempt an even bolder one.

He had become convinced, from the investigations conducted by the international Polar observations of 1882-83, that there was a continuous drift of the ice across the Arctic Ocean from the north-east shore of Siberia.

He was confirmed in this opinion, by the fact that debris from the _Jeannette_, a ship abandoned in 1881 off the Siberian coast, drifted across to the east coast of Greenland by 1884.

He had a vessel built for him, the now-renowned _Fram_, especially intended to resist the pressure of the ice.

Hitherto it had been the chief aim of Arctic explorations to avoid besetment, and to try and creep round the land shores.