Dr.Nansen was convinced that he could best attain his ends by boldly disregarding these canons and trusting to the drift of the ice to carry him near to the Pole.

He reckoned that the drift would take some three years, and provisioned the _Fram_ for five.

The results of his venturous voyage confirmed in almost every particular his remarkable plan, though it was much scouted in many quarters when first announced.
The drift of the ice carried him across the Polar Sea within the three years he had fixed upon for the probable duration of his journey; but finding that the drift would not carry him far enough north, he left the _Fram_ with a companion, and advanced straight towards the Pole, reaching in April 1895 farthest north, 86.14 deg., within nearly 200 miles of the Pole.

On his return journey he was lucky enough to come across Mr.F.Jackson, who in the _Windward_ had established himself in 1894 in Franz Josef Land.

The rencontre of the two intrepid explorers forms an apt parallel of the celebrated encounter of Stanley and Livingstone, amidst entirely opposite conditions of climate.
Nansen's voyage is for the present the final achievement of Arctic exploration, but his Greenland method of deserting his base has been followed by Andree, who in the autumn of 1897 started in a balloon for the Pole, provisioned for a long stay in the Arctic regions.