Show wellhana Well mana map showing frithjof nansen land where andrees body found prepared by the national society D C LAND formerly franz josef I 1 and has after a third of a century givel up the body of august andree believed to have been lost forever in the arctic ice the swedish explorer disappeared in his balloon in north of spits bergen close to the place at which sob lles later disappeared explorers were at arst hopeful that he had drifted eastward to franz josef land walter ellman assist ed by the nation it geographic society led an expedition to ranz josef land the following year and thought it likely that he would find andree at cape flora on one of be southernmost of the which was known by an dree to be a headquarters and a fre quent point of rail for explorers an dree was not at ape flora however and no trace of him or his balloon was ever found in franz josef land until a few weeks ago although the islands are desolate and ice mantled and have never been inhabited it ts possible for to exist there even through the winter as the history of arctic exploration proves the land was discovered accidentally ci in 1871 by an austro allun garian expedition bent on finding the northeast passage their ship caught in the ice drifted to the southern ex tremley of the island group and the crew wintered in her fast in the ice in 1881 a british party of 2 its ship crushed wintered on shore living partly on bear and walrus meat wellman and bis companions spent the winter of on shore and the expedition wintered over in 1004 5 group of many islands its austro Hung irlan discoverer named the land fran josef land under the impression that it was a large land mass perhaps even of continental tin size I 1 ater exploration dis closed that it Is a group of many Is lands thirty of these are ten miles or more in length and the remainder scores of them are small several of the islands are as much as CO miles long the group lies slightly farther north than spitsbergen and its center 1 far east of kings bay as new york Is east of detroit it Is as far north of the murman coast of russia and the northern coast of norway as chicago Is north of new orleans it is about the same distance from the north pole the lands name was recently changed to nansen land by a vote of the hesslan association of science the island groups new name Is appropriate because the Is lands were the scene of one of the most dramatic episodes in the life of the late fritojof nansen the land which has been named for him literal ly saved his life and preserved him tor the valuable humanitarian career that reached a climax when he in operation with herbert hoover saved the lives of millions of famine strick en russians nansen took a small party on board the specially constructed vessel anun and entered the ice floes off noralu rn siberia in 1893 with the hope of ing with the ice across the north pole they drifted for 35 months locked in the ice without sighting land and without a single contact with the world nansen and bis crew were believed to be lost when nansen found that the fram was not drifting toward the pole he determined to dash with a single companion over the ice to the top of the world johansen wag picked to go with him they took three sledges 22 dogs and two kajaks kayaks eskimo ca noes they did not attain their objective jec tive hut they made a new farthest ideth 80 degrees and 12 minutes just miles south of the pole from their point the two men burned south and began one of the longest marches ever made over arc tit ice finally they were reduced to two dogs after many days they reached eva island one of the outlying islands inlands of what is now frithjof nansen I 1 and building a stone hut they lived on the isolated isle through the winter subsisting chiefly on bear meat next spring they started south for the main islands of the group nansen s kayak was attacked by a huge walrus that drove its tusks through the fragile craft but nansen scrambled out on a cake of ice as the tiny boat filled with water and they made their way to the southern islands there they met to their great joy frederick lackson leader of an english expedition although jackson had met nansen years before he failed for the moment to recognize in the bearded black skinned sooty haired wanderer the famous blond norwegian explorer nansen and johansen came home on the english bartys whaler the arrived a few days later nansen who bad been given up for dead received a tremendous welcome the sea between northern balts bergen and northern nansen land Is usually packed with an almost unbroken expanse of ice so that navigation northward Is seldom possible even the narrower channels between the frithjof nansen islands are eternally frozen but the larger channels become ice free in summer because of its far northern position and the greater distance the arctic arm of the gulf stream mast low to reach it frithjof nansen land Is marked by arctic conditions to a greater extent than spitsbergen it has been called the world s most characteristic polar land most of the islands are plateaus less than 1000 feet high covered with domes of ice at some points the black basalt crags that form the edges of the plateaus protrude from the white ice and snow vegetation and animal life the vegetation of the few snow free spots Is scant consisting only of lichens mosses and several grasses the animal life too Is meager for the most part a few polar bears and fewer foxes on land walruses and seals in the wafer the bird life Is the richest great flocks of little auks dove kles and other birds frequent the is lands from march to september there are no reindeer or hares one important item for castaways casta ways Is the existence of considerable quantities of driftwood along the shores of the inter island channels this Is evidently wood cast out into the arctic ocean by the great northward flowing ahers of siberia such as the obi and the not only has former franz josef 1 and become a memorial in its entirety bemuse it Is and sub divided into numerous islands large and small with numerous channels and capes and headlands it haa je innumerable names |