For centuries even less was known of the great ice-cap which forms the interior, and, until recently, it remained practically untrodden by the foot of man. The Eskimos believed it to be the abode of the Kivitogs, or sorcerers, and would not attempt to penetrate it, while few of the explorers who had the hardihood to venture upon it succeeded in achieving much. In 1870 Nordenskiöld and Berggren, the naturalist, succeeded in penetrating it to a distance of thirty-five miles from Aulaitsivik Fiord, and discovered a true ice-plant and a dust of cosmic origin, which the geologist named kryokonite. Repeating the attempt in 1883, Nordenskiöld, after fifteen marches, reached 48° 15′ W., at an elevation of 4900 feet. Seeing that it was impossible for him to proceed much farther, he sent on two Laps on skis, who covered another 140 miles, and reported on returning that, though they had reached an elevation of 6600 feet, the ice-field still rose steadily. The first man to cross Greenland from one coast to the other was Dr Fridtjof Nansen, who was later to win still further fame for himself by his daring attempt to cross the North Pole in the _Eram_. Nansen was born on October 16, 1861, and from his earliest youth he displayed the keenest interest in natural science and that absolute contempt for danger which proved of such immense service to him later on. It was in 1887, while curator of the Bergen museum, that he first announced his intention of crossing that terrible ice-cap which had hitherto defied the efforts of even the hardiest explorers. The announcement was greeted with ridicule, but, nevertheless, he received over forty applications from would-be companions, and the sum of £300, the estimated cost of the expedition, was presented by a generous Dane. No sooner had it been made possible for him to carry out his plans than he set about the preparations for the journey. Not only was it necessary for him to select his companions and to arrange all the details of the route which he proposed to follow and the equipment which he meant to take with him, but he also thought it advisable to test the various kinds of skis and snowshoes on which the trip was to be made, and to accustom himself to hardships by sleeping on a snow mountain protected from the cold by only a bag.