On returning to the _Fram_ he found, to his regret, that she was so firmly fixed in the ice that even blasting operations on a large scale had no effect, and he was, in consequence, obliged to resign himself to the inevitable and to spend another winter at the mouth of Belcher Channel. Fortunately, however, he had by no means exhausted the possibilities of that neighbourhood, and he occupied himself with making a journey north, for which cartographers have every reason to be grateful to him, though he failed in his endeavour to reach Aldridge’s farthest. In the following summer the _Fram_ was set free, and was able to return to civilised regions. Sverdrup’s voyage was unrelieved by any very sensational or exciting incidents, but the work that he did during those four years was admirable. He mapped out the west coast of Ellesmere Land—a most arduous task, as it is broken up by a singularly intricate system of fiords—he discovered three large islands west of that land, he explored North Devon and the northern shores of North Cornwall and Findlay Island, and he proved that land existed north of the Parry Islands, a point on which diverse opinions had hitherto been held. Consequently, though he never reached the northern shores of Greenland for which he had set out, he had no reason to be dissatisfied with the result of his journey. The energy and enterprise which Lieutenant Peary displayed in carrying on his chosen work in the Polar Regions aroused so much sympathy in America, that not long ago a number of those who were interested in it formed a club which they called the Peary Arctic Club, and which was founded with a view to providing him with funds for carrying on the explorations in which he had already achieved so conspicuous a success. It was principally owing to the exertions of this club that in 1898 Peary was able to set sail from Sidney in the _Windward_, which had been presented to him by Sir Alfred Harmsworth, with the double end in view of completing his examination of the northern shores of Greenland, and, if possible, of reaching the North Pole. This expedition was, probably, the most perfectly planned that has ever set out from any shores.