The _Jeannette_ carrying the American exploring expedition was in 1879 caught in the pack to the northward of Wrangel Island (Fig. 315), and two years later was crushed by the ice and sunk to the northward of the New Siberian Islands. In 1884 various articles, including a list of stores in the handwriting of the commander of the _Jeannette_, were picked up at Julianehaab near the southern extremity of Greenland but upon the western side of Cape Farewell. Nansen, having carefully verified the facts, concluded that the recovered articles could have found their way to Julianehaab only by drifting in the pack across the polar sea, and that at the longest only five years had been consumed in the transit. After being separated from the pack the articles must have floated in the current which makes southward along the east coast of Greenland and after doubling Cape Farewell flows northward upon the west coast. It was clear that if they had come through Smith Sound they would inevitably have been found upon the other shore of Baffin Bay. In confirmation of this view there was found at Godthaab, a short distance to the northward of Julianehaab (Fig. 315), an ornamented Alaskan “throwing stick” which probably came by the same route. Moreover, large quantities of driftwood reach the shores of Greenland which have clearly come from the Siberian coast, since the Siberian larch has furnished the larger quantity. [Illustration: FIG. 315.—Map of the north polar regions, showing the area of drift ice and the tracks of the _Jeannette_ and the _Fram_ (compiled from various maps).] Pinning his faith to these indubitable facts, Nansen built the _Fram_ in such a manner as to resist and elude the enormous pressures of the ice pack, stocked her with provisions sufficient for five years, and by allowing the vessel to be frozen into the pack north of the New Siberian Islands, he consigned himself and his companions to the mercy of the elements. The world knows the result as one of the most remarkable achievements in the long history of polar exploration. The track of the _Fram_, charted in Fig. 315, considered in connection with that of the _Jeannette_, shows that the Arctic pack drifts from Bering Sea westward until near the northeastern coast of Greenland.