leader unless he is the best man of the party, and Arctic hardships quickly reduce things and men to their real worth. Nansen and his crew will prove, we are confident, as firmly knit together as the timbers of the "Fram" herself. Captain Sverdrup, who accompanied him across Greenland, goes as navigating officer of the "Fram." Perhaps the most original of the many original fittings of this little polar cruiser is the dynamo which will for the first time in the history of exploration supply abundant light during the whole Arctic night. When there is wind a windmill will work it; but in the calm weather the men, in watches, will take their necessary exercise in tramping round a capstan to the strains of a musical box of long Arctic experience--it was in the "Jeannette,"--and thus at least eight hours of perfect light will be secured every day. Everything that foresight can suggest and money can buy has been secured to make the voyage a success; but even in the most sanguine mind the risk must appear great, and the time of suspense will be long. The drift across the polar area cannot occupy less than two years, and provisions are carried for five. But we need not dwell on dangers; the personality of Nansen rises above them all--the motto he carries with him in a little volume of condensed poetry, as powerful meat for the soul as any of his cunningly concocted extracts are for the body, is the wish of all his friends-- "Greet the Unseen with a cheer, Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be, 'Strive and thrive!' cry 'Speed--fight on, fare ever There as here!'" The Norwegian expedition goes out under the command of a hero full of experience, ripe in knowledge, certain to do all that a strong and trained man can accomplish, backed by large grants of money from his own government, and smaller gifts from people and societies in many lands. JACKSON'S EXPEDITION.