National emulation, more particularly since the great success of Nan-sen, seems to have played the chief role in all the recent researches undertaken in the vicinity of the poles.

No fewer than three expeditions were organized in 1902 for the main purpose of reaching the North Pole. Otto Sverdrup, the Norwegian, with Nan-sen's old ship, the "Fram," started in through Smith Sound; Lieut. Robert E. Peary, of the United States navy, pursued a like course; while Mr. E. B. Baldwin, also an American, selected Franz Josef Land as his point of departure, although Prince Luigi, of Savoy, had only just vainly attempted it.

The expedition led by Capt. Sverdrup was incontestably the most successful, says Dr. Herman Haack in his Geographen Kalender. As early as 1898 his expedition was already under way. He spent the first winter north of Cape Sabine, where, by means of extended sledge journeys, he explored the fiords of Hayes Sound, in the following spring even advancing as far as the west coast of Elles-mereland. Finding the ice conditions no more favorable in 1899 than in the previous summer, he abandoned forthwith his former plan and fixed upon Jones Sound as the starting point for his investigations, in the hope of finding on the west coast of Ellesmereland a better and freer water course to the north than the narrow neck of Smith Sound can afford, which is so easily obstructed by the pack ice from the Pole. Sverdrup met with difficulties in Jones Sound also, for he could push no farther forward than Inglefeld had reached in 1852, and so he took up his second winter quarters at the point where the coast of Ellesmereland seemed to bend northward, under north latitude 76 deg. 29 min. and west longitude 84 deg. 24 min.

The sledge journeys of the fall of that year established the fact that Ellesmereland extended much farther westward than was supposed, and was separated from North Kent only by the Belcher Channel, a small arm of the sea. In the spring of 1900 Sverdrup continued the exploration of the west coast of Ellesmereland, where he discovered a deep fiord, while his assistant, Isachsen, examined a large body of land lying to the west of it. The "Fram" being free from ice in August, the passage through Jones Sound was continued, but the ship was soon fast again in the Belcher Channel near the westernmost point of Ellesmereland, and Sverdrup established his third winter quarters under latitude 76 deg. 48 min. and longitude 89 deg. The fall of 1900 and the spring of 1901 were devoted to sledge journeys.

Sverdrup himself continued his exploration of Ellesmereland, examining anew and more thoroughly the fiord which he discovered the year before, after which he turned northward and succeeded in reaching the most westerly point occupied by him in the spring of 1899, to which he had then proceeded from Smith Sound.

Isachsen proceeded westward and discovered north of North Cornwall two larger islands, exploring their southern coasts till they turned toward the north. Under latitude 79 deg. 30 min. and longitude 106 deg., he reached his farthest western limit, from which point neither to the west nor to the north was any land visible, and from the character of the floating ice it was not probable that any land existed in either direction. In July of that year the north coast of North Devon was explored in boats.

All attempts to get the "Fram" out of the ice having failed, Sverdrup was compelled to pass a fourth winter in 1901-2 in this region, during which other extended sledge journeys were undertaken. Following the west coast of Ellesmereland, Sverdrup attempted to reach 80 deg. 16 min. N., 85 deg. 33 min. W., the farthest point attained by Lieut. Aldrich, of the English Polar Expedition of 1875-76, on the west coast of Grinnell Land, coming down from the north. He was not successful, however, though he penetrated as far north as 80 deg. 37 min., which was but a short distance from the goal. Sledge journeys undertaken by other participants in the expedition resulted in the exploration of the west coast of North Devon. In the beginning of August, 1902, when the "Fram" was again free from ice, Sverdrup started immediately upon his homeward way, reaching Stavanger on the 19th of September. The chief result of this expedition was the discovery of large land areas west of Ellesmereland, and since the discovery of Franz Josef Land no such extension of our knowledge of these regions has been signalized.

Lieut. Robert N. Peary, U. S. N., conceived a plan of reaching the North Pole by sledge journeys, accompanied by no one but Esquimaux and his black servant Henson. For this purpose it became necessary to establish, well to the south, a point of departure that could be reached every year by a ship, which could supply fresh provisions and new outfittings, that were to be pushed toward the north and deposited in caches along the coast. The weak point of the scheme lay in the fact that the advance to the farthest points already reached required so much time for so small a sledge crew that further penetration into the unknown must be undertaken at an advanced season of the year, when the stability of the ice made such a movement questionable. The winter of 1898-99 Peary passed at Etah, on the eastern shore of Smith Sound, in order to interest the aborigines in his plan, buy dogs, and perfect other preparations. After his ship, the "Windward," reached him with fresh supplies in the fall of 1899, he was transported to Cape Sabine, which he had fixed upon as the starting point and base of the expedition. Here he passed the winter of 1899-1900. In the spring of 1900 he undertook a sledge journey straight across Ellesmereland, and in the fall of that year established a line of depots toward the north. In the spring of 1901 he made the first energetic move toward the Pole, which led him from Grant Land in the direction of Greenland. He passed the most northern point, 83 deg. 24 min., reached by Lockwood in the Greely expedition of 1882, and fixed, under latitude 83 deg. 39 min., the northern extremity of Greenland. He followed the coast toward the east until it began to bend decidedly to the southeast in the direction of Independence Bay, thus establishing the insular nature of Greenland.