Fridtjof Nansen - "Farthest North", The Norwegian Polar Expedition 1893-1896 - 1897

Very scarce copy, true first edition, first printing.

16 chromolithographic plates from Nansen's own sketches.
127 plates, a profusion of illustrations in text, 4 large folding
coloured maps at the rear of the volumes.

The Norwegian Polar Expedition
1893 - 1896.
"Being a record of a voyage of exploration
of the ship Fram 1898-96 and a fifteen month's
sleigh journey by Dr. Nansen and Lieut. Johanson
with an appendix by Otto Svendrup Captain of
the Fram, about one hundred and twenty full-page
and numerous illustrations and colour plate in facsimile
from Dr. Nansen's own sketches, portrait and maps."

Original first edition set.
Publishers green cloth with gilt title.
Gilt vignette of 'The Fram ' & 'Sledge Journey'.
Gilt title to spine.
Sporadic foxing.
Some uncut pages.

Volume I.
xiii, [2], 510 pages.
Frontispiece portrait plate with tissue-guard.
Dedication page & publishers note.
8 chromolithograph plates..
46 full-page plates.
47 in-text illustrations.
2 colour maps to rear.

Volume II.
xiii, [1], 671.
Full-page frontispiece plate.
8 chromolithograph plates.
65 full-page plates.
45 in-text illustrations.
2 colour maps.

"Through his early whaling experiences and the 1888-9
Greenland expedition, Dr. Nansen became convinced
of a regular ice-drift from Alaska to Greenland. Defying
accepted opinion Nansen's audacious plan was to allow
his ship to be frozen in the ice-pack, then drift in the ship
across the Arctic. In a vessel of his own design, weighing
400 tons and strong enough to withstand the crushing ice,
the expedition sailed from Norway in June 1893. The Fram
successfully returned home to Norway in August 1896."

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