nahn'sen, (1861- ), a Norwegian Arctic explorer. He was educated in the university at Christiania, devoting himself to zoological study. Before he was of age he made a notable voyage between Spitzbergen and Greenland to investigate animal life in those regions; and in 1888 he made his memorable expedition across Greenland on the ice cap, on his return from which he received a grand ovation from his countrymen. But the achievement on which his fame as an explorer must rest was the expedition on which he started in June, 1893, from Christiania, the capital of his native land, to the Arctic regions, with twelve companions, in the Fram, a vessel constructed after his own plan, specially adapted to resist the pressure of ice floes. In September of the same year, he thrust his vessel into an ice pack, in which the party drifted, thus imprisoned, for eighteen months, until March, 1895. Nansen now, with one companion, left the ship and made his way by sledges toward the Pole. After the endurance of fearful hardship, he reached latitude 86 deg. 4', but was then obliged to turn back to an island of the Franz Josef Land Archipelago, where he passed the winter in a stone hut. A start for Spitzbergen was made May 19, 1896, and when off Cape Flora he and his companions were fortunate enough to encounter Captain Jackson, of the British exploring expedition, who provided them with food and clothing. After an absence of three years, Nansen reached his home on Jackson's ship, and about simultaneously his vessel, the Fram, reached the Norwegian coast. The most important discovery made by Doctor Nansen was the development of the fact that there is no Arctic continent, as had been invariably assumed by previous Arctic explorers, but only an immense ocean of great depth. During his three years' exile from civilization he passed over hundreds of miles of hitherto unexplored coast, discovered a number of new islands and traversed 50,000 square miles of unknown waters. The highest point reached by him in the Arctic regions was 195 miles nearer the North Pole than any man had ever before been, and 261 miles, by his calculation, from the Pole itself. Nansen wrote a popular account of his voyage, Farthest North. See NORTH POLAR EXPLORATION.