Several presentations at last year's [1990] AASP annual meeting at Banff referred to the Cretaceous dinoflagellates from Graham Island which I was fortunate to study in the early 1960's together with the late Isabel Cookson (Manum and Cookson 1964). The reference to our work was a moving incident since it has a special place in my heart, partly because of the very memorable co-operation with Dr Cookson, and not least because of circumstances around the material itself. Therefore, following one of the presentations at the meeting, I offered comments concerning the sample, its collector, and the now largely forgotten history of territorial and geological exploration of the Arctic Islands, a history which involves Norwegian-Canadian relationships. These days the 90th anniversary of this relationship can be celebrated, which is yet another good reason to be reminded about it. Therefore, I have gladly accepted former Editor, Bert van Helden's invitation to elaborate on this story in your Newsletter. When Cookson and I made that study, the petroleum exploration activities in the Arctic regions had just started, and we were rather unaware that our material happened to come from the middle of the pie so to speak: the Mesozoic Sverdrup Basin. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that owing to these circumstances our study became much used by oil company palynologists. The story of the Graham Island sample is part of the much grander story of the exploration of the Sverdrup Islands by a Norwegian expedition 1898-1902, and of the impressive contribution to Canadian geology made by the Norwegian geologist, Mr Per Schei.

In connection with my palynological studies of the Tertiary flora of Spitsbergen (Manum 1962), I had been searching for early Tertiary material from other Arctic regions which might be compared with Spitsbergen. The Palaeontological Museum of the University of Oslo houses the material collected by the geologist Per Schei on the expedition with the polar research vessel "Fram" to the Arctic Islands. Among the samples was a handful of crumbling shale from "the large island to the west" according to its label, also containing the date of collection. The sample appeared "young" but processing showed it not to be Tertiary; it yielded a most beautiful assemblage of Cretaceous dinoflagellates. Isabel Cookson had a glimpse at it during a visits to Oslo and she immediately insisted that we should work on it. The sample was ambiguously labelled which made it necessary to check diaries from the expedition to solve the problem of its provenance. This got me into the fascinating story of the second "Fram" expedition and of some of the men involved in creating and operating this most successful and famous of polar exploration vessels. Many books and scientific volumes have been written to document this story (Nansen 1897; Sverdrup 1904; Report of the 2nd Norwegian Arctic Expedition in the "Fram" 1898-1902, Vol. I-IV 1907-17, Supplementary Vol. 1930; Fairley 1959).

The second "Fram" expedition was planned to explore the northern extension of Greenland by circumnavigation from the west and by dog-sled journeys. Warnings of the hazards of such an undertaking were many, particularly from reports of previous expeditions into Canadian Arctic waters which had ended with disasters. One such expedition which was certainly in the minds of all potential Arctic explorers in the second half of the 19th century was Sir John Franklin's in 1845 in search of the Northwest Passage. The ship became frozen in ice northwest of King William Island and was abandoned. The tragic fate of the crew was only known to rescue expeditions some ten years later. With this at the back of their minds, what would make a number of applicants compete in 1898 to become members of the sixteen strong crew of "Fram" which was to explore even higher latitudes farther from any habitations? In order to find an answer to this question, a brief review of the first "Fram" expedition is needed.

It was the idea of Fridtjof Nansen to organize a scientific expedition to study the Arctic Ocean by drifting with a ship, hopefully close to the North Pole, locked up in the pack ice (Nansen 1897). Nansen was already famous for his daring crossing of Greenland on skis in 1888, and he had also established himself as a very promising scientist in the fields of neurology and marine biology. His seemingly wild expedition plan was founded on the known fate of the "Jeanette" expedition which had tried to reach the North Pole a few years earlier. An American explorer, G. W. de Long, had sailed "Jeanette" through the Bering Strait in 1878. She became frozen in near Ostrov Vrangelya and drifted westwards for two years until broken down north of the Novosiberian Islands where she was abandoned. Twenty of the thirty-three-strong crew including de Long starved to death on their march towards Siberian habitations. In 1884, four years after "Jeanette" was abandoned, remains from her were found offshore South Greenland. Based on this and other observations, Nansen convinced himself against many experts' opinion that there was a regular ice-drift from Alaska to Greenland. Nansen decided to test this by an ice drift expedition across the Arctic Ocean in a ship deliberately frozen into the pack-ice. To this end, he designed "Fram" (= forward) as a vessel that would evade the crushing pressure of the ice which had tragically ended many other expeditions. It was a demonstration of Nansen's reputation as an explorer and scientist that he managed to find sponsors for this daring project and also people that would go with him.

In September 1893, "Fram" with her crew of thirteen let themselves freeze in north of the Novosiberian Islands. A thousand days later, in July 1896, she got out of the pack ice north of Spitsbergen. Movement was for the first year and a half much more erratic than Nansen had anticipated and it became clear that they would miss the North Pole by several degrees. Nansen therefore left "Fram" on skis in March 1895 with one companion and twentyseven dogs and three sleds, each carrying 250 kg of load, in an attempt to reach the Pole. After two strenuous weeks they reached 86°4'N, when they had to give up the attempt. They turned south and reached Franz Josef Land in August, where they were forced to winter. "Fram", and Nansen and his companion returned to Norway in August 1896 within a week of each other. "Fram" had been well equipped with instruments and the scientific results of the expedition were overwhelming in the fields of oceanography, meteorology and marine biology of the Arctic Ocean. Nansen was made professor of oceanography at the University of Oslo and continued the study of oceanic currents. "Fram"'s captain was Otto Sverdrup, who had also accompanied Nansen on his expedi tion skiing across Greenland. Nansen and Sverdrup had won world fame, and so did "Fram" as a most reliable Arctic exploration vessel. All returned safely from her first journey. Shortly after this success, Nansen began to plan a new expedition to explore the vast unknown areas of northern Greenland, and Sverdrup became the inevitable leader. Nansen's devotion to own research kept him from taking part in the expedition himself. When Sverdrup advertised for crew members and scientists for this expedition, which was planned to last three years, he received many applications.

"Fram" set out from Oslo (then Kristiania) on her second expedition in June 1898 and reached as far north as Pim Island in Smith Sound where the first winter was spent (Map 1, I). Failing to penetrate farther north next summer and having met Robert Peary with his "Windward" who had similar objectives, Sverdrup made the happy decision to move to Jones Sound in order to explore the unknown areas of Ellesmere Island and westward. The winter 1899-1900 was spent in Harbour Fjord (Map 1, II). Most of the exploration was done by sled journeys lasting two months or more in the spring before the ice broke up. Successful journeys in the spring of 1900 made them push as far west as possible with "Fram" that summer in order to minimize distance to unexplored areas, and their next harbour became Goose Fjord (Map 1, III). The plan was to return home in 1901, but they were unable to get out of the ice until the following year. The fourth and unintended 1902 season of the expedition was also utilized for maximum exploration in the spring and summer months.

Per Schei, the geologist on the expedition, had graduated in geology at the University of Oslo early in 1898. He had been selected in spite of his young age (23) and the handicap of a stiff leg. His personality and excellent recommendations from his tutors must have impressed Sverdrup. He proved to be one of the best skiers, dogsled handlers and hunters, and made some of the most arduous sled journeys of the expedition. He acquired yet another physical handicap by frostbite during the first season of the expedition, following which he had several toes on each foot amputated. He was an excellent diary writer. In order to solve the problem of the Graham Island sample's origin, I had to study his personal diary and couldn't stop before having read it all.

The areas explored from "Fram", essentially by sled parties, are indicated in Map 1. A preliminary account of the geological results appeared in Sverdrup's (1903) report on the expedi tion at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in London, and his results have proved remarkably correct. Having returned to Norway, Schei was appointed scientific editor for the expedition reports, but he died in 1905. This was a great loss to Arctic geology and to the scientific community of a small and young nation. The fossil material assembled by Schei was described after his death by several specialists in the official report volumes. Holtedahl (1917) gave a summary of the geological results based on Schei's notes and these subsequent papers. Dawes and Christie (1986) concluded their homage to Schei by stating: "Schei can be credited with making the most impressive contribution by a single person to the geological understanding of the Arctic Islands prior to the advent of aircraft." Fortier et al. (1963) duly recognized the exploration achievements by the "Fram" expedition. As far as I am aware, the Graham Island sample is the last from Schei's collections to have been the subject of a publication.

Let us follow Schei on the journey when he collected that sample. On 20th March 1900, ten men, each with a sled pulled by ten dogs, set out to explore the eastern shores of Norwegian Bay. They divided into five parties on April 14th, one returning to "Fram", the others taking different directions to explore the west coast of Ellesmere Island. Schei and his companion got the task of exploring land to the west which had been sighted the year before. Their progress was slow because of heavy snowstorms and temperatures ranging from -10° to -26° Centigrade. Graham Island was reached on April 29th but bad weather prevented them from traversing the island until May 2nd. Schei complains that at almost every camp they had left on the journey, the sleds had to be dug out of large snowdrifts at temperatures below -20°C. Following the description and a sketch map in Schei's diary of the course taken, I have indicated their route on a modern map of Graham Island (Map 2; Graham Island had in fact been sighted by Sir Edward Belcher nearly fifty years earlier in search for the Franklin expedition).

Schei's party was very much troubled by inquisitive polar bears approaching the dogs and the tent. Any game was hunted to feed the dogs, and the best parts made a much wanted change in their own monotonous diet mainly of pemmican. Hunting stories make up quite a large part of the diary, however, hunting was not just for fun, but an imperative for their own and the dogs' survival.

From Graham Island, Schei's party turned northeast to explore parts of Ellesmere Island. In mid-May they were again delayed by bad weather and had to cut down on daily rations. In order to catch up, all unnecessary load had to be abandoned, but geological samples were saved. After a journey of 2« months they returned safely to "Fram" on June 3rd via a shortcut across Ellesmere Island to Goose Fjord.

Among Schei's collections were also coals and carbonaceous shales of Palaeogene age from Stenkul Fjord (= coal fjord, at the bottom of Baumann Fjord) in the southern part of Ellesmere, which I processed in connection with my Tertiary Spitsbergen study. Palynologically they show remarkable similarity to the material from Spitsbergen. Nathorst (1915) described excellently preserved compressions of leafy shoots of Metasequoia occidentalis from the same locality.

As usual for explorers of new land in those days, territorial claims were made covering the new land which the expedition had discovered and charted. However, the Norwegian authori ties had at that time their hands full with the strife to gain independence from Sweden, which was granted in 1905. Claims to ownership of the Sverdrup Islands were therefore not whole heartedly followed up by officials. Canadian authorities did not seem to care much either until the mid-twenties. Fairley (1959), in an epilogue to his book on Sverdrup, has an interesting account of this story. He stated (p. 285) that: "Without them (Sverdrup's charts) Ottawa would have remained ignorant, for who knows how long, of the simple fact that the islands were there, in need of 'saving' for Canada. If Sverdrup had not discovered the islands when he did, they would almost certainly have been found and claimed by explorers of a country much better able than Norway to follow up the matter". Negotiations between Canadian and Norwegian authorities to relinquish Norway's claims, also including Sverdrup's claim to a pecuniary compensation towards the costs of the expedition, were finally settled in 1930. Canada paid $67,000 to Sverdrup for his original maps and Norway gave up her claims. Sverdrup did not benefit from the settlement since he died fifteen days after the agreement was announced.

Lithostratigraphic provenance of the Graham Island sample

There has been some ambiguity concerning the lithostratigraphic provenance and the age of the Graham Island sample. At the time of our study of the dinoflagellates we had only two guidelines to its stratigraphy, namely correlation by already described dinoflagellates in it to mid-Cretaceous assemblages elsewhere, and its resemblance to two samples from Ellef Ringnes Island. Details of the provenance of the latter samples were not given in our paper, because they had been received by Isabel Cookson from a Canadian company source on the condition they were anonymized. They were stated to be derived from the Hassel Formation, which from available evidence also included mid-Cretaceous. Since they yielded very good assemblages resembling our Graham Island sample, we reported on them in our paper and concluded that the Graham Island sample was probably also from the Hassel Formation. Felix and Burbridge (1976), who studied assemblages from both the Hassel Formation and the overlying Kanguk Formation from the Arctic Islands (but not Graham Island), concluded that our assemblages correlated with those of the Kanguk Formation and were of Late Cretaceous age. Using notes left by Cookson, and with the kind assistance of Jan Jansonius and Stan Pocock, I have now been able to trace the provenance of the Ellef Ringnes samples. They derive from the south flank of the Isachsen Dome and are from the Kanguk Formation, within 200 metres of its base. This confirms the biostratigraphic correlation made by Felix and Burbridge. I have compared Schei's route map and description with Fortier et al.'s (1963) map of Graham Island, and it seems that Schei's camp on May 2nd where he collected the sample must be placed in an area where the Kanguk Formation was mapped by Fortier et al. (Map 2), and close to the Hassel Formation boundary. Schei described the island as being built of loose blocks of sandstone (Hassel Formation?) and grey claystones (Kanguk Formation?); the sample of our study fits the description of the latter.

I hope this story starting with the Graham Island sample will encourage Canadian palynologists and geologists to pick up some dusty books about "Fram" and Captain Sverdrup from their libraries. Anyone who loves the Arctic will find them exciting reading.

Svein B. Manum, Oslo, Norway, May 1991

References

Dawes, P. R., and R. L. Christie, 1986. Per Schei (1875-1905). Arctic 39:106-107.

Fairley, T. C., 1959. Sverdrup's Arctic Adventures. Longmans, London.

Felix, C. J., and P. R. Burbridge, 1976. Age of microplankton studied by Manum and Cookson from Graham and Ellef Ringnes islands. Geoscience and Man 15:83-86.

Fortier, Y. O., R. G. Blackadar, B. F. Glenister, H. R. Greiner, D. J. McLaren, N. J. McMillan, A. W. Norris, E. F. Roots, J. G. Souther, R. Thorsteinsson and E. T. Tozer, 1963. Geology of the north-central part of the Arctic Archipelago, Northwest Territories (Operation Franklin). Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 320, 671 pp. + maps.

Holtedahl, O., 1917. Summary of geological results. No. 36 of Report (see ref. below), 27 pp., 6 pls., 1 map.

Manum, S., 1962. Studies in the Tertiary flora of Spitsbergen, with notes on the Tertiary flora of Ellesmere Island, Greenland, and Iceland. Skrifter Norsk Polarinstitutt 126, 124 pp.

Manum, S., and I. C. Cookson, 1964. Cretaceous microplankton in a sample from Graham Island, Arctic Canada, collected during the second 'Fram'-expedition (1898-1902). Skrifter Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, Oslo, I. kl. N.S. No. 17, 36 pp.

Nansen, F., 1897. Farthest north. 2 vols. Archibald Constable and Co., London.

Nathorst, A. G., 1915. Tertiare Pflanzenreste aus Ellesmere-Land. No. 35 of Report (see ref. below), 16 pp.

Report of the Second Norwegian Arctic Expedition in the 'Fram' 1898-1902. Vol. I-IV, 1904-1917, Suppl. vol. 1930. Videnskaps-Selskabet i Kristiania.

Sverdrup, O., 1903. The second Norwegian polar expedition in the "Fram" 1898-1902. The Geographical Journal 22: 38-56.

Sverdrup, O., 1904. New Land: Four years in the Arctic regions. 2 vols. Longmans, Green and Co., London.

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This article first appeared in CAP Newsletter 14(1):9-15, 1991 and is reproduced here with kind permission of Dr Manum.