3-056-866 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Map of the Arctic, 1595. This map speculates that the Arctic consisted of a circular landmass with a lake at its centre, out of which four large rivers flowed. It was not until 1896 that the Arctic was in fact determined to consist of a frozen ocean, when Fridtjof Nansen's ship, the Fram, drifted across the Arctic locked in the ice, proving that no continent existed.