De Long believed in the idea with such conviction that he was prepared to risk his career and even his life on it, for he knew that if he could take it out of the realm of the theoretical and into the world of fact, he would be judged one of the greatest exploratory heroes of all time. The idea, widely believed by the world’s leading scientists and geographers, went like this: The weather wasn’t especially cold at the North Pole, at least not in summer. On the contrary, the dome of the world was covered in a shallow, warm, ice-free sea whose waters could be smoothly sailed, much as one might
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