CHAPTER IX.

THE RETURN TO THE SHIP.

1. This done, our thoughts now turned to the ship, between which and ourselves lay 160 miles. But, the _Tegetthoff_—did she lie still where we had left her, or had she drifted away? Fastened together by a rope, we began our return by re-crossing the glaciers, and on reaching the stores we had deposited at Cape Germania, the first thing we did was to prepare some water, for the beverage we had taken with us in an india-rubber bottle, made of coffee, rum, and extract of meat, had only aggravated thirst, without adding to our strength. It was late in the evening when we reached our night-encampment near Säulen Cap (Cape Columns), in a state of great exhaustion, cheered and alleviated by the thought of our success. The utter loneliness of our position could not suppress the satisfaction we felt. After digging up our still untouched stores, we went to rest for three hours. Longer we dared not sleep; the least breeze might break up the ice and drive it out of the bight on the north of Cape Auk. The insecurity of our position therefore impelled us to make a very early start on the morning of the 13th of April, with the thermometer at 12° F. As we started, we awoke also to the extreme difficulties of the return route, difficulties which the excitement of our advance had made light of. Orel, suffering from snow-blindness, marched along with closed eyes, and want of sleep now began to tell on us all. Even our dogs were all worn out, and whenever a halt was made they lay down exhausted in the snow. The sledge had constantly to be unloaded and reloaded, and its fractures repaired. The surface of the smooth ice, encumbered by the snow-slush which had accumulated on it, rendered our progress very burdensome. The dull dreary weather, however, did not prevent the sea-birds from gathering and wheeling around us in enormous flocks. During our noon-day halt, utterly distraught, I cooked our dinner with sea-water; not one of us could touch it. Our road through wastes of snow from Cape Brorock to Cape Schrötter, seemed as if it would never end. However rapidly we advanced, constantly counting our steps as we went along, that Cape remained for hours the same dark spot on the gloomy and snowy horizon. It was evening before we approached it, and as we came within 300 paces of his frontier, we were received and welcomed by ambassadors from Haller. It was curious and also characteristic to observe how a few days without active employment and without discipline had demoralised our old companions; the party we left behind were scarcely recognisable. Blackened by the oil used in cooking, wasted with diarrhœa, these men crept out of their tent listlessly to greet us on our arrival; a few more days would have sufficed to prostrate them with sickness. Yet they had strictly followed the directions I had given them, and had used with moderation their stock of provisions. As I have already mentioned, I had furnished them, before I started on my expedition northward, with all the means of ascertaining their position by observations, and of enabling them to begin their return to the ship, in the event of my failing to appear at the end of fifteen days; but when I now asked them what direction they would have taken in order to reach the _Tegetthoff_, to my horror they pointed, not to Austria, but to Rawlinson Sound![49]

2. The observations of temperature which Haller furnished me with, scrawled in hieroglyphics on a peas-sausage case, showed a difference of about 4½° in favour of the extreme north, and this difference was still more marked, when we came to compare the readings which had been recorded on board ship. The open water to the north was doubtless the cause of this. But the same influence extended southward, and as the snow-drifts over which we walked broke under us with a dull, heavy sound, we began to fear lest the season when the snow suddenly thaws and the land-ice breaks up had begun, and that our return would be a matter of extreme difficulty. If there had been nothing else, this would have sufficed to quicken our movements, but to this was added the discovery that our stock of provisions, independent of depôts, would last only ten days more. By ridding ourselves of all but absolutely necessary baggage, and leaving behind our common sleeping bag and the tent for the dogs, we lightened our sledge, so as to enable us to extend our day’s march considerably.

3. On the 14th of April, the thermometer marking 4° F., we left Hohenlohe Island in very bad weather, and made for the Coburg Islands, which were scarcely visible. Our route ran between hummocks, which gave the dogs an opportunity they were not slow to use, of taking it easy after their recent exertions. It had been our intention that the large sledge should keep the same line which we had taken in our journey northward, while I with the dog-sledge should visit places to the right and left. This plan, however, was found unfeasible; for in addition to the difficulties and impediments incident to the march, we had an accumulation of evils to contend with. Klotz’s foot had become much worse, and all those who had been left behind at Cape Schrötter were more or less snow-blind, though hitherto our party had suffered little from eye diseases. It was surprising that our dogs did not suffer from this affection, close as they were to the glare of the snow and without any protection against it. Snow-blindness occurs even in Alpine regions. The severity of the attack depends on the character of the snow; the harder and smoother it is, the greater is the reflection and the danger of inflammation; the retina of the eye is at last injured by the dazzling whiteness of the snow. Various remedies have been employed to mitigate this evil; even the rough-and-ready one of throwing snuff into the eyes has been tried. In Europe, snow-blindness is cured in a day or two by wet applications, but in the low temperatures of the high North such a remedy cannot be applied; poultices are hardly possible in the tent, and a simple bandage worn during the march is no preservative against the constant burning sensations common to this affection. It is clear that the range of remedies during a sledge expedition must be very limited. The crew of Sir James Clark Ross suffered in an unusual manner from this cause in their land expeditions. Richardson and Nordenskjöld dropped a weak tincture of opium twice a day into the eye, and in about twenty-four hours the patient recovered, provided he were not compelled to march. Parry on board ship used a solution of sugar of lead and cold water, applied constantly for three or four days—a somewhat questionable remedy, as it is apt to injure the cornea of the eye. Another mode of treatment, which should take effect in six hours, is unhappily not available in a North Pole expedition, as it requires white of egg, sugar, and camphor, beaten up till it becomes frothy, and laid as a compress on the eye. Some tribes of North America use the steam of hot water, the Creek Indians a decoction from the resinous buds of the Tacamahac—an application which causes much suffering. The only real preservative is the constant use of coloured spectacles, the metal mountings of which should be covered with wool, on account of the cold. The ordinary network at the side should be avoided, as this dims the glasses even when the cold is not considerable; whereas open spectacles are only exposed to this inconvenience at very low degrees of temperature, and can easily be cleared by the hand.

4. But to return to our journey. It was evening when the Coburg Islands (81° 35′ N. L.) were reached. The Dolerite rock of this small cluster of islands was of a remarkably coarse-grained crystalline texture. We had frequently come across the traces of bears and foxes during the march of this day, though we actually saw neither bear nor fox. On the 15th of April, after a severe march, we got clear of the region of ice-hummocks, and continued our southerly course with our sledge-sail before the wind. We encountered a bear this day, which, being allowed to approach within the distance of thirty paces, fell dead under our fire. In a few minutes we loaded the sledge with fresh meat, and again pursued our journey. But excessive exertion, the want of sleep, and the exclusive use of a meat diet, were meanwhile telling their tale of reduced strength, though our appetites were great almost beyond belief. The excessive consumption of animal food[50] without bread-stuff excited hunger and lowered our muscular power, while it irritated our nervous system. Our supply of bark was rapidly decreasing, and Haller, Sussich, and Lukinovich, who could not endure bear-flesh, were often attacked with giddiness during the march, and placed on “half-diet.” In the following week our miseries were intensified by insufficiency of sleep; in fact, we could not spare time to sleep it out. Hence the afternoon hours of the march were especially oppressive, and though the sledge with its load was positively lighter, our strength to drag it had diminished in still greater measure. It would be a great mistake to imagine that exercise of itself, without necessary rest, increases the capacity of marching. The loss of strength is almost suddenly experienced, especially in return journeys, when the excitement of discovery has passed away, and nothing is left but the animal-like employment of dragging.

5. Our course lay under Andrée Island; we crossed over the flat ice-dome of Rainer Island, and on the west saw Back’s Inlet filled with many icebergs. From this elevation we once more beheld the snowy ranges of Crown-Prince Rudolf’s Land in the far distance, which soon, however, disappeared in an ocean of mist, whose white waves rolled over the intervening ice-levels. As we again descended to the icy surface of the sea, to our great astonishment we fell into a hole covered over with snow, and got thoroughly wet, and, after much wandering about, we found, towards evening, a dry place (81° 20′ N. L.) on which to pitch our tent. On the 16th of April we found our latitude by an observation taken at noon to be 81° 12′, and when we reached, in the evening, a point four miles to the north of Cape Hellwald, those whose appetite had failed them could not march a step further.

6. On the 17th of April, Orel, with the large sledge, continued the march southwards, while I went on with the dog-sledge, in order to ascend Cape Hellwald. The temperature had fallen in the morning to -18° F., and the outlines of the icebergs vibrated and undulated under the influence of refraction. Ice-hummocks, on the distant horizon, insignificant in size, were magnified into gigantic proportions; then again many of these phantasmagoria seemed to form a long line, which broke up at the next step forward. Unyoking the dogs on the shore of the island, I left the sledge behind, and climbed the steep sides of a precipice of clay-slate, with its laminæ firmly frozen into a mass, and reached the summit of the lofty promontory—Cape Hellwald—about 2,200 feet above the level of the sea. On the tops of its basaltic columns great flocks of divers congregated, which flew round me without fear as I set up my theodolite, and then settled close to me on the snow. I might have killed half-a-dozen of them at a single shot. By and by, these birds, scared by the appearance of the dogs, who soon joined me, took refuge on some inaccessible rocks, but were not in the least disturbed when I fired at them. My lofty point of view enabled me to have a general survey of the mountainous country lying on the north-west, and to ascertain that I stood on an island separated from lands on the west by Sternek Fiord. Meantime Orel, far below me, was moving on with the sledge, but so great is the advantage of dog-sledging, that I descended and arrived at the same time as he did at Cape Easter. By an observation taken at noon we found our latitude to be 81°. In the afternoon the dogs in their own sledge dragged half of our baggage, and notwithstanding got on more quickly than we did with the large sledge. Henceforward the order of the day was fasting, more or less absolute; for our stock of provisions consisted of bread and bear’s flesh for two days and a half, and the dogs could no longer be favoured as they had been.

7. At a few miles’ distance there rose before us the rocky cones of Wiener Neustadt Island, with large glaciers descending their sides. As it was beyond a doubt that the ascent of one of these conical heights would open up an extensive prospect, I fixed on the imposing Cape Tyrol as the most promising for an ascent. Accordingly, on the 18th of April Haller and I started, and after a toilsome march over glaciers, reached its dark, weather-worn summit, 3,000 feet above the level of the sea. Even here we perceived the traces of excrements of the fox, from whose craft the birds were protected by the inaccessibility of the places where they bred. Though we had cut up some bullets into slugs, we refrained from shooting at the auks and divers perched on the rocks, as we saw that our game could not be bagged even if we killed them. Over our heads was spread the bright sky, below us a very sea of mist, in which, though invisible to us, Orel was wending his way towards the south. The distant glacier wastes of Wilczek Land towered aloft on the east; a cloudy shade separated the heights of the peninsula of La Roncière from the colourless icy wastes of Lindemann Bay, and beyond the picturesque Collinson Fiord there seemed to be a maze of inlets and bights, bare rocks and broad table-lands. We bitterly deplored that the necessity of returning to the ship prevented us from penetrating into this labyrinth of mountains and sounds.

8. In our descent we passed over three basaltic terraces, and came upon a rocky ledge covered with a thick carpet of _Usnea melaxantha_—a fresh example of the great capability of lichens to bear extremes of temperature, the great cold of winter and the burning heat of the rock in summer. The mists now began to rise, and for the first time a greenish landscape without snow gleamed out of the depth, on which lay the warm glow of the sun. The scenery seemed to belong to the Alps, and not the 81st degree of North Latitude. The contrast became the more striking, when the mists rolled away and unveiled the icebergs and the ice-filled sound. When we reached these green mountain slopes we found ourselves among grasses, the lower stalks of which were already beginning to be green; the few flowering plants (_Saxifraga oppositifolia_, _Silene acaulis_, _Papaver nudicale_) were clustered together in dense masses. We were now able to form some conception of what summer might be here. Countless streams issuing from the snow would force these spots to put on the livery of summer, and rapid torrents would precipitate themselves down gorges of snow and rock; but at present all was stiff and stark, save that stunted green herbage seemed to show that we were in the fancied paradise of Franz-Josef Land, though when compared even with other Arctic lands it was but a scene of desolation. Closer to the shore above the level of the sea, in a belt of yellow sandstone, we found much lignite firmly frozen in the ground, resembling drift-wood a century old.

9. The search for our companions was for some time fruitless; and a driving snow might have separated us from them for ever. At last, however, we found them gathered together in the tent near Forbes’ Glacier, in about 80° 58′ N. L., and as the party had been without tobacco for a fortnight, they greeted Haller’s collection of lichens as a welcome substitute.

10. During the last few days the cold had sensibly increased, and we therefore determined to sleep during the day, and to walk during the night. Our march in the night of April 18 was a memorable one to us. We were trudging along in the face of a strong south-wester—which was extremely distressing to our highly sensitive frozen noses—and striving to protect the soles of our feet by the rapidity of our movement from being frost-bitten. After succeeding to a certain extent in this, we began to find the snow very deep, and so soft that we sank in at every step. This grew worse and worse; water rose in the deeper layers of snow and penetrated our boots, and as this could not be explained by the state of the temperature, we had to step with distrust and hesitation, in constant fear of unseen depths. At first we believed that the water arose from streams flowing from underneath the glaciers, or from the movement of these glaciers breaking up the surface of the ice. Hence we kept at a distance from their terminal walls. But that the ice-sheet of the sea itself had broken up, that unseen fissures surrounded us, and that the water under the snow was nothing but the water of the sea forcing its way in—of this we had not the least conception, till the sudden immersion of the leader of the party left no doubt about the matter. Once Haller would have utterly disappeared unless he had been quickly rescued. As we picked our way along, even with a long pole we found every now and then no bottom. Klotz now took the lead with a long “alpenstock,” guiding us with the greatest dexterity among these fissures, though often himself falling in. Greatly did we rejoice when we reached unbroken footing. Some of the party on this occasion were frost-bitten in the feet, but we could do little more for them than rub their feet with snow and improve as we could their foot-covering. The sun was now visible at midnight, and the mountains of Markham Sound were tinged with rosy light.

11. Ahead of us in the south lay a dark water-sky, while the land on either side was veiled in mist and fog. We tried to persuade ourselves that this phenomenon might be explained otherwise than by open water. Soon, however, we heard the unambiguous sound of ice-pressure and of the beating of the surf at no great distance, and when we went to rest, in 80° 36′ N. L., it was with the feeling that we needed new strength to meet the dangers which unquestionably awaited us. We slept soundly for some hours in spite of all our anxious fears, till we were aroused by the increasing noise. We now advanced along the old sledge-track upon which we had fallen. Orel and I went first, and after we had gone a few hundred paces the truth burst upon us: we saw the sea ahead of us and no white edge beyond. Walls of forced-up ice surrounded this water, which, stirred by a heavy wind, threw up crested waves; the spray of its surf dashed itself for a distance of thirty yards over the icy shore. Forthwith ascending an iceberg, we looked over the dark waste of water, in which the icebergs, under which we had passed a month before, were now floating; the more distant of them stood out against the arch of light on the horizon, and those nearer to us shone with a dazzling brilliancy under the dark water-sky. That on which lay our depôt of provisions was floating in the midst of them; and here we were, without a boat, almost without provisions, and fifty-five miles distant from the ship! A strong current was running southwards at the rate of three or four miles an hour; fragments of ice were driving before the wind, as if they meant to delight us by their movements, and as if there were no change for the worse to a handful of men, who stood in reality before an impassable abyss.

12. But what were we to do; what direction were we to follow? If we killed and ate our dogs and broke up our sledge to find wood to melt the snow, we might live for eight days longer. In this case we must ourselves carry our baggage. But the most important question was, Whither? In what direction did the ice lie still unbroken? Did the land on the west afford a connected route to the ship? Did the sea before us communicate further south with the sea where the _Tegetthoff_ lay? There was but one alternative—escape by land and over land; and because open water could be traced to the north-west beyond the bare reefs of the Hayes Islands, and heavy clouds over Markham Sound seemed to indicate that the ice had broken up in it also, I decided to try the way over the glaciers of Wilczek Land. Everything depended on the unbroken state of the ice in the southern parts of Austria Sound. Dejected as I was, I finished my sketch of this dreadful scene, while Orel went back to caution the men against venturing on the young ice and to tell them to keep to the old ice under the land. While the men were struggling with the great sledge in the snow, I descended from my higher point of view, and, soaked through by the surf, went along the ice-strand in a south-easterly direction towards Wilczek Land. The others followed, and though we came on many fissures merely covered with snow, we yet reached _terra firma_ in safety, Orel skilfully guiding the movements of the sledge according to the signs agreed on.

13. But soon afterwards everything was veiled in mist; the temperature rose to 7° F., then came driving snow, which gradually increased to a snow-storm, and in order not to be cut off we were obliged once more to keep together. Dreadful as the weather was, we could not venture to put up the tent; march we must, in order to escape before the wind destroyed the ice-bridges on the way back. We trudged along under enormous glacier walls, enveloped in whirling snow. Sounding all round, we escaped the abysses with difficulty. We could scarcely even breathe and make head a against the wind. Our clothes were covered with snow, our faces were crusted with ice, eyes and mouth were firmly closed, and the dark sea beneath us was hidden from our view. We ceased to hear even its roar, the might of the storm drowning everything else. Haller, a few paces ahead, continually sounded, so as to keep us clear of fissures. We could scarcely follow him or recognise his form. We saw nothing even of the enormous glacier walls under which we toiled along, except that at times we caught a glimpse of them towering aloft. At every hundred paces we halted for a few minutes to remove the ice which formed itself on our eyes and round our mouths. We stilled our hunger with the hope, that we should find and dig out the body of the bear which we had shot a month ago. But we dared not rest, nor await the abatement of the storm, until we had crossed the glacier and felt the firm ground, free from ice, beneath our feet. This we compassed after a march of seven hours. Utterly exhausted, we then put up the tent on a stony slope, got beneath it, white with snow, wet through and stiffened with ice; notwithstanding our hunger, we lay down to sleep without eating. Not a morsel of bread could we venture to serve out from the small stock of provisions that remained. Our prospects were gloomy in the extreme. If open water, or even a broad fissure at Cape Frankfort, separated us from the ship, we must inevitably perish on the shores of Wilczek Land.

14. The snow-storm still continued to rage; hunger, cold, and moisture forbade sleep, and the dogs, covered with snow, lay in front of the tent. On the 20th of April (the thermometer marking 3° F.), after a breakfast more suited for a patient under typhus fever than for men hungry as wolves, we left the tent in our still wet clothes, and while standing on its sheltered side to wait till it was cleared, our clothes froze into coats of mail. As we went on, the terrible weather blew out of us almost all that remained of our courage and resolution. It was evening before the storm abated, but we had the good fortune to find the iceberg with our last depôt in its former position close to the shore. There were the 45 lbs. of boiled beef, and there, too, the bear lying two feet deep in snow. It took us an hour to dig him out and load our sledge with this frozen mass, which we were glad to call provision. After each of us had devoured 3 lbs. of boiled beef and bear’s flesh, on we went. To our inexpressible joy the open water had retreated to the west, and we were able to get round it by making a considerable bend. The numerous fissures which crossed our path we succeeded in evading, and by ascending icebergs were able to pick our way, till at last we arrived safely at Cape Frankfort (80° 20′ N. L.). At its base we found, to our great satisfaction, the land-ice running without break towards the ship. This amounted, in fact, to deliverance, and we celebrated our joy at the event by a glass of grog. The next thing to be done was to search for the depôt of provisions on Schönau Island.

15. On the 21st of April (the thermometer marking -7° F.) Orel led with the large sledge, while I remained behind with the dog-sledge, in order, from an elevation at Cape Frankfort, to complete the measurement of certain angles indispensable for the maps I was constructing. We joined company again nearly opposite Cape Berghaus, and together crossed a broad reach covered with ice-hummocks. The weather was clear, and brilliantly-marked parhelia hung over the dark blue background of the mountains. We again came on very deep snow, and as we advanced with much difficulty and great exertion, we got rid of the bear, after we had cut off from it every portion that could be used for food. The relief, however, was not great, and we were repeatedly compelled to halt and rest. Lukinovich and the much-enduring Zaninovich were taken with fainting-fits, the consequence of their excessive exertions. Indeed we were all more or less faint and emaciated. During one of these halts, in order to quicken their failing energies, I held forth to them on the astonishing example of MacClintock’s sledge journeys. The Dalmatians freely expressed their admiration of those Englishmen, but the Tyrolese were rather slow to believe.

16. Soon after midnight on the 22nd of April (the thermometer standing at -6° F.) we reached Schönau Island, round which the ice had broken up, so that we frequently fell into the fissures. As we erected our tent, the sun was setting behind the violet-coloured edges of the ice-hummocks, while the lofty pinnacle of Cape Berghaus stood out sharply marked against the sky. The situation of the island we had reached being extremely favourable, on the highest point of it, I took some observations, which completed the surveys which I had made during this expedition. Close to the eastward of us, the ice had broken up round Hochstetter Island. Orel had meanwhile put up the tent, and Klotz had dug out the depôt of provisions, which, to our great joy, we found had not been disturbed by bears. The danger of starvation was at an end, and after satisfying the claims of hunger we enjoyed a delicious sleep of seven hours, and again set forth. We were still twenty-five miles from the ship. This distance I now determined to compass with the dog-sledge with all the speed possible, in order to ascertain whether the _Tegetthoff_ remained where we left her. Orel was to follow close with the large sledge. The day was of unusual brightness. All the land, which a month ago had been the home of storms and enveloped in snow, now shone in the sunlight, and the walls of rock wore their natural brown colour. My route lay close under Koldewey and Salm Islands. At first every fragment which had fallen from a glacier on either of these islands was used as a pretext by the dogs for turning out of the course, and the trail of a bear seemed quite to distract them. It was to little purpose that I went on first to show them the way. No sooner was the least liberty allowed them, than they used it to make now for Cape Tegetthoff, then for Cape Berghaus, and, in preference to every other point, for the sun! Ever and anon Torossy dragged Jubinal out of the road, and this unruliness lasted till we came on the old sledge track, which was almost obliterated by the snow. Suddenly they seemed to feel as if they had entered on a familiar region. With their heads raised, and tails in the air, they now rushed along at the rate of 180 paces in a minute, though I had now taken my place on the sledge. The south-west corner of Salm Island was beset by a crowd of apparently stranded icebergs. Under the sheltered side of one of these colossal masses I made a short halt, and lighted the cooking-machine to thaw some boiled beef, and enjoy a meal in common with my canine companions, who regarded all my movements with fixed attention. Just as I was intently observing a small dark point on the horizon advancing in my direction—it was Orel and his party—the iceberg, in whose stability I was placing complete confidence, suddenly capsized, and, rolling on to the ice, shivered into fragments. In an instant I was surrounded by fissures, pools of water, and rolling pieces of ice. Seizing the cooking-machine, which I had lighted, I escaped with great difficulty. I had often observed, that icebergs were surrounded by circles of shattered surface-ice, with sea-water standing in their fissures. The overturning of icebergs, which occurs, I apprehend, more frequently than is generally imagined, easily accounts for the fact. It is therefore advisable to shun the immediate neighbourhood of an iceberg when the tent has to be erected, and to avoid using the iceberg itself as a place for a depôt of provisions.

17. When I turned into the narrow passage between Salm and Wilczek Islands, Orgel Cape, visible at a great distance, was the only dark spot in the scene. At once the dogs made for it, and about midnight I arrived there. A few hundred steps further, and I should stand on the top of it, and see the ship, if ship were there. With an anxious, heavy heart, I then began the ascent. A stony plateau stretched before me. With every advancing step, made with increasing difficulty, the land gradually disappeared, and the horizon of the frozen sea expanded before me—an immeasurable white waste. No ship was to be seen—no trace of man for thousands of miles, save a cairn, with the fragments of a flag fluttering in the breeze, and a grave covered with snow-drifts. Still I climbed on. Suddenly three slender masts emerged—I had found the ship: there she lay about three miles off, appearing on the frozen ocean no bigger than a fly. The snow-drifts and icebergs around her had hitherto concealed her from my eye. I directed my telescope towards her, and every spar and sail I saw seemed to promise a happy conclusion to our expedition. I held the heads of the dogs towards the ship, and pointed with my arm to where she lay, that they might share in my joy. We soon descended, and took our way towards her. At about a hundred yards off the watch detected us. All on board but the men who composed it were asleep, for it was night. At first they were exceedingly alarmed to see me alone, but having calmed their apprehensions, I went down at once into the cabin to awaken the sleepers. Great was the joy caused by the account of the high latitude we had reached, and of the discoveries we had made, which I endeavoured to explain by the rough outline of a map which I sketched. In a few hours the stock of questions was answered and exhausted, and everyone now left the ship to welcome the approaching party, which was soon descried with the sledge-flag flying. Hearty and joyful were the mutual greetings; and the appetite of the emaciated adventurers occupied this night and for a week afterwards, all the attention of the rest of the crew.[51] We formed a strange group to look upon, but Klotz carried off the palm from us all. He had never shown any weakness in counteracting the effects of weather and exposure on his motley garments. His cap, a wondrous piece of patchwork, resembled the winged helmet of a knight-errant, and of his boots nothing remained but the feet, over which hung the legs of them in shreds and tatters. Carlsen, when he saw him stepping along proudly and silently, forgot for a moment his walruses, and compared him to Saint Olaf, who could find only one horse in “Gulbrandsdalen” strong enough to carry him.

18. During our absence the greatest activity had reigned on board ship. Weyprecht and Brosch had finished their magnetical observations, and measured on the ice the base, which I have already mentioned, for the trigonometrical portion of my surveys. The crew had begun the equipment of the boats for our return to Europe, and packed up the provisions in water-tight cases. The number of the sick had diminished; the frost-bites had yielded to a persevering course of poultices and baths. The only unpropitious circumstance was the accident which had befallen Stiglich, who had shattered his right arm by accidentally discharging a rifle. Sores and wounds in Arctic regions are difficult to heal, and especially during the winter. Thanks to the care of our physician, Stiglich’s severe wound healed more quickly than many a slighter injury during the cold period of the year. The sanitary condition had essentially improved, owing to the rich supplies of fresh meat afforded by the chase. Even before our arrival the ship’s company had killed several bears. Scarcely a day now passed without a bear coming near the ship. On the 25th of April we shot one in the act of tearing down with his fore-paws a cask sticking in the ice, and on the following day another fell a victim to the curious attention with which he was regarding some meat packed in a tin case. Birds also, especially divers, appeared in greater numbers; the cliffs of Wilczek Island were no longer desolate as before. Hence it was that we indulged in dishes of stewed birds and roasted bear’s-flesh. We had brought with us seven bears’ tongues; each day brought an accession, and our culinary art exercised itself on the refined preparation of bears’ tongues, which, together with the brains of this animal, were esteemed the greatest delicacies. Weyprecht, according to agreement, had caused a boat and provisions for three months to be put on shore, intended for the use of the sledge-party in the event of the ship being driven from her moorings. As these precautionary measures could now be dispensed with, the boat and all these provisions were removed to the ship. Later experience proved that the exploring party could not have escaped in this manner, for the united strength of three-and-twenty men was required to raise and place such a boat on a sledge.