324 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ated beyoiul the influence of llic Gulf Stream, proceeds from the enor- 

 mous quantity of ice carried by the polar current in this direction. 

 Tlie i)rincipal chance of success depends upon the direction of the 

 prevailing winds. East and southeast winds render the icebergs more 

 resistant and more compact ; west and northwest winds, on the con- 

 trary, by driving back the blocks of ice in an opposite direction, cause 

 a division and a crumbling that disentangle the labyrinths near tlie 

 shore, and o\)Q\\ numerous jjasscs. 



The Germania had this ex))erience. During the month of July she 

 struggled in vain against insuperable agglomerations of icebergs and 

 ice-fields welded to each other. It was not till the commencement of 

 Auf'ust, when the predominance of breezes from the Atlantic had pro- 

 duced a loosening of the ice driven back between Iceland and Spitz- 

 bergen, that the ship opened a j^assage, and effected a landing in a 

 small bay of Sabine Island, in the Pendulum Archipelago, below that 

 part of the country called King William's Land. 



It is well known that Greenland, visited several times from the 

 tenth to the fifteenth century, then completely abandoned and lost, 

 was rediscovered at the end of the sixteenth centuiy by some Scandi- 

 navian sailors. The eastern shore, particularly, is only known since 

 the voyages accomplished from 1822 to 1831, by Scoresby, Clavering, 

 Sabine, and Graah ; we do not speak of the unfortunate attempt made 

 at the same epoch by the Frenchman, Jules de Blossville, who disap- 

 peared with his ship, and was never heard of afterward. 



This eastern coast, relatively level from Cape Farewell, the ex- 

 treme southern point, as far as Scoresby's Sound, suddenly changes its 

 character as soon as the seventieth degree is passed. It offers at this 

 latitude an infinity of bold promontories, deep and sinuous fiords, fan- 

 tastically collected, with backgrounds bristling with gigantic glaciers, 

 in comparison with which the most famous ones of Switzerland sin- 

 gularly lose their majesty. All this jagged, solid mass, has for an ad- 

 vance-guard a projection of islands generally very mountainous ; the 

 whole figure recalls a little the aspect of the coasts of ancient Asia 

 Minor. The Germania penetrated, into the centre of this labyrinth. 

 As soon as she was anchored in her harbor, it was evident that she 

 must remain a prisoner. The masses of iceberg, though temporarily 

 affected by tlie summer heat, manifested no symptom of breaking up, 

 and the channels, opened between the islands and the continent, began 

 to close during the middle of August. According to the account of 

 explorers, the formation of ice takes j^lace in this manner. Small, iso- 

 lated denticulations are accidentally formed near each other, without 

 presenting at first any appearance of cohesion. Afterward, a thick 

 paste is produced, which is finally amalgamated into a crust, and this 

 crust is so flexible that it reproduces without breaking the swelling 

 of the surge. By the middle of September this ice could sustain the 

 weight of the sleds. Mr. Koldewey and his companions improved the 



