RECENT POLAR EXPLORATIONS. 325 



opportunity, by the assistance of these vehicles, to visit several points 

 of their archipelago ; unfortunately, the autumn excursions in these 

 lands continue only about five or six weeks. In the first clays of No- 

 vember, the crew of tl)e Germania saw the sun disappear for three 

 loner months beneath the horizon. Then commenced that terrible 

 captivity in the midst of the polar night, and among frightful storms 

 of snow. 



The winter of 1869-"70 was made remarkable by a series of tem- 

 pests from the north, one of which continued for more than a hundred 

 consecutive hours with a velocity of about sixty miles an hour. The 

 thermometer at the same time did not fall beyond 32 (Centigrade) 

 below zero. Besides, even in the most severe temperature, if the 

 chinks in the cabins are carefully stopped up, if the access to the ship 

 is well defended by artificial casings of ice and snow, there will be 

 little suffering from cold. The physical and moral discomfort arises 

 principally from the impossibility, during more than ninety days, of 

 observing the surrounding jjhenomena, and from the long-continued 

 immobility in the midst of sinister darkness, illuminated alone by 

 those strange celestial fairy scenes called aurora borealis. Outside, 

 the congealed masses of every age and production, being pushed 

 against each other with inimitable noises and grindings that sailors 

 call " the voices of the ice," are welded in huge rafts, or form pyram- 

 idical entablatures sculptured with gigantic stalactites, Tlie shij:), 

 however, well sheltered in a harbor open on the southern side, and 

 protected on the north by a high rampart of mountains, can brave 

 this frightful shock of the elements ; but every thing depends, in case 

 of emergency, on the fortunate choice of a station. The essential 

 point is that the blockade, that assures the safety of navigators, should 

 remain unbroken, and that no ricochet movement should reach the 

 ship ; the least rupture of the plain of surrounding ice, the least bar 

 would be fatal ; the most fearful peril is the neighborhood of running 

 water. 



The polar night, in the latitude where the Germania wintered, 

 ended at the commencement of February ; a month after, the sun re- 

 mained long enough above the horizon to allow great sledge excur- 

 sions. Then the truly scientific labor of the explorers commenced. 

 This task represents a series of Herculean labors that baffles the imagi- 

 nation. The country not offering the least resource, the travelers 

 were obliged to carry every thing with them ; the heavy vehicle also 

 played the role of that " ship of the desert," whose loss involves 

 that of the whole caravan. Clothed with heavy furs, the face entirely 

 masked, the tourists harnessed themselves to the sled ; supported in 

 some fashion in their hard effort in towage, they struggled against 

 the cutting north wind. The eye, beset by the monotonous reflection 

 of the white immensity, knew neither where to rest nor how to judge 

 of distances ; it was every moment the sport of mirages that vanished 



