326 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to spring uj) again in another part of the horizon with the most decep- 

 tive effects of refraction. The activity and wakefulness of the nights 

 increased the suffering of these inarches where a geographical enigma 

 was mingled, as it were, with every step, and Avhere it was often the 

 work of a whole day to accomplish a simple advance of a quarter of a 

 league ; but of what is not the constancy of man capable when science 

 is the object of pursuit ! The pioneers of the Germania advanced thus 

 beyond the seventy-seventh degree of latitude by 18 50' west longi- 

 tude from Greenwich. This year, at least, there was no trace of an 

 open sea toward the pole, on the Greenland coast. Everywhere, on 

 the north and east, the sea ajDpeared to be solidly bridged by the ice. 

 If provisions had not failed, the traveling colony would have been 

 able to push on the sled indefinitely over these boundless plains. The 

 iceberg, properly so called, w^ithout remarkable protuberances, ex- 

 tended for about two leagues from the shore, which, starting from 

 this extreme point, seemed to take a northwest direction, where the 

 perspective was obstructed by high mountains crowned with glaciers. 



During the two following months, the voyagers explored, either in 

 sleds or boats, the deep bays and fiords of the estuaries west and south 

 of the Pendulum Islands. In the month of Mav, even in this hieh lati- 

 tude, signs precursory of the fine season were manifest, and the first 

 fruits of the meagre Greenland vegetation were seen in all directions. 

 Under the bridges of snow and the coverings of the glaciers, the mur- 

 mur of running water was heard ; long flights of eider-ducks arrived 

 from the south ; the polar ortolan warbled its sweet note ; the lan- 

 jninffs, a kind of northern rabbit, were seen among the fragments of 

 the rocks ; the white hares enjoyed the young sprouts of moss and 

 saxifrage; while the reindeer, with its slender body, enlivened the 

 depths of the torrents, and, at a distance, the curious head of the seal 

 emerged through the sheets of ice, brightened and mellowed by the sun. 



At last, on the 22d of July, 1870, the Germania floated once more 

 in the open sea, and, after having remained 300 days in wdnter quar- 

 ters, quitted the little harbor that had hospitably received her, in 

 order to attempt, by the aid of steam, further progress toward the 

 north; but, in latitude 75 26', a little less than the height she had 

 attained the preceding summer, the channel suddenly failed. The 

 summer influences had not disintegrated the enormous masses bound 

 to the iceberg, and apparently this soldering would yield only to the 

 autumnal tempests. But, these tempests coming at the end of August, 

 the Germania, which, according to the instructions of the committee 

 of Bremen, could make but one winter in these regions, resolved to 

 return to Europe, and she was alongside the wharf in the Weser on 

 the 11th of September. 



The scientific results of the exploration were, on the whole, con- 

 siderable. If the principal problem of polar navigation had not been 

 solved, much more precise and extended notions concerning the i^hysi- 



