RECENT POLAR EXPLORATIONS. 327 



cal and hydrographic nature of the most important northern country 

 were attained. Mr. Koldewey, when he asserts that no continuous 

 channel exists on the east of Greenland, draws perhaps too rigorous a 

 conclusion from a simple experience of two years. But it appears 

 doubtful whether, under any conditions, this coast can oifer a favor- 

 able base for reaching the central basin of the north-pole, foi-, on one 

 hand, the state of the channel near the shore is subordinated to all 

 kinds of topical conditions difficult to foresee, and, on the other, the 

 cold current, even at the season of the greatest loosening of the ice, 

 causes immense quantities of huge blocks to drift in that direction. 

 The country itself presents also to the scientist and geographer a very 

 curious field for observation. The officers of the Germania found, from 

 investigations skillfully conducted, that this part of Greenland is actu- 

 ally inhabited, and that it seems also habitable. They discovered the 

 perfectly preserved remains of Esquimai^x huts, veritable houses that 

 the history describes very minutely, containing diiferent instruments 

 and utensils, whose primitive fashion recalls the work of the Stone 

 age ; but, for some reason, the polar man seems to have deserted, 

 witliout a desire to return, these quarters, where the conditions of life, 

 during the progress of ages, have been sensibly modified, TJie polar 

 bear, improperly called the white bear, reigns as master among the 

 glaciers of the coast, as the walrus, no less dreaded, reigns on the ice- 

 bergs of the sea. 



The most intelligent and the most active member of the important 

 mission whose fortune we have followed, was undoubtedly Lieutenant 

 Julius Payer. This officer, devoted heart and soul to the theories of 

 Dr. Petermann, set out the next year (1871) with his countryman. 

 Lieutenant Carl Weyprecht, to search for the land of Gillis. The two 

 explorers did not succeed in finding it; but they penetrated 150 miles 

 farther north than their predecessors had done in this region. Beyond 

 the seventy-eighth degree, between 42 and 60 west longitude, there 

 was still an open sea, and the temperature of the surface of the sea 

 varied between three and four degrees (Centigrade) above zero. The 

 want of provisions obliged the crew to turn back, and this was a great 

 misfortune, for the year seemed exceptionably favorable. The Nor- 

 wegian captain. Mack, who traversed at this time the eastern part of 

 the same ocean, in search of the place M'here Barentz had wintered in 

 1579, met everywhere, at a distance that no one had before attained, 

 navigable water with a strong current. The station of Barentz was, 

 however, found a short time after on the northeast point of Xova 

 Zembla by another Norwegian, Carlsen ; it still preserved visible 

 tokens of the abode of the Dutch navigator. 



Another expedition, resembling the abortive voyage of the Hansa, 

 in its dramatic catastrophe, if not in its results, was undertaken in 

 this same year (1871) by the American captain. Hall, who adopted 

 the route by Baffin's Bay, instead of the European entrance to the 



